By 1923, the A2 class 4-6-0 locomotives, which dated back to 1907, were frequently double-heading on interstate expresses to Serviceton and Albury, because increasing traffic saw loads exceed the eight-car maximum of a single A2.

The Victorian Railways Commissioners recommended considerably more powerful locomotives, that could haul trains of up to eleven cars unassisted over the ruling gradients on those lines.

[1] The S class 4-6-2 Pacifics displaced the A2s from North East line express services from 1928 onwards and allowed a faster timetable to be introduced.

Those three-cylinder Pacifics, although capable of hauling heavy loads at high speed, had proved to be relatively maintenance-intensive, particularly with regard to servicing the valve gear and motion for the third (inside) cylinder.

[6][7] The H class also became the first VR locomotive to feature a mechanical stoker, and boasted many other modern features, such as roller bearings, hydrostatically controlled load compensating brake gear on the tender,[8] power-operated reversing gear, American-style bar frame construction, thermic siphons, and duplex blast pipes.

A shortage of motive power, caused by increased wartime traffic, led to the completion of class leader H220 being authorised and the locomotive entered service on 7 February 1941.

[15] H220 gave an indication of its capabilities on one such run of the Spirit in the late 1940s, when it reportedly topped the 5-mile (8 km)-long 1 in 50 Glenroy Bank at 45 mph (72 km/h), three times the typical S class-hauled speed at that same point.

[17] H220 never operated in its intended role as motive power for The Overland, although it did make a brief appearance on the Western line in 1949, when it ran a series of trials on goods trains from Melbourne to Ballarat, being assessed by the VR dynamometer car.

[18] The Australian Railway Historical Society, in listing the introduction of H220 among its "100 defining aspects of Australian railways", noted that test results as high as 3,600 hp (2,700 kW) at 50 mph (80 km/h) were recorded, a power output unequalled in Australia during the steam era, and only equalled in the modern era by the National Rail NR class diesel-electric locomotives.

One advertisement in Walkabout in November 1953, headed "Trains we are proud of", promoted H220 as "Australia's mightiest engine" and noted its nightly service hauling the 21:25 Albury Interstate Fast Freight.

Even after the war, upgrades on the line to Ararat necessary for H class operation were not made, as the VR struggled with a backlog of maintenance work which had built up during the 1940s.

[26] In October 2020, a new roof, announced by local MP Melissa Horne in May 2019, was built over H220 and neighbouring exhibits to protect them from the weather.