Peter Kerslake says "4238 seen here at Newport Pill had emerged from Swindon Works in October of 1914 at the start of the first war.
Designed for short distance but heavily loaded coal traffic the class have been concentrated within South Wales, with just a handful based at such Depots as Hereford, Bristol and St.Blazey in Cornwall, the latter examples being used on local china clay traffic, far from their Welsh homeland, since the late 1920's.
Longer coal traffic rosters have regularly taken them to Shrewsbury, and even to London on rare visits to the Capital, but their limited coal capacity restricted them somewhat, resulting in many later examples being rebuilt with extended frames, larger coal bunkers and an additional pony truck at the rear, but 4238 seen here was not one to be so rebuilt.
The first to be condemned was 4224 in 1959, the last surviving until 1965."