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Description
Following nationalization in 1923, the Oceanic Railway Executive began the tedious process of organizing the numerous locomotive classes that fell within their ownership. There were large classes of a hundred plus machines, innumerable singular engines, and classes that carried many sub-groups in them that varied from minor technical differences to straight-up completely differing between each subgroup.

With this came arguments concerning locomotive design, namely the issues of standardization, specialization, and that (eventually) what details and characteristics would make-up future locomotives and rollingstock used by the now nationalized railway. At this time came the need for a passenger engine class to pull the ever larger express trains, now more so with the use of heavy steel coaches that were used by them. That class, the 'A', would be built in 1924, but until that point the majority of passenger traffic was handled by a wide variety of pre-war power. The Great Eastern Railway of the Dominion of Lauritania, running across it's lower jaw into the center of the head-shaped island, hand ordered in 1914 it's '2000' Class Orient type as a replacement for an older class of the same type. In comparison to it's diminutive predecessor, then new in form but a throwback mechanically, the 2000s employed the latest inventions wholesale.

They soldiered through the war years of the 1910s, only to end up in government ownership through either financial collapse, such as the Maurentian lines, or simple indebtedness. The GER, the 'auld Antler Road' was of the later, as the government never initiated any serious program to take control of the rail networks during the war, the political power of the companies stalling out most this effort and instead forming what were effectively monopolies for coordination. These 'Interchange Boards' had some effect on the issue, but it was noted that much time and effort was lost in running what were still competitive, rather than collaborative services and operations, on top of 'misguided priorities'.

The Commonwealth of Oceanic was ultimately on the winning side, yet the failures of the rail network during such an intensive period had to be considered. Some argued it was only the fact that Oceanic is primarily a nation of islands, where traffic flowed outward to the ports rather then to a particular direction of the country helping, but not fully succeeding, to prevent nightmarish levels of congestion. The final straw that saw many a 'flag' falling was condition of the these companies in the run up to the war. The aforementioned Maurentian lines were the among first in the nation to be constructed, in the beginning experimentally, and later as a cash cow. This led to competition, helping to construct a modernizing state, but it would soon become destructive, with lines paralleling each other, freight rates sometimes widely fluctuating based on market conditions, and sometimes suppositions, with the financial health and relations between one company in this network determining the livelihood of it's neighbors.

The 2000s were constructed in this period, just another addition to the debt burdens of the GER, and another way to keep it's own pole position. Fourty-five were built by the Maurentian-based Scott & Davis Company, riding on 72inch driving wheels, generating 31,000 pounds of tractive effort. They were the GER's main passenger power, working in tandem with a smaller group of 4-8-2s built a year prior. By 1924, they would be under OR ownership, retaining their old numbers, now classed as the 'A3'. They performed the same old work, but with introduction of more modern machines for the 20s, they saw demotion to commuter and regular passenger traffic, a few in later years even ending up on the busier of the branchline routes.

Description
Following nationalization in 1923, the Oceanic Railway Executive began the tedious process of organizing the numerous locomotive classes that fell within their ownership. There were large classes of a hundred plus machines, innumerable singular engines, and classes that carried many sub-groups in them that varied from minor technical differences to straight-up completely differing between each subgroup.

With this came arguments concerning locomotive design, namely the issues of standardization, specialization, and that (eventually) what details and characteristics would make-up future locomotives and rollingstock used by the now nationalized railway. At this time came the need for a passenger engine class to pull the ever larger express trains, now more so with the use of heavy steel coaches that were used by them. That class, the 'A', would be built in 1924, but until that point the majority of passenger traffic was handled by a wide variety of pre-war power. The Great Eastern Railway of the Dominion of Lauritania, running across it's lower jaw into the center of the head-shaped island, hand ordered in 1914 it's '2000' Class Orient type as a replacement for an older class of the same type. In comparison to it's diminutive predecessor, then new in form but a throwback mechanically, the 2000s employed the latest inventions wholesale.

They soldiered through the war years of the 1910s, only to end up in government ownership through either financial collapse, such as the Maurentian lines, or simple indebtedness. The GER, the 'auld Antler Road' was of the later, as the government never initiated any serious program to take control of the rail networks during the war, the political power of the companies stalling out most this effort and instead forming what were effectively monopolies for coordination. These 'Interchange Boards' had some effect on the issue, but it was noted that much time and effort was lost in running what were still competitive, rather than collaborative services and operations, on top of 'misguided priorities'.

The Commonwealth of Oceanic was ultimately on the winning side, yet the failures of the rail network during such an intensive period had to be considered. Some argued it was only the fact that Oceanic is primarily a nation of islands, where traffic flowed outward to the ports rather then to a particular direction of the country helping, but not fully succeeding, to prevent nightmarish levels of congestion. The final straw that saw many a 'flag' falling was condition of the these companies in the run up to the war. The aforementioned Maurentian lines were the among first in the nation to be constructed, in the beginning experimentally, and later as a cash cow. This led to competition, helping to construct a modernizing state, but it would soon become destructive, with lines paralleling each other, freight rates sometimes widely fluctuating based on market conditions, and sometimes suppositions, with the financial health and relations between one company in this network determining the livelihood of it's neighbors.

The 2000s were constructed in this period, just another addition to the debt burdens of the GER, and another way to keep it's own pole position. Fourty-five were built by the Maurentian-based Scott & Davis Company, riding on 72inch driving wheels, generating 31,000 pounds of tractive effort. They were the GER's main passenger power, working in tandem with a smaller group of 4-8-2s built a year prior. By 1924, they would be under OR ownership, retaining their old numbers, now classed as the 'A3'. They performed the same old work, but with introduction of more modern machines for the 20s, they saw demotion to commuter and regular passenger traffic, a few in later years even ending up on the busier of the branchline routes.