But your statement is about purchases, rather than common use. Just because 4-6-0 locomotives were being purchased then, it certainly doesn't follow that you wo

But your statement is about purchases, rather than common use. Just because 4-6-0 locomotives were being purchased then, it certainly doesn't follow that you wouldn't see any 4-4-0 locomotives in 1870, does it? Especially since 4-4-0s were still being built in the US as late as 1893 according to Wikipedia [1]. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4-4-0#United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4-4-0#United_States