What is a general purpose locomotive?

When new to the world of model railways, it's likely you will read many articles explaining the best way to go about those crucial first steps, and you may well be advised to make a general-purpose locomotive one of your first rolling stock purchases, but what is one?

A general-purpose loco is a locomotive that can perform many tasks without looking too out of place, a locomotive that can pull a few coaches one minute and a few trucks the next, and all before turning its hand to a spot of shunting in a yard. A medium-sized tank engine or diesel are ideal choices to avoid large mainline locomotives being utilised for tasks that they never would have performed in real life.

General-purpose locomotives will provide greater entertainment while your collection is in its infancy and facilitate greater operational flexibility. Fixed rakes such as HSTs and Pendolinos or iconic locomotives such as Mallard or the Flying Scotsman may be a worthy contender on the wish list but are kind of limited to arriving and departing, which is nice occasionally, but after the fifth or sixth time in ten minutes, loses its appeal.