The Class 3Fs were a series of goods engines with a stalwart reputation for reliability. Details varied little from engine to engine in contrast to the model's successors, the Class 4Fs. The most significant variation was in the size of the wheels; locomotives numbered up to 3189 (later BR 43189) had wheels of 4ft 11 inches diameter whereas those numbered beyond (up to 43833) had 5ft 3 inch wheels. At times little credited in histories, the engines were much beloved of those who worked with or on them, being consistent in their performance and comfortable to ride.

Though designated for freight duties, the 3Fs were no strangers to some passenger work; vacuum brakes were fitted in addition to steam heating equipment in certain engines.

43586, a Bradford (Manningham) engine, was distinctive by being unique in receiving lined out splashers and saw use on the last day of services on the Worth Valley line (which now constitutes the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway today) in June 1962.

Although the class saw nearly 50 years of use across the British Railways network, with around 400 surviving into BR ownership, not one example was preserved, the last one being scrapped in 1964.