 Bulleid is reported to have found the Q Class uninspiring, having been manufactured to traditional Victorian principles of locomotive design, and is said to have stated that the order for the Q Class would have been cancelled if he had been appointed CME earlier.However, Bulleid had ample opportunity either to cancel the order or to build and test a single prototype, without incurring the expense of building twenty members of the class, if this was the case.The class performed adequately and reliably on the tasks for which they were designed, but were less versatile than might have been hoped.