The 1300 Class were originally introduced by Queensland Railways for coal haulage, although members of the class did turn up on general goods traffic when required. The class were even known to work Brisbane suburban trains on occasion. Their poor reliability prompted QR to replace the class in the 1980's with modern Clyde/GM type classes, with the whole class withdrawn by 1988.

(AN) TasRail purchased the entire fleet of 45 1300 Class locomotives from Queensland Rail, with 33 of the class entering service in that state as the "ZC Class".