"Any significant use of road engines sans guiding trucks in the US?"--Steve
The biggest single example I'm familiar with would be the Baltimore & Ohio at various times in its long history. This started with various 0-8-0 configurations predating the Civil War, including Crabs, Jersey Greenbacks, and most numerously, Winans Camels. I think a lot of this was driven by B&O's early and heavy coal tonnage; one of the interesting things about a roster of the road's locomotives on the eve of that conflict is how closely it appears in proportion to what it would look like in the 20th century in that even at that early date, drag engines in the form of all these 0-8-0s dominate the roster, while 4-4-0s and 4-6-0s are very much in the minority. These engines would continue in service into the 1890s; as it was, the B&O didn't get its first 2-8-0s until the early 1880s.
I'll have to look up the roster information, but I seem to recall that one of the Jersey Greenback 0-8-0s was heavily rebuilt over the years, eventually becoming an 0-6-0T. In this form, it received an overall "dummy" cab (making it look something like a streetcar) for service on the famous Pratt Street line. When this engine and another old 0-4-0T were replaced by the four famous C-16 "Little Joe" 0-4-0Ts, this rebuilt Jersey Greenback, still retaining its slightly inclined slide-valve cylinders, was transfered to subsidiary Staten Island Rapid Transit, where it was not retired until something like 1947!
The B&O would have a couple of more forays into all-driver steam power in the 20th century. This was in the form of its first Mallets, which included Old Maude, the pioneering 0-6-6-0, and an order of 0-8-8-0 behemoths in class LL-1. A number of those engines would be rebuilt with leading trucks, but not all of them got this before the diesels came.
Still later, the B&O rebuilt a number of 2-8-0s in classes E-24 and E-27 into 0-8-0s for switching service, where they became classes L-1 and L-2. As it was though, these 0-8-0s, with relatively tall drivers (57" and 62" respectively), and the resulting long wheelbase, were steady enough for some to be used as local freight engines, which is to say the same sort of job they would have had as a 2-8-0 in their later years.
I know of only one other road that attempted a fairly large roster of heavy freight engines without leading trucks, and that was the Denver & Salt Lake, which had a series of 0-6-6-0s that were apparently inspired by B&O's Old Maude. These engines would later get leading trucks, making them 2-6-6-0s, and there would be duplicates built in that configurations.
This was a much more common practice in Great Britain because many locomotives there, most notably the thousands of 0-6-0s they used in tank and tender versions, were inside-connected (as are the GW 0-4-2Ts in the film), and it was not unusual for these engines to have the leading driving axle ahead of the inside cylinders. Those inside cylinders were also closer together and of necessity a good deal smaller than what would be used in America, and that also helped reduce nosing of the engine at road speed. In fact, there was a Southern Railway Bulleid 0-6-0 tender engine that was intended to run fast in both directions, and one was reportedly run at well over 60 mph tender-first with its designer riding the leading end of the tank!
All of this is from memory; I hope if there are any errors or omissions that someone else can help fill them in. . .
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