Starting in the late 1800's, steam locomotive designers realized that a leading/pilot truck would help to steer the engine and stablize it at track speeds, moreso in passenger trains. Soon they resorted to dual axles in the pilot trucks for even better tracking and stability, and also to support the larger engine weights forward of the lead driver axles. This included larger cylinder saddles as engines developed more horsepower.
A 0-6-0 and its larger sisters were not meant to run at track speed. They were meant to support all their weight on three or more axles so that they developed all possible tractive effort to move long cuts of cars in switching yards, and to do humpyard work when possible/practicable. They were not intended to run faster than about 30 mph for about 90% of the time.
However, there is at least one incident of a 0-6-0 being pressed into road service when the passenger head-end power broke down that was published in Classic Trains magazine perhaps five years ago now. It was a slow journey, but at least the passengers were delivered.
All this to say, it wasn't unheard of, but it would have been strictly as a last resort. I even have video of a CPR 4-6-4 that was refurbished and run for a few months in early 1960's in New York until the authorities ruled that it could not be used because the original certification papers were missing. It ran tender forward for the return trip...but it had that trailing truck which was so important for track speed.
