The railway administration of the Paris city belt (Ceinture) had a total of 15 tank locomotives built in 1902 and 1903 for fast local trains with many stops. A first batch was built at the Hellemmes works and a second at the La Chapelle works. It was envisaged that there would be a loco at each end of the train, which together ensure very fast acceleration and can be used without switching at the end termini. A four-cylinder compound engine in a tandem arrangement was used for this, in which the high and low pressure cylinders were located one behind the other and each drove a rod together. The boilers had been taken over by the Nord 2.231 to 2.305.

With these locomotives, the 32 km long route with 23 intermediate stops was covered in one hour and five minutes. They were used by the Ceinture until 1934 and then came to the Nord where they were designated 3.701 to 3.715. With this operator, one locomotive was given a larger coal bunker and a trailing axle. During the same period, four were scrapped and two were sold to the private GCL. The rest soon came to SNCF, where they became the 230 TA 1 through 230 TA 6. SNCF scrapped them until 1947, and GCL scrapped the last engine in 1960.

After the purchase of the 4-6-0T tank locomotives with the numbers 51 to 65, the Paris belt railway needed even more powerful locomotives that were primarily intended to pull freight trains. The requirements stipulated that freight trains weighing 550 tonnes should be pulled on a gradient of one percent and 430 tonnes at 1.5 percent. At times of high passenger traffic volumes, additional passenger trains were to be pulled.

This time again tank locomotives with a front bogie and without trailing axles were ordered. The five locomotives therefore had a 4-8-0T wheel arrangement and a four-cylinder compound engine. While this was still implemented in a tandem arrangement on the locomotives with numbers 51 to 65, the design customary in France according to De Glehn was used here. The high-pressure cylinders were on the outside at the height of the rear axle of the bogie and drove the second coupled wheel set, while the low-pressure cylinders were inside the bogie and drove the first coupled wheel set.

Since all the cylinders were inclined and mounted higher up and the water tanks started behind the bogie, the easy accessibility of the cylinders for maintenance was ensured. The leading bogie made it possible to move passenger trains at 70 km/h without sacrificing smooth running. The ability of the coupled axles to negotiate curves was realized without movable axles by weakening the wheel flanges of the second and third axles.