Type III was the designation of the first locomotives of the Royal Saxon State Railways, which could generally be used for express and passenger trains. These were tender locomotives with the 2-4-0 wheel arrangement that was common for passenger locomotives at the time. As with many early steam locomotives, the III had a raised firebox. The valve gear of the cylinders was of the Allan type and was located within the frame. A special feature of some was that the smoke box extended over the buffer beam at the front.

In the original variant, the leading axle was fixed in the frame. Some of the locomotives were later given a Nowotny-Klien steering axle, leading to the UIC classification 1'B and designated IIIb. Before this, similar locomotives had been built. To slow down the locomotives, a countersteam brake was initially used. From 1892 they were rebuilt to the Westinghouse air brake, what later became standard.

A total of three batches was built in the years 1871, 1872 and 1873. The first and last batches were built by Hartmann in Chemnitz and totaled 66 locomotives. The remaining 21 came from Maschinenfabrik Esslingen. When the Deutsche Reichsbahn drew up its renumbering plan in 1923, 30 were still in service. The majority of these were Hartmann locomotives, which were to be designated class 34⁷⁶. In fact, however, only one of them was taken over as 34 7611. One locomotive from Esslingen was classified as a class 50⁷⁰ freight locomotive. Both were retired in the twenties.