The class 86 standard locomotives were tank locomotives with a 2-8-2T wheel arrangement, which were developed for heavy service on branch lines. Starting in 1928, they were built a total of 775 times over a period of 15 years by all well-known German locomotive manufacturers.

From the beginning, many locomotives were used on difficult low mountain range routes that did not allow high axle loads. The four coupled axles made it particularly suitable for these jobs, which is why some of them were fitted with a counter-pressure brake. The top speed was initially 70 km/h, but many later examples were fitted with better brakes and could be certified for 80 km/h. Since both carrying axles were integrated into Krauss-Helmholtz bogies, the running properties were equally good in both directions of travel.

During the Second World War, the class 86 belonged to the locomotives that were built as transitional war locomotives. In order to be able to save as many working hours and money as possible during production, production has been simplified. In addition to the use of welding technology, disc wheels were used on the carrying axles and some assemblies or instruments were left out, which did not limit the functionality of the locomotive. Due to the weight advantage achieved with this, the drilling out of some solid steel parts could be omitted, which saved additional working time.

After the war, the engines were distributed across many countries and, in addition, a large number of the locomotives had to be handed over to the Soviet occupation zone as reparations. After many locomotives came back to Germany from different countries, they continued to be used by both German railways on branch lines with difficult topography. The Bundesbahn retired their last one in 1974, the Reichsbahn used it on line service until 1976 and then it was occasionally used as a heating locomotive until 1988. Abroad, the Austrian Federal Railways, the Czechoslovak State Railways and the Polish State Railways were users who used the class 86 in large numbers for a long time.