At the Baden State Railways, class VIII referred to eight-coupled freight locomotives. When the VIII a and VIII b no longer met current requirements, the VIII e was developed. It also had four coupled wheel sets, but the weight and thus the power could be increased by adding a leading axle. They were the first freight locomotives in Germany with a 2-8-0 wheel arrangement and a bar frame. The design came from Maffei in Munich, but only the first five of the 70 engines from a total of eight series were manufactured there. The rest were built by the local mechanical engineering company in Karlsruhe.
Austrian engineer Karl Gölsdorf was consulted to improve the curve running qualities, the second and fourth coupled wheel sets were installed so that they could be shifted sideways by 25 mm. The leading axle was an Adams axle that could be deflected by 65 mm. One of the features of the engines was the very high boiler, the center of which was 2,790 mm above the top of the rails. Due to the low height of the bar frame, there was a large gap between the boiler and the frame. This also made it possible to arrange the firebox above the coupled wheels and thus to dimension them generously.
Since the locomotives were intended for longer distances without many intermediate stops, a four-cylinder compound engine was installed. These were superheated steam locomotives, but the first five series were still fitted with a Clench steam dryer. All others were equipped with a smoke tube superheater, while the steam dryer was later removed from the first series and these were thus made into saturated steam locomotives.
Schematic drawing
Die Lokomotive, August 1925
The maximum speed of 65 km/h could be reached on the flat with trains of up to 700 tonnes, while a maximum train weight of 1,840 tonnes was possible at 45 km/h. 68 of the 70 engines were taken over by the Reichsbahn and classified as class 567. Their service life ended in 1931, since steam locomotives with a 2-10-0 wheel arrangement were now required for the heavy freight trains and these were also procured as standard locomotives.