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.