After the electric locomotives originally tested on the Maurienne route had been developed for express service and the production machines were all designed for freight transport at a maximum speed of 80 km/h, there was a new need for express train locomotives. Finally, four more locomotives were ordered from Batignolles-Châtillon to cover this need. They were based on the 242 BE 1 and also got the electrical equipment from Oerlikon, but were larger and significantly more powerful. By adding an extra driving axle to each bogie, a 2-C+C-2 wheel arrangement was obtained. This made them not only the longest electric locomotive of the later SNCF, but also the most powerful one-section locomotives in the world at the time.

The order originally dictated that passenger trains of up to 600 tonnes could also be transported on the Marseille-Nice route. Ultimately, the locomotives were only used on the Maurienne route, where rather lighter trains were pulled on gradients of up to three percent. At the SNCF they were classified as 2CC2 Nos. 3401 to 3404. They, too, were later caught up by newer locomotives, which gradually pushed them into freight service. They later became dispensable in this role as well, so that they were retired by 1974. The only one that survived was 2CC2 3402, which has been prepared since 2002 and moved under its own power for the first time in 2008.