After the electric locomotives originally tested on the Maurienne line 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 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, this resulted in a 2-C+C-2 wheel arrangement. This made them not only the longest electric locomotive of the later SNCF, but also the most powerful single-section locomotives in the world at the time.

The requirements originally also included a haulage capacity for 600-tonne passenger trains on the Marseille-Nice line. Ultimately, the locomotives were only used on the Maurienne line, where rather lighter trains were hauled 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 restored since 2002 and moved under its own power for the first time in 2008.