The ten-wheelers with the numbers 4201 to 4370 were built for the Paris-Orléans from 1915 onwards for express, passenger and freight trains. During the First World War, some of the locomotives were built by North British in Scotland and a total of 170 had been built by 1922. They shared the boiler and cylinders with other ten-wheelers and with the 2-8-2T tank locomotives of the series 5301.

In 1924 and 1925, 21 were sold to Morocco. From 1929 onwards, the remaining ones received smoke deflectors after tests by André Chapelon. When the SNCF was founded in 1938, the locomotives that came directly from the PO were given the designation 230 G and those that had since gone to the État were given the designation 230 K. In 1947 and 1948, 14 locomotives that were used in wooded areas got oil firing. They were retired until 1970 and the 230 G 352 and 353 are still preserved today. The 353 could be seen in many films since the seventies.