The carrying axle enabled higher speeds and the engine could even be used as a passenger train locomotive.

In addition the average axle load was lower, so that these locomotives could also be used on branch lines.

The Deutsche Bundesbahn took over 368 of the 410 remaining engines after the Second World War and retired them by 1968.

The East German Deutsche Reichsbahn retired their last locomotives (now called the DR Class 56.1) by the end of 1970.

Numbers 56 218, 258, 317, 543 and 598 remained in Austria after the war, locomotives 56 317 and 543 retiring as early as 1953.