The Class 745 was designed to meet the need for a low axle-load locomotive capable of providing adequate motive power on the Salerno–Reggio di Calabria railway, a curvy line with some severe inclines, whose importance had increased with the Italo-Turkish War of 1911-2, but whose antiquated infrastructures tolerated only a 14.4 t axle load.

Therefore, the design effort focused on a 2-8-0 locomotive with larger driving wheels and a relatively large boiler.

[1][2] The Class 745 sported 1,630 mm (64.17 in) driving wheels, the same as the Class 625, as well as the Italian bogie; from those, it also borrowed the peculiar engine layout, with two inside cylinders with outside steam chests and valve gear, to keep the weight down.

[4] The Class 745 helped obviate the need for motive power on the Tyrrhenian railway, especially on the 1-in-43.5 incline between Agropoli and Vallo della Lucania, as well as on the Reggio Calabria-Taranto line, although with time the increased loads on the former eventually forced to resort to double-heading for the heaviest trains; for this reason, the FS electrified the line in 1935.

The Class 745 was transferred in sheds such as Ancona, Naples and Udine; the last ones were assigned to Padua till the mid-1960s, when they were scrapped.