Only one locomotive, GIPR 4006, is preserved at the National Rail Museum, with the remainder of the units being scrapped.

The electrification of the Great Indian Peninsula Railway began in 1922, and powerful locomotives were required to haul express trains on over the Western Ghats.

The tender and evaluation was monitored by the UK electrical engineering firm Merz & McLellan in London.

[5][better source needed] On June 1, 1930, number 4006 hauled a seven-coach Deccan Queen over the newly electrified line to Pune, then known as Poona.

[7] Two traction motors each drove a driving axle via a universal drive The motors were mounted high in the engine room, which gave the locomotive a high center of gravity and protect it from water damage during the frequent floods in Bombay.