At the end of the 1920s, the Dutch Railways needed an express locomotive that was stronger than the 3700 series, because more and more wooden passenger coaches were replaced by steel ones.

They could hardly be fired by hand and the power out of 1,600 kgf was only achieved with the best coal and a good fireman.

The build quality also left much to be desired, which resulted in cracking inner fireboxes and disproportionate wear of various sliding bearings of the cylinder block.

Due to the findings of various committees, adjustments were made to the locomotive's construction, which largely solved the problems.

[2] When problems with the new diesel-three trainsets on the central network, which had to provide fast connections between the major cities, were replaced by so-called steam diesels services, short express trains pulled by a steam locomotive, which had to be able to keep up with the timetable of the diesel multiple units.

This was due to the fact that the 3900 had a high rolling resistance of its own, which made it type was less suitable for light express trains.