In 1905 the Prussian state railways grouped six-coupled, medium-powered, goods train, tank locomotives into its Class G 3.

In addition to standard locomotives, there were also 285 G 3s that were not built to German state railway norms, because they had been built, in most cases, before the foundation of the Prussian state railways.

The railway division of Frankfurt am Main even classified locomotives with outside valve gear as the G 2.

In 1923 the Deutsche Reichsbahn envisaged as many as 523 locomotives in its renumbering plan, with the numbers 53 7001 - 7522 and 53 8294 (from Saxony).

One Prussian Class G 3, the Cöln 1100, later Saarbrücken 3143 has been preserved for posterity by the DB Museum in Nuremberg.