As with many Prussian locomotive design, simple and compound versions of the same type built.
The G 5.3, like the G 5.4, differed from the G 5.1 and G 5.2 as it had a shorter wheelbase and a higher-pitched boiler.
The Krauss-Helmholtz bogie was intended to improve the driving characteristics, especially at higher speeds.
At the end of World War I, 36 locomotives were surrendered as war reparations: 29 to Belgium as État-Belge Type 75, six to France, where they became 1851 to 1856 on the Chemin de fer de Paris à Orléans, and one to Italy where it became FS 603.001.
In addition five were left in Alsace-Lorraine, where they became AL 4241–4245; 16 in Poland (PKP Ti3), three to Lithuania (LG class P 5.3, numbered 659 to 661) and one to Latvia (LVD class Pn, number 303, later to PKP).