Because larger turntables with a 16-metre diameter were then being built, the wheelbase could be longer, which gave it better riding qualities.

They were the first class of locomotives to use superheating, a process in which the steam leaving the boiler is re-heated, resulting in better efficiency.

In addition, several hundred units were manufactured with smaller driving wheels - dubbed the P4 class.

Whilst the Deutsche Reichsbahn still listed 451 Prussian S 3 engines in its 1923 renumbering plan (as 13 008 - 458), only 27 of them were left in 1925.

After the First World War over 100 engines were left with the Polish (PKP) and Lithuanian Railways where some were still in service in the 1940s.