The first examples arrived on the railway in 1953, operating on the 25 kV 50 Hz line to the coal mines of the Houillères de Lorraine in the north-east of France.

Tried first along the Valenciennes – Lumes line, specifications called for a locomotive capable of pulling 750 tonne trains along a grade of 10 ‰.

SNCF would own 148 of this type of locomotive and another 20 were delivered to the Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer Luxembourgeois in Luxembourg as their Class 3600, which had a longer life than their French counterparts: the last examples of this class were withdrawn in March 2005, by that point having served on shunting and local train duties.

The Romanian Railways at the time evaluated them, being notable for pulling the first electric train under trials on 9 June 1963, between Brașov and Predeal, with Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej being present at the ceremony.

After the graduator and the transformer, single phase current is rectified by eight ignitrons feeding series-wired electric motors.