From 1881 onwards, numerous narrow-gauge lines were opened in the Kingdom of Saxony, some of which were built with many inclines and curves.

For this purpose, the Royal Saxon State Railways procured 39 small, six-coupled tank locomotives from the Sächsische Maschinenfabrik vormals Richard Hartmann AG in Chemnitz.

However, this was separated again in 1916 due to a lack of locomotives, and the individual vehicles ran under their old numbers again.

Fleet numbers 27 to 30 were given a Klien-Lindner hollow axle at the front to improve the running through tight curves.

The last locations were the Zittau railway station and the Kohlmühle – Hohnstein, Klingenberg-Colmnitz – Oberdittmannsdorf routes and the network around Mügeln.

As part of the opening event for the "125 Years of Narrow Gauge Railways in Saxony" anniversary, the Association for the Promotion of Saxon Narrow Gauge Railways (Verein zur Förderung Sächsischer Schmalspurbahnen e.V., VSSB) announced on 12 January 2006 the project to build a new class I K locomotive.

With the support of sponsors (donor shares were issued for the project) and companies, a large part of the components could be manufactured inexpensively.

The Meiningen Steam Locomotive Works was selected for the overall assembly and manufacture of the boiler.

Since many of the components were made available free of charge by the companies involved, the calculated total costs fell to around one million euros.

On 16 January 2009, final assembly began in the Meiningen Steam Locomotive Works and was completed in June 2009.

On 4 July 2009, the new locomotive was christened and officially put into service in the narrow-gauge area of Radebeul Ost station.

This train, which is based in Zittau, can travel on all existing narrow-gauge railways with a gauge of 750 mm.