Near Dresden, the Royal Saxon State Railways had the Windbergbahn, a branch line primarily serving coal traffic, which, in addition to a steep incline, also had a minimum curve of only 85 metres (278 ft 10 in) in radius.

At the turn of the century, the performance of the previously used locomotives of the VII T class was no longer sufficient.

In 1940 the Reichsbahn took over another locomotive of this type that had been delivered to the Oberhohndorf-Reinsdorf Coal Railway [de] and gave it the road number 98 015 (second); the first 98 015 having been retired.

The eight remaining locomotives transported 560,000 tons of uranium ore to Gittersee every year.

The bogies were connected by a coupling iron in order to reduce any counter-rotating movements.

The water supply was housed in side tanks, the coal in a bunker behind the driver's cab.