The Cramptons of the Nord comprised a total of 58 locomotives, which, like almost all French Cramptons, were built by Cail. They had outside cylinders that were raised and inclined. The bearings were generously sized to reduce wear at high speeds. The wheels on the first leading axle were visibly larger than those on the second and also had to carry a significantly higher load.

As a rule, they pulled twelve coaches and sometimes up to 16, each of which only weighed eight tons. Four batches were delivered between 1849 and 1859, most of which had a driving wheel diameter of 2,100 mm (6 ft 10 11/16 in). Only numbers 134 to 145 from 1853 had wheels of 2,300 mm (7 ft 6 9/16 in) and a higher boiler pressure to compensate. Numbers 165 to 170 from the last batch were the first locomotives in France to have Walschaerts valve gear.

The French Nord received a total of 36 Engerth supporting tender locomotives for passenger transport in 1857 and 1858. They only had two driving axles with large wheels and three axles for the tender. The wheelbase between the driving axles was relatively large in order to achieve good running stability.

From 1873 onwards, eleven locomotives were rebuilt into 0-4-2 tender locomotives in the Nord workshops by separating the tender with the two axles underneath from the locomotive and installing a trailing axle instead of the first tender axle. Later, both the rebuilt and the non-rebuilt ones were used in Lille's suburban traffic. The retirements took place between 1910 and 1913.

Jules Petiet, actually a successful chief engineer at the French company Nord, also implemented some unsuccessful ideas. One of these was to incorporate the features of the Crampton into a tank locomotive. The eight locomotives had a driving axle with its own cylinders at each end and three carrying axles in between.

Another special feature was the steam dryer, which Petiet also used on other locomotives. It was another cylinder that sat on top of the boiler and directed the smoke from the smokebox back into a curved chimney. The steam was passed through here and separated from water.

As was to be expected, these locomotives were unable to establish themselves, especially not in express service. As early as the 1870s they were usually found in front of passenger trains on branch lines. They were scrapped between 1878 and 1883.

A problem on the Paris suburban routes of the Nord was that the previously existing tank locomotives with the wheel arrangement 4-4-0T and 0-4-2T had to be turned at the end stations, which led to unacceptable delays, especially in heavy rush hour traffic. Therefore, between 1901 and 1906, the Nord had a total of 75 tank locomotives built for suburban traffic with a symmetrical wheel arrangement, which had been developed by Gaston du Bousquet. Because these locomotives had a high-mounted, small-diameter boiler, they earned the nickname “Revolver”. Due to the design as 4-4-4T, they had a bogie ahead in both directions, which meant that they could be operated in both directions at a maximum speed of 105 km/h.

A special feature in the cab was that the controls were all duplicated to facilitate operation even when reversing. While the adhesive weight of other locomotives with this wheel arrangement was relatively low, the weight of these locomotives was distributed in such a way that more than half was on the two coupled axles. Thus, the two bogies served to guide rather than carry a large mass while providing sufficient adhesive weight. 

Schematic drawing with dimensions

Die Lokomotive, May 1909

The production took place in three batches at La Chapelle in Paris and Hellemmes in Lille. While the water and coal reserves were still 6,500 liters and 3.0 tonnes in the first batch, they were increased to 7,000 liters and 3.5 tonnes in the two following batches. In the SNCF they were listed as 222 TA 1 to 222 TA 75.