The rising tourist traffic on the Schneeberg Railway that had originally been built for coal traffic prompted their operators to procure powerful tank locomotives with a light axle load. So starting in 1900, the EWA that now operated the Schneeberg Railway got ten 0-8-0T locomotives designed by Karl Gölsdorf. He applied his system of axles with lateral movement to the second and fourth axles to allow running through curves with a radius of 80 meters. They had a counter-pressure brake and a two-cylinder compound engine.

These locomotives soon became a standard type, but all further locomotives didn't get a counter-pressure brake. The kkStB and the succeeding BBÖ ordered a total of 211 for their secondary lines and designated them class 178. Also a number of private railways got a total of 96 additional locomotives of this design and used them on inclines of up to five percent, what brought the total to 317 in 1924. Depending on the requirements of the respective owners, their coal and water supplies had a varying size. One special locomotive was built for the Wiener Lokalbahnen in 1921 that got a simple engine.

178.49, today ČSD 422.025 in the Lužná u Rakovníka Museum

After World War I, when production was still running, a large number of the existing locomotives went to Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Poland and Italy. The ČSD had directly inherited 105 and got 12 more through nationalization of private companies. They became class 422.0 and also served as a basis for the development of the classes 331.0, 354.1, 423.0 and 433.0. In World War II, the locomotives in service in Austria became Reichsbahn class 92. Later, both the ÖBB and ČSD retired the last ones in 1970. Some are preserved, with the most being on static display.