Shortly before World War I, the Nord searched for a way to increase the capacity on its 250 km line from the coal fields at Lens to Paris. Asselin had two locomotives built with four-cylinder compound engine in the Nord's own La Chapelle shops, the Consolidation 4.002 and the Decapod 5.001. Both had the same firebox, but the Decapod had tubes which were 1.5 metres longer. As the 5.001 was more powerful, a second prototype numbered 5.002 was built.

Six more were also completed in the same year, two of them in the Nord's Hellemmes shops. Production of 104 more locomotives only started in 1920 and was completed in 1929. They got relatively small tenders with a capacity of 17 tonnes of water and six tonnes of coal. On grades of 1.3 percent, they could haul 950 tonnes at 19 km/h. In 1926 all got a reheater for the exhaust of the high-pressure cylinders and in 1936, all received a Lemaître blast pipe. SNCF designated them 2-150 A and used them until 1958.