After the First World War, the French Eastern Railway received six 2-10-0 freight locomotives as reparations, which they grouped as numbers 5201 to 5206. These were examples of the Saxon XIII H, which were derived from the Prussian G 121 and built in Chemnitz by Hartmann. These simple three-cylinder locomotives performed well, but were too few to replace the existing 2-8-0 freight locomotives pulling heavy coal and ore trains.
Thus, Grafenstaden used the Saxon locomotives as the basis for a new series, of which the Est procured a total of 195 units between 1926 and 1931. A further ten were ordered by the État to replace existing 2-8-2 locomotives pulling heavy ore trains. Of these 205 locomotives, only 72- were built by Grafenstaden, another 107 came from Fives-Lille and 16 from Blanc-Misseron.
In terms of the basic design, the French locomotives essentially corresponded to their models, but innovations had also been incorporated. Among other things, exhaust systems with cloverleaf-shaped inlets were used, initially with three and later six jets. Changes were also made to the chassis. The front Bissel axle was exchanged for a construction common on the Est and the last coupled axle could no longer be shifted sideways. Instead, the third coupled axle was designed without wheel flanges and the second and fourth with weakened wheel flanges.
When SNCF was founded in 1938, the Est locomotives became the 1-150 E 1 to 195 and the État locomotives became the 3-150 A 1 to 10. After the Second World War, the eight remaining État locomotives were also transferred to the eastern region and then renumbered to 1-150 196 through 203 to match their sister engines. The last example to withdraw from service was 1-150 E 173 on January 26, 1963.