The T 8 was developed because the six-coupled T 3 and T 7 tank locomotives used at the beginning of the century had become too slow for line use with a top speed of 45 km/h. It was slightly heavier than the T 7, was superheated and was designed for 60 km/h. Due to the fact that it had no carrying axles and therefore larger overhanging masses, the running characteristics were still not satisfactory at higher speeds. Even increasing the wheelbase did not produce the desired results, which contradicted the actual reason for purchasing the T 8.

A total of 100 locomotives were delivered by three manufacturers, 78 of which were taken over by the Reichsbahn in 1925 as numbers 89 001 to 89 078. There, however, they were soon only used in shunting service and were soon sold to private railways, including the Bayerische Lokalbahn AG. The locomotives from the latter came back to the Reichsbahn after nationalization in 1938 and were numbered 89 1001 and 89 1002, since the class number 89 had meanwhile been assigned to a standard locomotive. Two more from Mecklenburg were given the numbers 1003 and 1004, but all were retired shortly afterwards. After the war, the Reichsbahn of the GDR only took over two examples as 89 6476 and 89 6576, which had previously been owned by private railways. They were in use until 1964, a third example was a works locomotive on the Bundesbahn stock and was used until 1965.