Among the many Consolidations of the PLM, the 140 A was one of the types with larger drivers of 1,650 mm for mixed traffic on mountainous lines. As opposed to the earlier 140 E that was a four-cylinder compound, the 140 A was a two-cylinder simple. It featured a boiler with a Belpaire firebox and a Schmidt superheater. The blast pipe was of the cloverleaf type and the valve gear was of the Walschaerts type.

120 were built by Schneider at Creusot in 1923 and 1924, followed by a second batch of 50 built by Homécourt at Saint-Chamond in 1925. Most had three-axle tenders with a water capacity of 16,000 or 20,000 liters, but a few had four-axle bogie tenders with 28,000 liters. They were used on virtually all lines of the PLM network and when SNCF was founded in 1938, they were designated 5-140 J. The last ones were withdrawn in 1964.