The engines were delivered by BMAG, Krauss and LHW and had originally still held the State Railways' Class EG 3 title with numbers 22 001 through 031 (Bavarian) or EG 701 to 725 (Prussian). BMS delivered the electrical parts. In service, the E 77 distinguished itself with a rather limited result. One was never really satisfied with its running abilities. Moreover, there were often problems due to the many flexible electric cables. During World War II all engines ended at the "Reichsbahndirektionen" Halle und Hanover in exchange for Class E 75. At the end of the war, 53 locomotives were left. 42 thereof, as well as parts of engines E 77 02, 09, 19, 28, 56, 67, 71 and 73, which had been taken out of service due to damages, were ceded to the Soviet Union as reparations. E 77 06 and 51 were so heavily damaged that their scrapping in Leipzig was authorized in 1947/48. Nothing is known of E 77 64's post-war fate. In 1952/53, 38 of the reparations locomotives (not E 77 05, 58 and 75) were returned into DR's stock. Of them, only 10 units with numbers E 77 03, 10, 14, 15, 18, 24, 25, 30, 52 and 53 were repaired past 1955. The others were scrapped only in the 1960s. When sufficient numbers of new electric locomotives were available, Class E 77 was retired and save for E 77 10, all units were scrapped as well until late in 1966. For a few years, E 77 10 still served as a switch heating engine at Halle central station and was then converted to a heritage locomotive at the Dresden railway works, whereby it was almost restored to its prior state. Save for the first series of Prussian locomotives (EG 701 - 713, later E 77 51 to 77 63), all engines had originally had cowl doors. At the reinstatement by DR though, those were dropped. The trailer axles of the threepartite linked locomotives were at first embedded steeply and later flexibly, so that the wheel arrangement was changed from (1B)(B1) to (1'B)(B1'). But even after this conversion they were not yet satisfied with the engines' smoothness. The work schedule featured the following transportation services:  The locomotives had 15 permanent running steps.