It was a 2-2-2 Patentee type built in England by R. B. Longridge and Company of Bedlington, Northumberland to run on the then standard Dutch track gauge of 1,945 mm (6 ft 4+9⁄16 in).

On 20 September 1839, together with the Snelheid (Dutch for speed), it hauled the first train of the Hollandsche IJzeren Spoorweg-Maatschappij between Amsterdam and Haarlem.

Longridge & Co works at Bedlington in July 1838, of the Stephenson patented Patentee type with the axle layout 1A1, which were named Snelheid, De Arend, Hoop and Leeuw.

The De Arend and Leeuw served the entire HSM broad gauge line, which was extended to Leiden in 1842, to The Hague in 1843 and to Rotterdam in 1847.

In 1848, it appeared that the condition of the Hoop had become poor, and it was suggested that this locomotive be used as a supplier of spare parts ('pick loco') for the Snelheid.

In 1939, Hildo Krop chiselled ‘’D'Arend‘’ out in granite for his sculpture ‘’The development of the locomotive‘’, a keystone for the Weesperpoortbrug in Amsterdam.

[1][2] In the summer of 1939, the Arend drove around the exhibition grounds set up for the celebration of the centenary of the railways at Frederiksplein in Amsterdam.

The student fraternity was located on the Phoenixstraat, where a third rail was installed alongside the track of the tramlijn Den Haag-Delft over a length of 950 metres (1,040 yd).

[2] From 21 August to 1 September 1951, the train ran in Enschede, where the exhibition ‘’FF (fecerunt fortissimo)‘’ was held in the Volkspark.

[2] After two years in the locomotive shed in Hoorn, the train was incorporated into the newly opened Nederlands Spoorwegmuseum in Utrecht Maliebaan Station in 1953, where it has had its home base ever since.

During the event ‘’Treinen door de Tijd‘’, on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the railways in the Netherlands in 1989, the Dez Arend made its rounds on the exhibition grounds at the Utrechtse Jaarbeurs.