It was built in 1920 by the American Locomotive Company's Cooke Works for export to Cuba, but it remained in the United States and was sold to the Narragansett Pier Railroad in 1923.

The locomotive was acquired by the Rail City museum in New York State in 1955, where it hauled excursion trains until 1972.

[1] Since the economy of Cuba was unstable, ALCO succeeded in exporting only forty 2-6-0s to the country, and the remaining nineteen locomotives, including No.

[5] Railroad management realized the flanges on the drive wheels made navigating the curve at Wakefield impossible.

[5] This prompted a trip to the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad (New Haven) shops in Providence, Rhode Island, where workers fixed the problem by removing the flanges on the middle pair of drive wheels to create blind drivers.

11 spent much of its time in the engine house for repairs, with rentals from the New Haven filling in at significant cost.

[5] This finally grew unbearable by 1930, when the company purchased outright a used 4-4-0 "American" locomotive from the New Haven, numbered 20.

[9] The locomotive hauled tourist trains on a 1-mile (1.6 km) circle line at Rail City until the mid-1970s, when declining patronage forced its closure.

11 was sold to the Middletown and New Jersey Railroad (M&NJ), whose president Pierre Rasmussen held a personal interest in steam locomotives and hoped to run No.

By the time of Rasmussen's death in 2004, the locomotive had spent more than two decades inside the M&NJ roundhouse without any further restoration progress.

11; the frame was reconditioned, the running gear rebuilt, and some parts of the boiler were replaced.

11 was moved to the Everett Railroad shops in Claysburg, Pennsylvania, where the remainder of its restoration took place, which involved additional replacement parts being installed for the boiler and running gear.

11 was converted to use oil due to difficulties in securing coal and the desire to cut down the amount of smoke it generated.