This locomotive was new to ME Engineering, a dealer in narrow gauge railway equipment based, at that time, in Cricklewood, north London. The loco was displayed at the Public Works Exhibition at the Olympia exhibition hall on 10 November 1960, before moving on to work for Edward Cornish Ltd at their Bellhouse brickworks, Eastwood, near Southend. The railway at this works finished by 1969. June 1970 saw ME Engineering become involved again, with the loco being used on a contract at Porth, Glamorgan in October 1970. The loco acquired an exhaust conditioner at this time, suggesting that the contract involved tunelling or similar underground work. The contractor was Miller & Baird, and it is assumed that they purchased the loco from ME Engineering; the locomotive ended up in their yard at Sandiacre, Derbyshire. It is not known if the loco was used on any more contracts, but it slowly became derelict. In February 1988, the loco moved to the MRT site at the Cheadle school. 1998 saw it move, with the rest of the MRT collection, from the School to storage at Whaley Bridge, and then to Buxworth (in 2000).
On 18 August 2002, the loco moved to Leander Architectural, a foundry at Dove Holes (just north of Buxton). In 2004, it spent a while on loan to the now-closed Derbyshire Dales Narrow Gauge Railway at Rowsley (the northern end of the Peak Rail standard gauge line) before returning to Dove Holes. No.23 finally moved to Apedale on 10 October 2020. The loco is currently undergoing a full overhaul.
