The history of the small locomotives of performance group II goes back to a development of the Deutsche Reichsbahn Gesellschaft in 1930. Even then, efforts were made to have light shunting work carried out by a small diesel locomotive, for which only a specially trained shunter and only a simple infrastructure were required. A total of 1282 small locomotives were delivered to the D.R.G. before the Second World War. However, many were lost due to the effects of the war or were taken abroad.

Even after the war, these locomotives were indispensable for the still young Deutsche Bundesbahn, as the economy grew strongly in the post-war years and thus a large number of transport movements became necessary. Therefore, it was decided to build numerous locomotives. In the years from 1959 onwards, a total of 735 locomotives of the type Köf II were delivered to the Deutsche Bundesbahn. The basic design was almost unchanged from the pre-war variants, but numerous modifications took place - e.g. more powerful engines and an air brake were installed. Later deliveries even received closed driver's cabs to protect personnel in wind and weather.

Our Köf 6780 was delivered to the Deutsche Bundesbahn in July 1960 by Maschinenfabrik Jung with the factory number 13218 and put into service there on August 1, 1960. Her first home office was the Kassel company car factory. With the introduction of computer-readable locomotive numbers in 1968, it was assigned the running number 323 850-8. From July 1973 to October 1975 it belonged to the Kassel depot. Her career with the Deutsche Bundesbahn ended with her retirement from the Fulda depot on September 6, 1986.

The small locomotive was then sold to the Teutoburger Wald-Eisenbahn (TWE). Here it was designated as Köf 11 and classified in the locomotive fleet. Among other things, their task was to operate the connections that were still in place at that time, including the industrial main track in Lengerich, which no longer exists. But transfer trips on the TWE and shunting orders for the central workshop were also part of her daily tasks.

She was also always a great help for our association, e.g. in moving the still cold steam locomotives or in shunting and assembling our historic wagon train.

In the summer of 2023, the locomotive was no longer needed at TWE, which now belongs to Captrain Germany, and our association was able to take it over. Exactly 64 years after it was put into service with the Deutsche Bundesbahn, it became our property on 1 July 2023. It is planned to keep it as Köf 11 in its last operating condition at TWE. It is currently undergoing an optical refurbishment and can therefore be preserved for posterity.