| South African "Natal" 0-4-0WT | |
|---|---|
| "Natal" plinthed at Durban station, circa 1944 | |
| Power type | Steam |
| Designer | Carrett, Marshall & Company |
| Builder | Carrett, Marshall & Company |
| Build date | 1860 |
| Total produced | 1 |
| Configuration | 0-4-0WT |
| Gauge | 4 ft 8.5 in (1.44 m) Standard |
| Driver diameter | 45 in (1,140 mm) |
| Wheelbase | 9 ft (2.743 m) |
| Length | 17 ft 6 in (5.334 m) |
| Height | 12 ft (3.658 m) |
| Locomotive weight | 12 long tons (12.2 t) |
| Fuel type | Coal |
| Boiler | 5 ft (1.524 m) pitch |
| Cylinders | Two[1] |
| Career | Natal Railway Company |
| Number in class | 1 |
| Official name | Natal |
| Delivered | 13 May 1860 |
| First run | 26 June 1860 |
| Last run | 1875 |
| Retired | 1875[1] |
| Preserved | 1 |
| Disposition | Reconstructed and plinthed |
The first locomotive to run in South Africa, the Natal Railway Company’s “Natal”, was landed at Durban on 13 May 1860 and made its inaugural run during the official opening of the first operating railway in South Africa on Tuesday, 26 June 1860. It was, however, not the first locomotive to arrive in South Africa, having been denied that honour by nine engines, the Pickering locomotive that arrived in Cape Town in September 1859 and the Cape Town-Wellington Railway’s eight 0-4-2 tender locomotives that arrived in two shipments on 20 March and 28 April 1860.[1]
Although the Pickering locomotive had been used during the construction of the Cape Town-Wellington Railway that commenced on 31 March 1859, official railway operations in the Cape only commenced when the first section of track of the Cape Town-Wellington Railway, between Fort Knokke and Salt River in Cape Town, was officially opened on 8 February 1861.[1]
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The first locomotive to run in railway service in South Africa was a small standard gauge 0-4-0WT well tank engine named Natal. It was landed at Durban off the brig Cadiz on 13 May 1860. The engine arrived stripped down and was erected by Henry Jacobs, engine fitter, driver and locomotive superintendent of the Natal Railway Company, assisted by chief smith, fitter, springmaker, platelayer and head of the repair shops Alexander Davidson. A station on the Bluff was later named after Henry Jacobs.[1][2]
For many years credit as the locomotive builder had been given to the London company of Robert Legg, the City of London Engine Works, but subsequent research showed that Robert Legg was merely the distributor which handled the shipment of the locomotive to Durban. The actual manufacturer was a firm by name of Carrett, Marshall and Company of Leeds, while Robert Legg was its London agent. Further research by a member of the Railway Society of Southern Africa (RSSA) has shown that at least two of these locomotives were built, the other going to the Caribbean to work in the sugar industry.[3][4][5]
The engine carried its water in a well tank and the coal in a locker on the footplate. A donkey pump on the coal locker fed water to the boiler. It was erected in a tarred timber shed on Market Square, then painted green with copper coloured wheels and with the huge brass dome cover polished.[1]
The official opening of the newly mechanised Natal Railway took place on 26 June 1860, a little over a month after the engine arrived. Until then the railway had been operated using ox-drawn wagons. The inaugural run was across a 2 miles (3.2 kilometres) stretch from Market Square in Durban to the newly built Point station at Durban harbour.[1]
The Natal Railway’s initial rolling stock consisted of six wagons, two travelling cranes and one passenger coach. By 25 January 1867 the line had been extended a further 3.5 miles (5.6 kilometres) to Umgeni, from where stone, quarried from the Umgeni River, was transported to the harbour.[2]
The "Natal" remained in service for fifteen years, until the Natal Government decided in 1875 to convert the railways to Cape gauge in conformance with the railways in the Cape of Good Hope.[1]
The "Natal" was then put up for sale and purchased by a Mr. Crowther with the intention of using it to drive a sawmill on his farm at Port St Johns. He was, however, unable to make use of it since the local population labour force objected to this "devil’s machine" and embarked on a boycott, culminating in Crowther having to abandon his farm, and the engine.[1][2]
In 1886 one Alex Anderson purchased the farm for sugar planting, but when he decided to use the engine to drive a sugar mill, another early example of South African rolling mass action ensued and he, too, was forced to leave. The farm was then acquired by one Harry Cooper, who buried the engine on the banks of the Mzimvubu River and thereafter was left unmolested and proceeded to grow tobacco. He remained on the farm until 1901, when he sold it to one Sam Clarke of Umtata who converted the property into a fruit farm. By this time the actual location of the "Natal’s" grave had become lost.[1][2]
On 28 May 1943 the late Theo Espitalier, commissioned to prepare a history of the locomotives in South Africa, managed to locate the grave of the "Natal". The remains were excavated and transferred to Durban, arriving there on 26 June 1944, eighty-four years to the day after this engine had hauled the first train in South Africa.[1][2]
The frame, the wheels, the springs, the cylinders and some odd loose parts were literally all that remained of the old locomotive. The engine was reconstructed in the Durban workshops, with many missing parts having to be fashioned to approximately the original shape and size, and was plinthed at Durban station. While not a true reconstruction in every sense of the word, it was sufficiently close to the original to give one a good idea of what the engine must have looked like on the day the South African Railways was born in 1860.[1]
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