South African "Natal" 0-4-0WT

Natal Railway 0-4-0WT Natal NGR 0-4-0WT Natal
The reconstructed engine Natal, Durban station
Type and origin Power type Steam Designer Carrett, Marshall & Company Builder Carrett, Marshall & Company Build date 1860 Total produced 2
Specifications Configuration: ​  • Whyte 0-4-0WT (Four-coupled)  • UIC Bn2t Driver 2nd coupled axle Gauge 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) broad Coupled dia. 45 in (1,143 mm) Wheelbase 9 ft (2,743 mm) Length: ​  • Over beams 17 ft 6 in (5,334 mm) Height 12 ft (3,658 mm) Loco weight 12 LT (12,190 kg) Fuel type Coal Firebox type Round-top Boiler: ​  • Pitch 5 ft (1,524 mm) Cylinders Two Couplers Buffers-and-chain
Performance figures Power output Approximately 24 hp (18 kW)
Career Operators Natal Railway Company Natal Government Railways Number in class 1 Official name Natal Delivered 13 May 1860 First run 1860 Last run 1875 Withdrawn 1875

The Natal Railway 0-4-0WT Natal of 1860 was a South African steam locomotive from the pre-Union era in the Natal Colony.

The first locomotive to run in revenue service in South Africa, the Natal Railway Company's engine Natal, was landed at Durban Harbour on 13 May 1860. It made its inaugural run on 26 June 1860, during the official opening of the first operating railway in South Africa.

The first revenue-earning railway service in South Africa commenced in Durban in the Colony of Natal on 26 June 1860. The train was hauled by a small broad gauge 0-4-0 well-tank engine named Natal, which was landed at Durban Harbour 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 Alexander Davidson, chief smith, fitter, springmaker, platelayer and head of the repair shops. A young seaman named Austin was taken on as cleaner and greaser, and ultimately promoted to stoker. A station on the Bluff was later named after Henry Jacobs.

The locomotive Natal was, however, not the first locomotive to arrive in South Africa, having been denied that honour by nine engines in the Cape of Good Hope. These were Blackie, the 0-4-0T construction locomotive which had arrived in Cape Town on 8 September 1859, and the eight 0-4-2 tender locomotives of the Cape Town Railway and Dock Company which had arrived in two shipments on 20 March and 28 April 1860 respectively.

Although the Cape's construction locomotive had possibly been used before June 1860 on the construction of the Cape Town-Wellington Railway, a project which had commenced on 31 March 1859, official revenue-earning railway operations in the Cape only commenced when the first section of the line, between Fort De Knokke and Salt River in Cape Town, was officially opened on 8 February 1861.

For many years credit as the locomotive builder of the engine Natal had been attributed to the City of London Engine Works, the London company of Robert Legg, but subsequent research showed that Robert Legg was merely the agent through whom the shipping of the locomotive to Durban was arranged. 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 has shown that at least two of these locomotives were built, the other having gone to the Caribbean to work in the sugar industry.