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.

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.

The locomotive was erected in a tarred timber shed on Market Square in Durban and was painted green, with copper-coloured wheels and with a huge polished brass dome cover.

[2][3] According to most publications, the official opening of the newly mechanised Natal Railway took place on Tuesday, 26 June 1860, a little more than a month after the engine arrived.

[7] The locomotive gave satisfactory service for several years, but was plagued by the sandy conditions of the track, which resulted in damage to moving parts from dust and beach sand.

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][3] On 28 May 1943, the late Theo Espitalier, who had been commissioned to prepare a history of the locomotives of South Africa, managed to locate the grave of the engine 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.

The engine was reconstructed in the Durban workshops of the South African Railways, with many missing parts having to be fashioned to approximately the original shape and size.

Even though it was not an exact reconstruction in every sense of the word, it was sufficiently close to the original to represent what the engine may have looked like on the day the South African Railways was born in 1860.