The springbok plaque on the side of the locomotive was donated on 12 April 1954 by a Bloemfontein newspaper proprietor. Only the one plaque was fitted on the left hand side of the locomotive.
60009 Union of South Africa is a Class A4 steam locomotive built in Doncaster in 1937 by the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) and originally numbered 4488. It was named after the then newly formed Union of South Africa. For a time, during part of the 1980s and 1990s, it was renamed “Osprey” due to contemporary political opposition against South Africa because of that country’s controversial policy of racial apartheid (
Link BBC News). 60009's name has since reverted to Union of South Africa.
Union of South Africa was withdrawn from British Railways service on 1 June 1966 and was sold for preservation the following month. It is one of the six surviving A4 pacific steam locomotives designed by Sir Nigel Gresley; a sister locomotive to 4468 “Mallard” (see
SK9135 : 4468 Mallard at Grantham Festival of Steam 2013 ) and 60007 “Sir Nigel Gresley (see
SD8010 : Sir Nigel Gresley on the East Lancashire Railway).