High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Union of South Africa was established on 31 May 1910 by the unification of the former Cape Colony, Natal Colony and the two colonised former republics, the Transvaal and the Orange Free State. Two years later, in 1912, the creation of the South African Railways, later Spoornet and then Transnet Freight Rail, mirrored the national union in railway terms by amalgamating the former Cape Government Railways, Natal Government Railways and Central South African Railways into one national carrier for the Union. These component railways were themselves created through the amalgamation of several smaller predecessors.