Early Days of Railroading in America

America's First Locomotive

The first railroad locomotive to be assembled in the United States was the Stourbridge Lion, a heavy (for that day) monster weighing almost seven tons. This was one of a group of four engines brought over from England for use on the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company's railroad. They were to be used for hauling coal from the mines to the canal, where it would be loaded onto barges. Both the Stourbridge Lion and another locomotive were assembled at the West Point foundry but, alas, they proved to be too rigidly constructed for America's roadbeds and rails that were much rougher and more sharply curved than those in England. The two locomotives were stored and never used.


This incident was to demonstrate a major difference between railroad engineering in the United States and practices used in Europe. With gentler grades and less rugged mountain ranges to traverse and well - established routes between major cities, the needs of European roads were much different from those in the still wild and developing young nation on this side of the Atlantic. The successful design that was to emerge five or six years later for use in this country would include a swiveling lead truck of two, then four wheels out in front where it could steer the locomotive around the sharp curves.


The 'Best Friend"

While these events were going on to the north of them, the prosperous port city of Charleston, South Carolina did not remain idle. The South Carolina Canal & Railroad Company was chartered to build a railroad westward from Charleston to Hamburg, South Carolina, a distance of 136 miles. This endeavor was to be an all steam railroad from the beginning. Unlike the Baltimore and Ohio, which had used horse drawn rail cars to haul passengers and freight, this first Southern railroad was to place all its faith in the new steam engine.

The Best Friend Of Charleston was to be the railroad's first locomotive. Built by the West Point Foundry for $4000, this locomotive had a vertical boiler shaped somewhat like a champagne bottle (see drawing). Also, the Best Friend, at about three tons, was much lighter than previous locomotives and had all four wheeled coupled to its two inside cylinders. The tiny engine only developed six horsepower, but that was sufficient to haul two makeshift coaches filled with forty passengers at a speed of twenty miles an hour.

The townspeople of Charleston were enthusiastic about their new railroad and its strange looking steam engine. They expected that the railroad would make their city a great seaport, providing a link between the coast and cities on the interior. The Best Friend was to do its part in helping fulfill their dreams, but not after a series of mishaps and accidents. In one case, the wooden spoked wheels had to be replaced with iron ones after the original ones disintegrated after an accident on a turn. In a more severe accident, the fireman, who had tied down the safety valve on the boiler in an attempt to get more speed, was scalded to death after the boiler exploded from excess pressure.


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