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 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.