[Illustration: Figure 18.—Early drawing of _Best Friend of
Charleston_, built in 1830.]
The scene is now shifted to South Carolina and New York. The West Point
Foundry Association, situated in New York City, had been the location of
a stationary demonstration under steam of the blocked-up _Stourbridge
Lion_ on May 28, 1829, shortly after it was unloaded from the ship that
brought it from Liverpool. The Association soon thereafter built a
locomotive (figure 18) for the South-Carolina Canal and Rail-Road Co.,
which was building a line from Charleston to Hamburg, S. C., just across
the Savannah River from Augusta, Ga. Prior to its adoption of the steam
locomotive, the railroad had used horses to draw its cars, and had even
experimented with a wind-propelled sail car.
The locomotive, the _Best Friend of Charleston_, which was to become the
first to operate on a regularly scheduled run in this country, was
constructed at a cost of $4,000 in the summer of 1830, and arrived at
Charleston on October 23 of that year, on the ship _Niagara_. The same
Horatio Allen who had tested the _Stourbridge Lion_ for the Delaware and
Hudson had become chief engineer of the South-Carolina Canal and
Rail-Road Co. and was one of those responsible for the plans of the
_Best Friend_.
Local machinists at Charleston were hired to reassemble the locomotive
and prepare it for its first trial, but when the run was made on
November 2, 1830, the wheels were discovered to be unsatisfactory. They
were replaced by sturdier ones, and following a subsequent test on
December 9, the locomotive was accepted. After several more experimental
runs, some with passengers, the official first run, carrying 141
persons, finally took place on Christmas Day 1830.
Notice of the coming event had been published the previous day, so it
became the first steam railroad train run scheduled by “timetable” to be
made in the Western Hemisphere. All previous locomotive operations on
this side of the Atlantic had been purely experimental—for test or
demonstration purposes. At the time of this run the tracks of the
railroad extended only about 6 miles out of Charleston, but by October
3, 1833, the full 136 miles to Hamburg had been completed. The
South-Carolina Canal and Rail-Road was then the longest continuous
railroad in the world (see figure 19).
A description of the _Best Friend_ by David Matthew, who in 1830 had
been foreman of the West Point Foundry Association, is contained in a
letter he wrote in 1859 to the historian William H. Brown. Later quoted
by Brown in his “History of the First Locomotives in America,” the
letter says in part:
The _Best Friend_ was a four-wheel engine, all four wheels drivers.
Two inclined cylinders at an angle, working down on a double crank,
inside of the frame, with the wheels outside of the frame, each wheel
connecting together outside, with outside rods. The wheels were iron
hub, wooden spokes and felloes, with iron tire, and iron web and pins
in the wheels to connect the outside rods to.
The boiler was a vertical one, in form of an old-fashioned
porter-bottle, the furnace at the bottom surrounded with water, and
all filled inside full of what we called teats, running out from the
sides and top, with alternate stays to support the crown of the
furnace; the smoke and gas passing out through the sides at several
points, into an outside jacket; which had the chimney on it. The
boiler sat on a frame upon four wheels, with the connecting-rods
running by it to come into the crankshaft. The cylinders were about
six inches in the bore, and sixteen inches’ stroke. Wheels about four
and a half feet in diameter. The whole machine weighed about four and
a half tons.
[Illustration: Figure 19.—In 1833 the South-Carolina Canal and
Rail-Road was the longest continuous railroad in the world.]
[Illustration: Figure 20.—Old locomotive wheel at Redwood Library,
Newport, R. I., claimed to be “wheel of first locomotive used on
first railroad of any length in America,—Charleston, S. C., to
Augusta, Ga., 1835.”]
The _Best Friend_, as such, was short-lived. It gave service that was
entirely satisfactory up to the moment its boiler exploded on June 17,
1831, when one of the helpers on the locomotive deliberately held the
safety valve closed.
According to the statement in 1869 of Nicholas W. Darrell, first
engineer of the _Best Friend_ and later superintendent of machinery of
the South-Carolina Canal and Rail-Road, the salvageable parts were used
in constructing another locomotive which was appropriately named the
_Phoenix_. Darrell’s recollection is confirmed by the early reports of
the company, which also reveal that the machinery and new boiler were
arranged differently on the _Phoenix_, the cylinders being placed
outside the frame, and the weight being much more evenly distributed.
The _Phoenix_ was put in service on October 18, 1832.
Although no documented relics of either of these two locomotives remain,
the Redwood Library at Newport, R. I., now exhibits an all-metal wheel
(figure 20) claimed to be from the “first locomotive used on first
railroad of any length in America. Charleston, S. C., to Augusta, Ga.,
1835.” Quite probably it is a replacement wheel from the _Phoenix_, for
Darrell also stated in 1869 that cast wheels with wrought tires were
used to replace the original wooden wheels with iron tires that were on
the _Best Friend_ when it was salvaged to construct the _Phoenix_.
[Illustration: Figure 21.—Full sized operable replica of _Best
Friend of Charleston_, built in 1928 by Southern Railway System.]
The wheel at Newport is built up of parts, and consists of a large round
hub, 12 round 1¼-inch-diameter spokes, a rim approximately 46 inches in
diameter and 4½ inches wide, and a flanged tire 4¾ inches wide and about
1 inch thick, the flange of which is 2 inches wide on its outside face.
The wheel, therefore, has a diameter of about 48 inches. The spokes are
staggered in the hub and appear to be fastened to it by threaded nuts.
Four keyways are cut into the hole in the hub. The complete history and
exact origin of this wheel, given to the Redwood Library in January 1863
by Isaac P. Hazard of Newport, will probably remain a mystery.
As with other early locomotives, a full sized operable replica of the
_Best Friend_ has been built. The Southern Railway System, which now
includes the old South-Carolina Canal and Rail-Road, in 1928 constructed
a faithful replica of the locomotive at its Birmingham, Ala., shops, and
in the same year reproduced the original tender and several cars at its
shops at Hayne, S. C. (figure 21). A new boiler was installed on the
replica in 1948.
Among the various fairs at which it has been exhibited are those held at
New York in 1939 and 1940 and in Chicago in 1948 and 1949. At present it
is to be seen in the depot of the Chattanooga Station Co. at
Chattanooga, Tenn.
A small, nonoperable model of the _Best Friend_, about 2 feet long
(figure 22), with tender and two cars, was made in the late 1880’s by D.
Ballauf, well known model maker of Washington, D. C. It was first
exhibited at the Cincinnati Centennial Exposition in 1888, after which
it was placed on exhibition in the National Museum (USNM 180244).
Of the _West Point_, the second locomotive built by the West Point
Foundry Association, and the second bought by the South-Carolina Canal
and Rail-Road Co., no relics or replicas are known to exist. A
satisfactory locomotive, it arrived at Charleston on the ship
_Lafayette_ on February 28, 1831. Its final disposition is no longer
known.
[Illustration: Figure 22.—Model of _Best Friend of Charleston_, in
National Museum.]
[Illustration: Figure 23.—Early drawing of _De Witt Clinton_, built
in 1831.]
The third locomotive (figure 23) built by the West Point Foundry
Association, the _De Wilt Clinton_ of the Mohawk and Hudson Rail Road
Co., was the first to run in New York State. Its first public
demonstration was an excursion trip on August 9, 1831, on a 12-mile
stretch of railway between Albany and Schenectady. The distance was
covered in less than one hour. Another notable demonstration, attended
by many public officials, took place on September 24 of the same year.
The locomotive, which had been shipped up the Hudson River to Albany
during the last week of June with David Matthew in charge, weighed a
little over 6,750 pounds, was 11½ feet long, and was mounted on four
54-inch wheels, all of which were drivers. The two cylinders, at the
rear of the locomotive and connected to the axle of the front wheels,
had a bore of 5½ inches and a stroke of 16 inches. The boiler was
tubular, with copper tubes about 2½ inches in diameter and 6 feet long.
The top speed when pulling a load of about 8 tons was said to have been
about 30 miles an hour.
[Illustration: Figure 24.—Wheel, said to be from original _De Witt
Clinton_, in National Museum.]
The _De Witt Clinton_ was never completely satisfactory, and after
infrequent use in 1831 and 1832 it was disassembled and disposed of
piece by piece. Some of the parts were listed as sold on April 20, 1835,
others on September 13 and October 29, 1836. A total of $485 was
realized from the various sales.
In 1891, a wheel said to have been one of the wheels of the original _De
Witt Clinton_, was deposited in the National Museum (USNM 180947) by
William Buchanan, at that time superintendent of motive power of the New
York Central and Hudson River Railroad Co. The all-metal wheel (figure
24) contains 14 round, 1-inch-diameter spokes staggered around the hub,
and is 52½ inches in diameter. The flanged metal tire is missing from
the rim, which is 4⅛ inches wide, but its presence would undoubtedly
bring the overall diameter of the wheel up to 54 inches.
[Illustration: Figure 25.—Full sized operable replica of _De Witt
Clinton_, built in 1893 by New York Central and Hudson River
Railroad Co., at World’s Columbian Exposition, in Chicago, in 1893.]
[Illustration: Figure 26.—Replica of _De Witt Clinton_ photographed
during an appearance in 1921.]
This wheel, or an identical one, was used in the very early 1890’s by
the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad Co. as a guide in their
construction of the full sized operable replica of the _De Witt Clinton_
locomotive, tender, and cars, first shown at the World’s Columbian
Exposition at Chicago in 1893 (figure 25). The replica, constructed from
the original plans of 1831, was made at the railroad’s shops at West
Albany, N. Y. During the past 60 years the replica has undergone a
number of repair operations, but it remains authentic. It has been
exhibited on many occasions (figure 26).
Since the 1893 unveiling of the replica of the train at Chicago, it has
been displayed at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition at St. Louis in
1904, the Fair of the Iron Horse (figure 27), the Chicago World’s Fair
in 1933 and 1934, the New York World’s Fair in 1939 and 1940, the
Chicago Railroad Fair in 1948 and 1949, and on many other occasions. For
years the train was exhibited on a balcony within New York City’s Grand
Central Terminal, but since 1935 it has been on loan from the New York
Central System to the Henry Ford Museum at Dearborn.
An exquisitely made nonoperable model of the _De Witt Clinton_, its
tender, and three cars, together about 3 feet long (figure 28), was made
in 1932 by Peyton L. Morgan of Lynchburg, Va., and has been since 1935
in the collection of the National Museum (USNM 310961).
[Illustration: Figure 27.—Replica of _De Witt Clinton_ at the Fair
of the Iron Horse in 1927.]
[Illustration: Figure 28.—Model of _De Witt Clinton_, in National
Museum.]