At one point the company even considered the use of black engineers to serve under the management of white conductors, although the suggestion seems to have been dropped. Sun. It ran along six miles of wood and metal rails terminating near the junction of State and Dorchester Roads. It was carrying more than 100 tons of crude oil, and it burst into flames after going off the rails outside of Charleston. 1were lined up under steam. When opened for business, the Charleston & Hamburgh Railroad cost a total of $951,148.39. On 23 June 1823, the pioneering locomotive manufacturer Robert Stephenson and Company was established by the railway engineers George Stephenson and his son Robert Stephenson, and the businessmen Edward Pease and Thomas Richardson. A vertical boiler mounted on a four-wheel carriage, the Best Friend was built by the West Point Foundry of New York and put into service on a broad-gauge line from Charleston to Hamburg, S.C., by the South Carolina Canal and Rail Road Company on Dec. 25, 1830. But for John A. Smith, SR control engineer, Atlanta, and engineer of the little train the past 15 years, it was time to say good-bye. Cosmically Cool Summer Fun at the State Museum Get Tickets Today! The new company name was the Georgia Railroad and Banking Company. Many people throughout the railway were convinced I had a glamorous job, John said. The locomotive weighed 6.6 tonnes, with many elements, including the boiler, cylinders and wheels, composed of cast iron, although the frame was timber. Reportedly, a fireman accidentally caused the explosion when he closed the steam pressure release valve. The Best Friend of Charleston was a steam-powered railroad locomotive that is widely acclaimed as the first locomotive to be built entirely within the United States for revenue service. A second engine, the West Point, went into use on the Charleston-Hamburg line in March 1831 but never achieved the same speeds as those of the Best Friend. Best Friend of Charleston, first steam locomotive built in the United States for regular railway service. The city's newspaper, the Charleston Courier noted: "The one hundred and forty-one persons flew on the wings of wind at the speed of fifteen to twenty-five miles per hour, annihilating time and spaceleaving all the world behind. By 1821, the economy was better in both port cities, but Charleston realized it was not recovering as quickly as Savannah, its major commercial rival. Constructed in New York City at the West Point Foundry to run on the Charleston-Hamburg line, the Best Friend was christened by hopeful supporters on its Charleston arrival in October 1830. Some 10/18/2019. Today, an operable replica of the locomotive is in the hands of the Charleston, SC Chapter, National Railway Historical Society. This is The Best Friend of Charleston, Americas first passenger steam locomotive. The resulting explosion blew the locomotives into pieces and the man to Kingdom come! THE EVENT. Home U.K. This Train facts post has been going around, claiming that in 1825, the fireman aboard the Best Friend caused an explosion by sitting on a relief valve, because the sound annoyed him. However, the centre-flue boiler proved to be a weakness, providing for a poor heating surface compared to later multi-flue boilers. By the mid-1820s the concept of railroads was gaining serious headway in On the returndarted forth like a live rocket, scattering sparks and flames on either sideand landed us all safe at the Lines before any of us had time to determine whether or not it was prudent to be scared.". Salvageable parts from the Best Friend were used in constructing a new locomotive, named the Phoenix. Explosions struck the capital, Kyiv, and an apparent rocket strike destroyed an administration building in Kharkiv, the second largest city, killing civilians. At this time, Europeans were just beginning to experiment with the concept of a Rail Road; a new means of transportation that employed a locomotive propelled along rails by steam power. Wes Barris's SteamLocomotive.com is simply the best web resource on the study of steam locomotives. In 1819, economic recession hit the United States hard, the first market turmoil for the relatively new nation. My first question was, Whats the Best Friend? [citation needed], On 16 September 1824, the S&DR ordered a pair of steam locomotives, at a price of 550 (about 46,810 today) each. The curiosity of the [1970 NRHS] convention was the Southern's Best Friend replica, which ran for two days at Charleston, shuttling fans out to the edge of the city, where the other engines 630, 722, 4501, green-painted Hampton & Branchville 4-6-0 No. A letter to the now York Herald dated bachelors Creek near Newborn n. 0., 27th uu., gives an account of an explosion of four torpedoes by which Over forty new York soldiers and contraband wore killed and Between Twenty and thirty terribly wounded Tho writer says the train which left Newborn at three of clock in the afternoon brought to the out . Moore's son, named Samuel, had been born in December 1845 and was therefore less than a year older than George. The Best Friend is usually scheduled along with the Norfolk Southerns Exhibit Car, every weekend from late march until Late October, for an array of community actives in NSs 21-state system. Locomotion No. Rivanna Chapter, National Railway Historical Society (2005). In September 1825, Locomotion No. It was on exhibition in Philadelphia in 1876, Newcastle in 1881, Chicago in 1883, Liverpool in 1886, Newcastle in 1887, Paris in 1889, Edinburgh in 1890. The maximum speed of Locomotion No. [10] On 26 September, the day before the opening of the Stockton and Darlington Railway, the locomotive was taken on a trial run between Shildon and Darlington, with a number of the railway's directors aboard the railway's first passenger coach, known as Experiment. The work of clearing the route and laying track commenced in earnest in the spring of 1831, proceeding from suburban Charleston to the . Due to his recommendation the railroad placed an order for a new steam locomotive from the West Point Foundry based in Cold Spring, New York. When it is loaded, the train rests on tracks installed inside the cars. [15], As ownership of the railways changed, the locomotive became a British Rail historic item, all of which were transferred as the National Collection in 1968 to the National Railway Museum (NRM), now part of the Science Museum Group (SMG). The Best Friend of Charleston took its first trip along six miles of track on Christmas Day, 1830. Thats where railroads come in. Then, tragedy struck. As this is the first boiler explosion upon a locomotive on record in America, we will give the account of the accident and its consequences, from an article in the Charleston , June ; 18, 1831: SATURDAY Morning, June 18, 1831. The railroad's chief engineer, Horatio Allen, had been to England to test steam locomotives, as well as operate the. Between 1857 and the 1880s, it was usually on the pedestal display at Alfred Kitching's workshop near the Hopetown Carriage Works. The Best Friend of Charleston was a steampowered railroad locomotive. The locomotive had its formal debut on Christmas Day 1830, pulling passenger cars from Charleston to Dorchester. About six months after the first run, a sensitive fireman, annoyed by the hissing of the steam escaping from the boiler safety valve, decided to hold it down. As important as this first locomotive is to history, it might surprise you that it didnt last very long. 1 was preserved and put on display. Locomotion No. . Columbia, SC 29201, CLICK HERE to report State Agency Fraud (Office of the Inspector General). Omissions? Though its speed might not impress us today, by 19th century standards it was nothing short of incredible. In 1825 the engine, later called Locomotion, took 450 people 25 miles from Darlington to Stockton at 15 miles per hour. John has repeated the tale of the tragic demise of the original Best Friend thousands of times: The train was short-lived. At some point, worried that the cotton bales were still not enough protection for paying customers, they added a flat car with a group of black musicians. The Best Friend of Charleston took its first trip along six miles of track on Christmas Day, 1830. Posted by SCSM on May 18, 2020 in Deep Dive, History | Comments Off on The Best Friend of Charleston: Short-Lived, Long Legacy, By Meredith Nichter, Curator of Science and Technology. This fire heats the water held in a boiler to the point that it creates steam, which pushes pistons that move rods connected to the wheels, moving the train forward. The most well-known case of "tying down a safety valve" is the 1830-era "Best Friend of Charleston" (S.C), which blew up on it's first trip due to that occuring. American-Rails.com collection. The locomotive's engineer Nicholas Darrell was uninjured in the explosion. : Alas, in 2013 the site closed. The information includes original numbers, serials, and order numbers. Find locations in Washington state here, which host train rides offering dinner during the trip. If you are researching active or abandoned corridors you might want to check out the United States Geological Survey's (USGS) Historical Topographic Map Explorer. 641 6. In 1827 Charleston merchants persuaded the state legislature to charter the South Carolina Canal and Rail Road Company to investigate the feasibility of a rail road system connecting Charleston with inland markets and a canal between the Ashley and Savannah Rivers to divert from the Savannah River to Charleston. Created by Michael Sheehan Media www.michaelsheehanmedia.net Copyright 2020- Hosted by, A History of Transportation in the Eastern Cotton Belt to 1860, South Carolina Canal and Railroad Company, The North Carolina Railroad: Planning the Route. Though the first American-built steam locomotive to operate was the "Tom Thumb" in Maryland, it was only meant as a demo + never went into service.Just few months after its debut, the Best Friend of Charleston went into service as the first commercially operated steamer made in America (and the first to carry the . 1 is believed to have been the first locomotive to use coupling rods to connect its driving wheels together, an approach which considerably decreased the chance of slipping. During the test runs, frequent derailments occurred 28 in fact before John realized the tread on the wheels needed to be one half inch wider to negotiate the track. [5] In November of that year, only months after the company started operations, a key order was placed by the Stockton & Darlington Railway Company for four stationary engines. 1930. The Best Friend of Charleston was a steam-powered railroad locomotive widely considered the first locomotive to be built entirely within the United States for revenue service. Under Johns tutelage, the multiple tie and bolt machine and automatic spike driver were build and used extensively for jointed rail installation. This might have been the worst musicians gig in the world: trying to play your instrument while riding backwards on a lurching, open rail car, showered by soot and sparks from the smokestack, waiting for the boiler behind you to explode. On June 17, 1831, the Best Friend was the first locomotive in the US to suffer a boiler explosion. Remember how steam engines make that loud whistling noise? By the summer of 1830 the SCC&RR (also known as the Charleston & Hamburg Railroad) had 6 miles of track in service west of its terminal station and yard in Charleston. [1] The resulting blast was said to have hurled metal fragments over a wide area and killed the fireman. It was used on the railway until 1850, after which it was converted into a stationary engine. It seems like they had a lot figured out back in the day about transportation. The building held, in addition to arms, an American stockpile of roughly 4,000 lbs of fixed ammunition. It was also the first train to suffer a railroad explosion. Locomotion No.1 was steamed for the Stockton and Darlington Railway's Golden Jubilee in September 1875, as well as to participate in a procession of locomotives at the George Stephenson Centenary, in June 1881. 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