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Steam power became more and more of interest. Steam power was used upon the rivers of our country to transport goods, and people. There were those who recognized the power of controlled steam, though, saw that it was not only for use on the rivers, but also on land. It was in the year of early 1825, that the Pennsylvania Society for the Promotion of Internal Improvements in the Commonwealth sent an engineer, Mr. William Strickland, to Europe to collect information about the construction of a inland navigation system primarly using Steam type machinery which rain on tracks as we call today the railroad. "Locomotive machinery will command your attention," his instructions ran. "This is entirely unknown in the United States and we authorize you to procure a model of the most approved locomotive machine at the expense of the Society." The Stourbridge Lion, an English locomotive, was shipped in 1828. In the same year began the construction on the Balitimore and Ohio Railway.
Finally in 1830 the B&O railroad opened 14 miles of track for traffic. Other railways were being built at this time as well, notably the Delaware and Hudson track, where the Stourbridge Lion was tested in 1829.[ See Lincoln funeral train]. Due to the newness of train and track construction the rails gave way to the seven ton weight of the machine and the engine's first trip was its last trip. It was a time of excitement Mr. Horatio Allen, its backer, ran it at ten miles an hour along to tracks to "deafening cheers" of the watching crowd. The first practical locomotive built in America by Horatio Allen, was patterened after the ill-fated Lion and was shipped to Charleston in October of 1830 to be placed in service with six miles of road ready on the Charleston and Hamburg line.
Problems continued to hinder the new method of 'steam engines on track. During its test run, the train engine called " Best Friend, fell off its track. . Undaunted, the private company that owned the rail ordered a duplicate train, the West Point, which began regular service in 1831. The road was subsequently renamed the South Carolina Railroad. This road was also the site of the famous but very unsatisfactory experiment with "railway sailing" in the same year.
There were many experiments conducted using wind, called railway sailing, where the wind pushed the cart on the tracks like a ship at sea. During the 1830's most railroads were financed privately, a few northern states did invest. The Columbia and Philadelphia railroad, begun in 1829, was the first undertaken by a state government. By 1834, the entire track was opened, although power was furnished for a number of years by horses and mules, as it was on many lines, rather than the still experimental steam engine.
Then came the "old Ironsides" in 1832, built by Matthias Balwin. THe old Ironsides became the morst famous of all early locomotives. Mr. Baldwin began his experiments with steam engines in his jewelry shop in the 1820's. The first model locomotive that was built went on display in 1831 in the Philadelphia Museum. The directors of the Philadelphia, Germantown and Norristown Railroad hired Baldwin to build a full-size locomotive in order to supplant horse power on their line. "Old Ironsides" was built on the basic English model of the day and showed an astonishing thirty miles an hour with a train attached. The 'old ironsides' were used for some 20 years on the railroad. The Baldwin family continued to build locomotives for decades, following the rise of the Railroad Era. Baldwin HH [Picture Public Domain]
Resources and Credits:
Slason Thompson. A Short History of American Railways. Chicago: Tucker-Kenworthy Co., 1925.
James Ward. Railways and the Character of America. Knoxville: University of Tenessee Press, 1986. |
