The scene is now shifted to South CaroHna 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 sum- 

 mer 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 discov- 

 ered 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 pre- 

 vious 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). 



27 



