The Carbon County news., 1929-08-01
Photo by Underwood AlNeeruooa

trial. Accordingly they offered prize of $4,000
for the best engine which should be delivered to
them for trial, by June l, 1881 and a prize of
S5,500 for the second best engine. The winner
OF the competition was matchmaker named
Phineas Davis of York, Pa. He called his loco
motive the York. But the B. & O. men, because
OF its appearance called ii the srasshopper An
other engine which Davis built for the Baltimore
y ONO, similar to the York, was called the Trav-
eller and it has the distinction Of being the first
used for freight service
Among the other historical ''frsts" should be
listed the Charleston & Hamburg railroad.
chartered by South Carolina in 1929, which from
Its beginning was planned for Tie use of steam
power. So to it rather than to the Baltimore &
ONO, goes the honor of being the first railroad
IN America constructed for steam In 1880 this
railroad contracted with the West Point foundry
OF New York city for a steam locomotive capable
OF making the astonishing speed of 10 niles an
hour. This engine was called al first The Best
Friend of Charleston, but it was usually referred
70 more briefly as The Best Friend. 1t had its
nrst trial in November, $780, AND promptly ran
Off the track. After some changes had been made
II proved able to make 80 miles an hour without
load and = miles hour when pulling four
loaded passenger cars. 1t was put into service in
january 1881, and in June of that year it figured
IN the first locomotive accident in America IFS
fireman was negro who did net like the sound
OF steam escaping from the safety valve So he
sat on the valve, whereupon the boiler promnrly
blew up breaking the negros thigh and teaching
MN some things that he had never before sus
pected about the power of steam. TO avoid re-
cufrence of such accidents the Charleston 4 Ham,
burg railroad, when it put its second locomotive
the West Point, into service placed between tha
locomotive and the passenger coaches a car piled
cotton tbnr
gro brass band. The theory was that the nusic
would tend TO divert the passengers minds from
me possibility of an explosion and if an explosion
uld occur the cotton bales-and the negroes
would get the benefit of the blast.
The next famous iron horse" to make its an.
pearance is described in the Pageant, narra,iva
as follows:
, Under charter granted by the New York egis
lature in 1926, the Mohawk & Hudson Rai1road
company bult in l831 its original line from Alhanv
70 schenectady distance of about II miles the
primary link in the present New York Centra1
system. The road was at first operated ,,it,,
hoIse-drawn cars, but the success of the southern
Iailroad with locomotives led to the ordering from
the west Point foundry in April 1891 of a loco
motive to which given the name of the Da
VIII clinton. The first public trial of the engine
@ pudllhg train of cars, was on August g. 1891 The
engine employed wood fuel and the passengers
were showered with sparks from the stack so that
soihe mad their clothing burned in spots while
others put up umbrellas to ward off the fiery rain
.nree leet long, and when they started and stopped
tne Venturers were jerked off their seats as tbe
chaihs SLACK was taken up the crashed TO-
selher The passengers themselves cut fence rails
ana wedged them between the to reduce the |
hazards of the journey.
Ihe Baltimore & Ohio the Charleston & Ham,
ourg and the Mohawk & Hudson were the lead
ers in experimental railroad construction The
practcability of the form of TRANSPORTATION
needed no further proof to encourage a number |
OF other railroad projects and soon the small
est est INK was ready for traffic il was open to the
public Thus by 1895 people and goods were NOV
ing by rail over the completed portions OF the New
J orK d Harlem railroad in New York. the Cam
uen q Amhoy railroad in New Jersey the Phil
auephla Germantown & Norristown railway
the Columbia railroad, the Philadelphia Whining
ton Baltimore railroad and the Reading rail
road in Pennsylvania In New England by that
-lme three railroads radiated from Boston, one
1orth to Lowell, to Worcester, and one
south to Providence. In the same year the original
'alroad, the Baltimore & Ohio with about 70
niles of track carried about 100000 passengers By
$3.50 the steam railroad an accepted fact in
he Ur tad States.