At West Point Foundry on Water Street, the "Stourbridge Lion" was propped up on blocks to lift its wheels from the ground and run in place to demonstrate its operation. |
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When Horatio Allen arrived in New York in the fall of 1828, there was no civil engineer on the American continent with more practical knowledge of the construction and operation of railroads and the potentialities of the steam locomotive.
Some 600 miles to the south of the dock where he landed, events were shaping that would put Allen's knowledge - and his mettle - to the test.
A charter had been granted to the South Carolina Canal & Rail Road Company, stock had been subscribed in the amount of hundreds of thousands of dollars, and a preliminary survey was under way of a route from Charleston to Hamburg, S. C. Soon the company would be seeking a capable engineer to build the road..
The exact date of Allen's return from Europe is not known, but the available evidence makes it likely that he was back in this country at least by November, 1828. A letter to John B. Jervis, chief engineer of the Delaware and Hudson, from Hyde Park, N.Y., dated December 17, 1828, also suggests that for a time after his return he was occupied with personal and family concerns.
"I regret much that detentions on the road from the business of traveling and the business of my father should have prevented my having seen you before this time. ..I shall not be able to visit the Carbondale Rail Road until some time after the 25th of this month. ...
"You will be in New York before deciding about your wagons and I shall then be able to give you such additional information as I may be possessed of. . . I go to New York tomorrow and will probably be in that city a month or two. You will probably be there sometime this month and I shall be happy to give you any hints etc. that I have picked up abroad."
In earlier correspondence from England, the young engineer had already given the Delaware and Hudson's chief engineer full accounts, with detailed drawings, of the construction and coupling of English "wagons" and the merits of fixed and revolving wheels and axles.
On the subject of wheels and axles Allen had written: "I have examined wheels, axles on the roads and at the collieries which are considered the best and have had much discussion on the subject with the practical engineers of the first standing in this country .
"I find that on the most important roads that fixed wheels and loose axles have been and are invariably used. ...Many persons have attempted to introduce loose wheels. The additional friction arising from fast wheels was too evident to be overlooked. ..."
But he pointed out that better case - hardening of the wheel rims had reduced the friction wear in fixed wheels. He added that the use of loose wheels produced considerable wear at the hub of the wheel and cited the "complaint too from the workmen that 'they will not keep the road.' "
Allen explored the subject with characteristic thoroughness in page after closely - written page. His conclusion was that the D&H should adopt the loose axle, with one fixed wheel and one loose wheel. He added suggestions of two different ways this might be accomplished.
"I am clearly of the opinion that the plan of having the axles turn in bearings and also the wheels capable of moving independent of each other is the best arrangement for your road, but whether it will be best effected by means of loose axles and one fixed wheel and one loose wheel, or by means of loose axles, fixed wheels, but the axles divided in the middle and connected by a pipe in which the axle is free to move I am yet undecided; I am, however, rather inclined to give the preference to the latter ."
At West Point Foundry on Water Street, the "Stourbridge Lion" was propped up on blocks to lift its wheels from the ground and run in place to demonstrate its operation. |
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Allen had ample opportunity to put his railroad knowledge to work in the busy months that followed his return. Apparently he was again in the service of the Delaware and Hudson in some capacity. In the early months of 1829 he spent a number of weeks in Albany on behalf of the D&H which was then petitioning the New York State Assembly for financial aid. During the spring and early summer he took charge of fitting up the English engines and preparing them for use on the railway. His correspondence with Jervis at the time also shows that he represented the company in arranging for the manufacture of railroad cars.
The first of the English engines to arrive at New York (on January 15,1829, aboard the ship Columbia) was taken to the ironworks of Abeel and Dunscomb for assembly. This was the "Pride of Newcastle" ordered from Robert Stephenson at Newcastle - on Tyne. Interestingly enough, as Allen reported later in The Railroad Era, it was an exact counterpart of the famous "Rocket" with which George Stephenson was to win the Rainhill Trials locomotive contest at Liverpool, England, later that year.
With the arrival of the "Lion of Stourbridge" on May 13 (via the packet John Jay from Liverpool) the stage was set for the first trial of a locomotive on the railroad's tracks near Honesdale, Pa.
Foster, Rastrick & Company of Stourbridge built the locomotive but the man who gave it its name, Allen said later, was a painter who "finding on the boiler end a circular surface, slightly convex, of nearly four feet diameter, painted on it the head of a lion, filling the entire area, and in bright colors."
Allen personally supervised the unloading of the "Lion" at the wharf of the West Point Foundry and its preparation the - re for the road. On May 27 and 28, the "Pride" and the "Lion" at their separate locations were mounted on. blocks with wheels clear of the ground and run under full steam for observation by groups of prominent men and scientists, plus curious passers - by attracted by the show.
For the young engineer, spring passed into summer in an atmosphere of steam, smoke and the clang of iron. June was a month of difficulties with the engines and cars. It was also a time of personal decisions forecast by a letter sent to John B. Jervis on June 2, 1829, by E. L. Miller, Charleston merchant and director of the South Carolina Canal & R ail Road Company.
"Mr. Horatio Allen, Civil Engineer, now in the service of the Delaware and Hudson Company has been proposed to the Board of Directors of the South Carolina Rail Road Company as a, suitable person to take charge of that work as principal Engineer.
"The opinion that I entertain of Mr. Allen's qualifications for that office assures me that our Board of Directors would immediately avail themselves of his services, provided they possess such information as would enable 'them duly to appreciate his qualifications to serve us.
"Believing your opinions of Mr. Allen's qualifications might go far toward producing this effect, I have taken the liberty of submitting to you the following enquiries.
"1st What are Mr. Allen's scientific qualifications as a Civil Engineer?
"2nd Has his attention been particularly directed to the subject of rail roads?
"3rd Does Mr. Allen possess such energy of character, industry, perseverance and economy of management in his profession as amply to qualify him for the office of principal Engineer of a works of such magnitude as the Charleston and Hamburgh rail road?"
Mr. Jervis apparently kept no copy of his reply. But in light of what is known of the close professional relationship between the two, it must have been a glowing one. And it is likely that the South Carolina Company had already begun negotiations with Horatio Allen.
For a letter from Allen to Jervis written at New York on June 22 (hardly time for a double exchange of correspondence between New York and the South) reported: "Letters from the South speak favorably. I think it probable that I shall go."
In the same letter, and two others mailed within the week, Allen outlined ~me of the difficulties with engines and cars.
"I agree with you in thinking it best to put the Pride of Newcastle on the summit plane and find that we must take it to 'pieces before we send it up as not less than 13 inches are necessary on each side.
"The other engine ( the Lion) had better be placed at the head of the canal and the remaining two ( if ever they arrive) taken to their place of labor before they are put up.
"I have had the hot water pressure applied to the Pride and trust it will materially improve its ability. We put it in motion tomorrow and then shall take off the cylinders and get it in readiness to send off as soon as is thought desirable.
The "Pride of Newcastle" steaming in place at Dunscomb's works in New York, where the English engine
was assembled and tested, provided a show for guests and curious passers - by. Thus a few people in
America saw a locomotive that was almost an exact duplicate of the "Rocket" that was to win the famous
Rainhill Trials later in 1829.  |
". ..Have concluded an arrangement with Conliff ( Dunscomb's foreman) to take the superintendence of the steam machinery etc. He" is I believe fully competent to the duties of the place and bears an excellent character as to steadiness, etc. ...he is to receive $40 per month if he finds himself in house etc.; but if we will provide a good house and give him his coal for fire he would take $35 ...I have met with several men who would answer to take charge of the Stationary and Locomotive Engines. ..the wages I have promised are one dollar per day, they finding themselves. ..If there are any persons on the road that you think would be suitable to take charge of the Steam Engines I wish you would inform me as to the number that I may know how many to engage. ..
"How are you provided with tools necessary for repairs to the Steam Engines such as taps, dies, screws, stocks, etc. .It appears to me that it would be well to be thoroughly provided in this respect. .."
On June 25 Allen penned this hasty note to Jervis : "Much to my surprise I have learned that Dunscomb's works are to stand still for two extra weeks and of course our work in his hands will be incomplete. He has finished 61 wagons" I intend to ask the West Point Co. to make twenty wagons more and even more if they can get them done in time and deduct a like number from Dunscomb's contract.
"Dunscomb never mentioned a word of this to me before leaving. The pumps are incomplete and I know not what arrangements if any have been made by him to finish them. You will see him before I will and can arrange as to the pumps, as to the wheels should have the Kembles supply the deficiency as soon as possible. I am having 6 feet more of chimney (added) to the Pride of Newcastle."
Some rail historians have wondered at the lapse of time between the arrival of the "Lion" and its first appearance on the Delaware and Hudson road. This may be the explanation - the idling of Dunscomb's works and the consequent increased work - load at the West "Point Foundry where the locomotive was being readied for service.
In a letter from New York dated July 15, the young engineer gave Jervis important news that meant the taming of the "Lion" would be Allen's last ~official service for the Delaware and Hudson:
"I have this morning concluded my negotiations with the Charleston & Augusta Co. with the President and two directors on hand.
"I have agreed to go as soon as the season will permit, and my compensation is $3,600 per annum without expenses."
Meanwhile, the "Pride" and the "Lion" were on their way to Honesdale. Both had been shipped up the Hudson River on July 2 via the steamboat Congress, reaching Randout at the head of the D&H canal on July 3.
According to available information, both started up the canal on July 16 but Allen unloaded only the "Stourbridge Lion" at Honesdale on July 24. (What happened to the "Pride," sometimes called the" America," remains a mystery although one of its cylinders was discovered almost a hundred years later in the Smithsonian Institution at Washington. )
An excited crowd on the canal bank at Honesdale watched Allen calmly direct the men hoisting the locomotive from the canal boat and up the bank on an inclined plane to the level of the wrought - iron - capped wooden rails.
It took a good two weeks to reassemble and prepare the engine for the test. Finally, on Saturday, August 8, the seven - ton "Lion" stood ready - its fire kindled, steam pressure rising in the fat boiler and smoke puffing from the iron stack.
Allen climbed to his place, opened the throttle and to the delight of the crowd - the engine moved. Getting the feel of the controls, the young engineer ran the locomotive slowly back and forth along the level track paralleling the canal bank. Now for the real test. The "Stourbridge Lion" was about to chug into history.
Speaking of the first run of the "Stourbridge Lion" in an interview years later, Horatio Allen remembered: "I had never run a locomotive nor any other engine before. I have never run one since, but on August 8, 1829, I ran that locomotive three miles and back. ..without experience and without a brakeman. ...When the cheers of the onlookers died out as I left them on the memorable trip, the only sound to greet my ears until my safe return, in addition to that of the exhaust steam, was that of the creaking of the timber structure."
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Later, in a speech at the opening of the New York and Erie Railroad in 18.51, he recalled the moment in these words:
"The road had been built in the summer, the structure was of hemlock - timber, and the rails, of large dimensions, notched on two caps placed far apart. The timber had cracked and warped from exposure to the sun.
" After about five hundred feet of straight line, the Ioad crossed the Lackawaxen Creek on a trestle - work about thirty feet high, and with a curve of three hundred and fifty or four hundred feet radius.
"The impression was very general that the iron monster would either break down the road or that it would leave the track at the curve and plunge into the creek. My reply to such apprehension was, that it was too late to consider the probability of such occurrences; that there was no other course but to have the trial made of the strange animal which had been brought here at such great expense, but that it was not necessary that more than one should be involved in its fate; that I would take the first ride alone, and that the time would come when I would look back to this incident with great interest.
" As I placed my hand on the throttle - valve handle I was undecided whether I would move slowly or with a fair degree of speed; but believing the road would prove safe, and preferring, if we did go down, to go down, handsomely ...I started with considerable velocity, passed the curve over the creek safely, and was soon out of hearing of the cheers. ..At the end of two or three miles, I reversed the valves and returned without accident to the place of starting, having thus made the first railroad trip by locomotive on the Western Hemisphere."
Further trial runs proved the "Lion" too heavy for regular use on the line as then constructed. It was removed from the track and stored, later dismantled and used as a stationary engine. ( Partially reconstructed, it is now in a Smithsonian Institution museum. )
As much a mystery as the fate of the "Pride of Newcastle" is the questiop of two other, English locomotives that arrived in New York in August and September and were shipped up the Hudson to Rondout ( according to the published history of the D&H ) .At that point they disappeared from the record except for a supposition that they may have been destroyed in a fire.
Allen's recollection in The Railroad Era many years afterward was that he ordered three locomotives one from Foster, Rastrick & Company and two from Stephenson. But the D&H history and Allen's and Jervis' letters in 1829 indicate that four locomotives were delivered and that only one of them was built by Stephenson, the other three by Foster, Rastrick & Company. Even the names of the last two locomotives are obscure now. "Delaware" and "Hudson" have been attributed to them, but later research by the Railway and Locomotive Historical Society favors the names "Roundout" and "Fox"
But Horatio Allen, in the late summer of 1829, had other things beside English locomotives to consider . The future lay in South Carolina where he was on his way to build and briefly manage the longest railroad in the world.