Man on an Iron Road

When Horatio Allen joined the South Carolina Canal and Rail Road Company as chief engineer in 1829, he brought a sure professional competence to the most ambitious railroad project men had yet undertaken.

Map of the South Carolina Canal and Rail Road Company line from Charleston to Hamburg-earliest predecessor of Southern Railway and at the time of its completion in 1833 the longest railroad in the world.

Charleston's dream envisioned nothing less than a real common carrier railroad-one that would obtain for the city and eventually for the entire region the advantages of mass movement of people and goods over long distances.

Allen was uniquely equipped to help turn the dream into a working reality. Close study and on-the-scene observation of smaller, and for the most part specialized, English railroads filled his naturally inventive, mind with knowledge and speculation about railroad construction.

His further experiences in fitting up and operating the first English locomotives imported to this country not only gave him firsthand knowledge of railroad motive power but set his fertile imagination at work on ways of improving the locomotive.

When the young engineer went south in the early fall of 1829 to undertake the new responsibilities that were to put his skill and ingenuity to severe test, the situation in Charleston was this:

The city's trade was declining from year to year, largely as a result of the high cost and snail's pace of transportation to and from the interior: Passage over the existing river and canal route to the up-country was uncertain and hazardous. State-built turnpikes (with poorly maintained causeways, bridges and ferries across the swamps and streams) had hardly more to offer.

Years of increasing interest in some more rapid and economical means of transportation to the interior led in the winter of 1827-1828 to a major step forward. Railroad enthusiasts from Charleston obtained the passage ~d amendment in the State General Assembly of a law chartering a company to build a railroad or canal or both from Charleston to Hamburg, a town on the Savannah River opposite Augusta, Ga.

(This was no paper charter but the expressed will of an ambitious people .determined to revive their city's trade and make secure its position as a commercial port on the Atlantic. The Charleston-Hamburg line alone would extend for more than 130 miles and would be, at the time of its completion, the longest railway in the world.

Pages from the field notebook of C. 0. Pascalis, one of the seven assistant engineers who worked with Allen in surveying and supervising the construction of the road. This book was kept in 1831 and the drawing shows a little over one mile of an unidentified section of the railroad route (the straight line down the center of the drawing). Other entries in the book indicate that assistants were expected to keep careful record of excavation and other work on their parts of the line.

But imaginations ranged further. Some foresaw a branch to Columbia, the state capital, and eventually a railroad system that would link the coastal South with the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers.)

A committee of Charleston citizens examined the traffic and revenue prospects of a rail line between the two cities and selected what appeared to be a practical route.

Stock subscriptions reached $350,000 (half the required capital of $700,000 in hundred dollar shares) within the four-day period after the stock books were opened on March 18, 1828. With the first conditions of the charter thus met, the South Carolina Canal and Rail Road Company had been formally organized on May 12, and a president (William Aiken) and board of directors elected.

(This did not mean that the new company had anything like $350,000 in cash with which to work. The amount may have been as small as $35,000, since a down payment of $10 was sufficient to secure a share. The company later tried unsuccessfully to obtain some federal aid and was only moderately successful when it approached the state government. The need for these efforts indicates that the amount of cash in hand was far short of what was needed for an enterprise of such magnitude. )

By the time of Allen's arrival in Charleston, apparently in early September, 1829, two preliminary surveys of the route had been undertaken. One was the work of a civil engineer, Col. J. B. Petitval, engaged by the company. At the request of the company's president, a detachment of the u. S. Corps of Engineers under Col. William Howard made the other. Both suggested approximately the same route-about 149 miles in length-and anticipated some construction difficulties on the portion near Hamburg. Colonel Howard added recommendations on the type of construction.

But the final location of the route was far from certain. The type of construction and the motive power to be used remained very much open questions.

Consideration was still being given to the use of horse power on the new line, although one of the directors-E. L. Miller, an influential Charleston merchant- ardently championed the locomotive. (Apparently it was Miller who originally recommended Allen as chief engineer. He may have been influenced by Allen's familiarity with locomotives. ) Allen's own observation of the comparative merits and cost of locomotives and horse power, during his study of English railroads, made his recommendation to the board in September, 1829, a foregone conclusion.

"This report was submitted at a full meeting of the Board," Allen recalled later in The Railroad Era, "every member in his seat and the President in his chair. Without leaving their seats the decision was unanimous.

"But the basis of that official act was not the sample estimate resting on the facts as they existed on the Stockton and Darlington Railroad, but, as was stated in the report, was on the broad ground that in the future there was no reason to expect any material improvement in the breed of horses, while in my judgment the man was not living who knew what the breed of locomotives was to place at command.

"The resolution then passed, and placed on record, was the first act by a corporate body in the world to adopt the locomotive as the tractive power on a rail- road for general passenger and freight transportation."

Miller and Allen lost no time in trying to put this decision of the board into practical effect by having a locomotive built. A letter dated October 1, 1829, from Horatio Allen to his friend John B. Jervis, chief engineer of the Delaware and Hudson, indicates that both the young engineer and the Charleston merchant were in New York by the end of September conferring with the officials of the West Point Foundry.

"I have shown my plan of locomotive to Kemble and Hall. They are much pleased with it and think it a much better arrangement than Miller's. Miller has also seen it, was rather surprised, and was to have had some conversation with Kemble of the tons yesterday. I have not yet seen him. I think there can be no question that a six horse engine (with 11eet fire surface to each horsepower) may be made so as not weigh more than 2 1/2 to 4 1/2 tons, water included."

Part of the original drawing of the "West Point," the first locomotive designed by Horatio Allen for the South Carolina Canal and Rail Road Company. It is taken from a photograph in the collection of the Railway Locomotive and Historical Society, Boston, Mass.

Sometime early in October, Allen took another brief trip south and on his way back from Charleston to New York visited the planners of several railroads and canals then in progress. He talked at length with the directors and engineers of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, "was admitted to confidential communications on both sides" and was "made a confidant of difficulties that I had not thought existed."

Soon afterward, apparently, the young chief engineer took up residence in Charleston. Though actual construction of the Charleston-Hamburg line had not begun, he became increasingly engrossed in preparations for it. His letters to Jervis during the next few months show the personal concern he was coming to feel for the success of the venture.

"I returned from Columbia a few days since," he wrote from Charleston on Christmas Day, 1829. "Our application was partly successful. We applied for 250,000 dollars, and obtained 100,000.

"Application is now making at Congress for aid, the result of which we are anxiously awaiting. The chance is considered a good one.

"I have constructed at Columbia about 400 feet of road, upon which one horse moved repeatedly in either direction (it was level) 12 to 13 tons at 4 to 51/2 miles per hour. We effected a very great change in the opinion of the House of Representatives, but the Senate was obstinate. The House voted us the money but the Senate rejected it.

"If we fail at Washington, a strong effort will be made to obtain individual subscriptions which there is some probability may be successful.

"I am myself a complete convert to the project, and sincerely believe that it will rejuvenate this decaying city, be of maximum advantage to the upper country and what is more important to further success be lucrative to the undertakers. It will indeed be not at all creditable to this proud state, that a work promising so much should not be able to raise 200,000 dollars.

I do not yet despair of its going on, a few weeks will determine it.

"I am at present engaged in the examination of the country near Charleston and obtaining the notes on which to decide the avenue of approach and entrance to town. As is not infrequently the case the best direction is one which would create great opposition. I fear that at all events the most of the present season will be lost even if we obtain the money from C."

Although it had the support of Daniel Webster, the appeal to the federal Congress for aid failed as Allen feared it would. The recourse to private capital was, however, successful and enough additional shares were taken to enable the work to go on. It should be noted here that the $100,000 from the state was not a grant but a loan, at 5 per cent interest, payable in ten years. The loan was extended and later became part of the road's bonded debt. .

Final determination of the route, the type of construction and motive power, and the employment of suitable assistant engineers and workmen became the young builder's chief concerns in 1830.

Allen's report to the directors on January 10, 1830, definitely recommended supporting the railroad line on strong timber piles driven deep in the earth. He mentioned recent experiments in driving piles near Line Street and suggested three methods of securing the wooden rails to each pair of piles.

"First-After securing the caps or cross timber' ... to the pile by mortise and tenon, to let the rail into the cap and secure it in its place by the introduction of a wedge or key. Secondly-By connecting the cap and pile in the same manner as above described, but instead of using the wedge, to bolt the rail timber to the cap. Third-By connecting the rail timber and its supporting pile at once, by mortise and tenon, and tying and bracing the opposite piles by inch and a half or two inch plank."

Allen suggested that in the first actual construction sections be built according to each of the three plans so that practical experience might determine the best and most economical of the three. He also recommended that the iron plate be laid on the inner sides of the wooden rails ( so that flanges on the car and locomo tive wheels would be on the inside of the wheel rim) , and that the distance between the inner edges of the iron cap rails be 5 feet.

Artist's conception of the scene that eventful day in Charleston when the "Best Friend" inaugurated scheduled railroad service in America. Allen may well have been present.

Almost at the time Allen was composing his report, the directors decided to go ahead with the construction of the first quarter mile. (His estimate was that it would cost $700. ) Evidently, the directors agreed to his trial plan for his letter to Jervis on February 5, 1830, relates that "we are now engaged in laying down a quarter of a mile upon three plans of construction which are as follows. We drive piles from 6 to 21 feet long according to the height at distances of 5 feet from center to center. These pile are driven with a ram of 560 lbs. with a fall of 30 feet. With a gang of 6 blacks at the machine with a foreman and carpenter to joint we drive when the road is not more than 3 to 4 feet above the surface from 30 to 40 piles per day.

"On these piles we place a cap fastening it by mortise and tenon. In one plan of construction we cut again into the cap of 1 inch, place the rail in it (which rail is 8 x 9) and bolt it down with a ~ square bolt. In the second we secure the rail by a wedge exactly as you have done, except that our proportions vary a little; in the third we tenon the pile and rail together at once without cap. Our object is to determine the expense of each method."

The same letter contains an interesting sidelight on the doubts and uncertainties that plague even the most talented and dedicated men:

"The prospects of the Hamburgh Rail Road have brightened very much of late. I, however, am seriously thinking of abandoning the profession and have already made some arrangements to that effect. I of course keep my views to myself.

" At present as regards myself my greatest fear is that the work will go on. I am apprehensive that I cannot satisfactorily quit the company although my engagement is but for one year. If I decide upon making the attempt with the law, I shall leave them whether or no, but should prefer doing the thing handsomely. It has occurred to me that you would perhaps accept the situation. If there is any probability of your views coinciding with my wishes let me hear from you. I do not at all relish the idea of leaving them in the lurch after struggling with existence during two or three years. Should you decline IJ am really at a loss whom to recommend and should be in an unpleasant situation.

Whatever the doubts, or difficulties that turned Horatio Allen's mind again to the law career he had considered and rejected seven years earlier, they seem to have been brushed away completely by the rapid movement of events in 1830 and 1831. At any rate, mention of them did not appear again in any of his writings that have come to light.

Early in 1830, E. L. Miller proposed to the board of directors that they authorize him to have built on his own responsibility a locomotive equal to the best English engines. Apparently he had a 30-inch model locomotive made to help convince his fellow directors, for the Charleston Courier in February, 1830, reported the display of such an operating model on a circular track at the company's office.

On March 1, the board accepted his offer and specified that this locomotive, to be acceptable, would have to perform at the rate of 10 miles an hour and carry three times its own weight.

From all accounts, the locomotive was built at the West Point Foundry in New York during the summer of 1830. Although there is no specific evidence of it, strong probability exists that Allen looked in at the locomotive works from time to time during the construction of the engine. His contract with the company provided that he was to be absent from Charleston during the hot summer months and one of his letters indicates that he spent part of the summer at least in New York City.

At a meeting of the company's stockholders on August 19, 1830, enough stock was subscribed to raise the capital to $581,340 and the board of directors received authorization to go ahead with the actual building of the line to Hamburg. .

A drawing of the "South Carolina," the eight-wheeled engine Allen designed and had built for the railroad company in 1831, shows the locomotive pulling a freight train. It is from "The History of the First Locomotives in America" published in 1871.

An order was placed for an additional 1,040 tons of railroad iron from Liverpool (500 tons had already been imported). Apparently word was sent immediately to Horatio Allen in New York to make preparations for survey and construction of the line. A letter from Allen to Jervis, datelined New York, September 2, 1830, said:

"I have just received resolutions from the Charleston Co. directing all the necessary preparation to be made for vigorous prosecution of the work next winter. To do this I am anxious to obtain if possible seven more Assistant Engineers. I have written to Clarke offering him $2.00 per day and expenses. If you can assist me in collecting any more recruits it would much oblige me. I fear that I shall be hard pressed to muster sufficient force of Engineers."

A later report by Andrew Black, commissioner of the railroad, verifies that he overcame this difficulty as he had so many others. "On the 15th of November, Mr. Allen as Chief Engineer, with an efficient corps of assistants, commenced an examination of the route, with a view to a final location"

What may have delayed Allen in pursuing the field survey was the arrival on October 23 (via the ship "Niagara" from New York) of the road's first locomotive, the "Best Friend of Charleston" - first locomotive built in America for regular service on a railroad.

Allen apparently assisted at the first trial of Miller's locomotive on November 2, 1830, over the length of experimental track completed near Line Street. In a letter to the Charleston Courier published the next day, he reported that the operation of the engine was "in the highest degree satisfactory," except that the wheel-spokes proved too weak to stand lateral stresses and gave way so that the front wheels of the engine left the rails. No damage was done, but it was apparent that the wheels would have to be replaced.

This was done, and the engine finally tested and accepted on December 9.

Allen and his assistants pressed the survey with speed and vigor. During November and December he had at least five and possibly seven survey parties examining the country outside Charleston for the first 65 miles and probably more of the proposed route.

"Three routes branching from a common point near the forks of the Dorchester and State Roads, have been examined for the first sixty-five miles," the young chief engineer reported from the field on December 17, 1830.

In addition to examining the two earlier surveys, Allen had run a new line that "takes a direction to the eastward of the other two and crosses the Edisto ... about thirty miles higher up the river."

His principal concerns, he said, had been to keep in view that Columbia, as well as Hamburg, was to be one of the terminating points of the line; to select a route that offered the fewest variations from a regular line of ascent and most quickly reached the section of the country that would furnish the necessary construction materials; and to "aim at passing through lands to the owners of which we shall occasion the least inconvenience, and who are willing to cede the right of passage, and in most instances the necessary materials. ..

"In each of these particulars the eastern line will be found to possess a superiority over the others . . . we obtain for more than sixty-five miles a line common to both terminations, and leave the branch to Columbia only fifty-five miles in length . . . easier rates of ascent and descent. ..On comparison of the crossings of the Edisto River the superiority of the eastern line is most decided . .. We arrive on the eastern line much sooner at a section of the country furnishing timber. . . After leaving the rice fields near Windsor Hill, it runs almost entirely on uncultivated pine land, interferes with few private roads, and passes through such a character of country that it appears impossible that anyone can hesitate about granting a wide and free passage."

Allen explained that he intended to deposit at the railroad office as soon as possible a large scale map that would exhibit in detail "the character of the work on each mile, the depth and quantity of excavation and embankment, plan and height of work. A method will be adopted of representing on such map at the end of each month the quantity and description of work performed on each mile.."

Back in Charleston ten days later, Allen reported to the board on December 27, 1830, that four surveying parties were ready to move on beyond the Edisto to layout the route to Hamburg.

"I herewith lay before you blank forms of contract, with specifications of the plans of construction which I would recommend to be adopted on your Rail Road." (He added that he still found piles to support the track indispensable for preserving its direction, level and solidity over variations in the land surface, and still considered this the most economical construction)

Since the road had so few curves, he said, it would be practical when the contractors began building the line for one resident engineer to take charge of more territory and work with "a single rodman and the number of hands necessary for the removal and care of his camp arrangements . . . I hope considerably to diminish the expense of superintendence."

The board of directors appears to have lost no time in putting Allen's recommendations in effect and his blank contracts to use. On December 28, the first con- tract on the Eastern division, for four miles of road, was concluded with Gifford, Holcomb & Co. The rest of the Eastern division (Charleston to, the Edisto River) was let out on contracts as fast as was practical.

Surveying parties under the direction of Allen's assistants pushed on rapidly as weather and terrain permitted. By March 17, 1831, the first construction contract was awarded on the Western division, and the entire road was under contract by the first of June. (The route as finally located by Allen and his assist- ants proved to be 136 miles long, more than 13 miles shorter than those originally surveyed.)

Meanwhile, the young chief engineer turned his attention to another subject close to his thoughts - locomotives. He may have been present on Christmas Day, 1830 when the "Best Friend" with its train of cars inaugurated scheduled railroad service in America. In any case, he had seen a trial of the loco- motive earlier and knew what it could do. Even before that, evidently, he had forwarded to the West Point Foundry in New York plans and drawings of another locomotive, similar to Miller's "Best Friend" but with a horizontal rather than a vertical boiler .

This engine, the "West Point," arrived in Charleston on February 28, 1831, and within a few days had undergone a successful road test. Some later difficulty must have been encountered for the annual report of the directors in May, 1831, relates that the engine "has not performed quite as well (as the "Best Friend"), and until fully approved, will not be paid for."

In a communication to the president and directors on May 16, 1831, Allen suggested some improvements in locomotive boilers and flues and an increased capacity of steam chamber. He considered it desirable to concentrate as much power as practical in one engine. To take care of the added weight and keep the weight on each pair of wheels down to the 1 1/2 tons he felt the iron-capped wooden rails would bear safely, he suggested that they "place the engine on six or eight wheels."

To enable such a locomotive to pass easily around curves and over surface irregularities of the track, he proposed supporting the weight of the engine at the center of motion of each of the four pairs of wheels and connecting only the center of the axle to the locomotive frame. With this arrangement, each axle could move independently in passing around a curve.

During his summer in New York in 1831, Allen asked for (and must have received) authorization from the board of directors to have an engine built along these lines. He wrote to Jervis from New York on August 7:

"I have received letters from the South containing gratifying accounts of our progress and stating that the engine I had made last summer was performing well and doing much more than Miller's ever has done. .. I have concluded to write the Board requesting them to authorize me to order an Eight-Wheeler and to get up some new wagons and passenger carriages."

The road's first eight wheeled engine the "South Carolina," built at West Point Foundry-was delivered in Charleston in January, 1832. Mechanical trouble plagued the new engine when it first went into service - broken pipes, and the failure of axles and wheels. But by May, 1832, the directors reported to stock- holders that "the advantages which it possesses over those first procured are obvious. Its power is very great. The board being fully satisfied of the preference due to it, have ordered four other similar engines, which will be procured by Mr. Allen."

Four locomotives Allen was thus authorized to order , from the West Point Foundry arrived one by one during the year 1833: the "Charleston" in April, the "Barnwell" in June, the "Edisto" in September and the "Hamburg" in October. Three of them apparently followed fairly closely the style of the "South Carolina" but the last one was built according to the English plan-with four wheels.

Despite early mechanical difficulties with the eight- wheeled engines, which were heavier and more complex than the earlier locomotives, investigation by a stockholder committee in 1833 led to the recommendation that they be made standard for the road.

Allen's first locomotive the "West Point" provided motive power for a passenger excursion train on March 5. 1831-within a week after it was delivered. The drawing is !rom "The History of the First Locomotives in America."

The eventual success of the eight-wheelers, which were not at first popular, may be credited in a large sense to Allen's pursuit of the reasons for breakdowns and development of remedies.

(Allen's introduction of the eight-wheeled engine with swiveling axles later proved a deciding factor in defeating patent infringement suits against various railroads by the subsequent inventor of an eight- wheeled railroad car with movable trucks. It may have saved railroads many millions of dollars. )

The young chief engineer's interest and concern extended to every phase of the railroad's construction and operation. New and untried machinery, not quite like anything built before, challenged his ingenuity. Through his assistant engineers, and his own frequent personal inspection trips, he supervised the construction work of the numerous contractors. Difficulties arose frequently.

Contractors and their working forces (which at one time numbered 1,300 men) had no experience in building a railroad. It was difficult to get men to risk working in the swamps, and when they did they asked for more pay and allowances. In the deep ravines crossed by the Western division the pile system had to be abandoned for trestle work, which was more substantial but more costly in money and time. Sometimes the excavations hit quick sands, sometimes the thick dense clay the workmen called "hard pan."

Despite all difficulties, the construction of the road was pressed with remarkable safety. No accident occurred that claimed the life or limb of any workman and there was not a single death among the laborers.

During this time Allen also recommended the number and location of passing tracks: "natural division of the road by passing places should be into half, quarters, eighths, etc. ...place the turnouts at or near a curve. . . on low work and sleeper construction if possible. ..For the delivery and receipt of goods and passengers, it would be judicious so to locate them as would afford the greatest facility to the business of the adjacent country."

His design and model for turnouts "which would give an unbroken line on the main track. .. and at the same time be of simple character, easy adjustment and not requiring heavy castings or expensive workmanship" received the hearty approval of the board of directors.

Nor was his interest confined to engineering and mechanical subjects. In the summer of 1831 he was one of the company's enthusiastic delegates to a railroad convention in Virginia dedicated to obtaining a rail connection between the coastal South and the Ohio River valley. In a letter that fall he wrote: "The application is to be made to the legislature for a charter to extend our line to Tennessee about 200 miles!"

By the time the South Carolina Canal and Rail Road Company's line to Hamburg stood complete on October 3, 1833, Horatio Allen had already fully earned the commendation that was to come when he left the company's service. It said in part:

"Ardent and indefatigable, a new embarrassment always inspired him with new and increasing energy, and our present success is justly to be attributed in great measure to his talent and capacity ...

"By his uniform and strict attention to his duties and their interests, his impartial justice and his assiduous diligence, he has acquired and richly deserves the full confidence and the grateful esteem of this company. .."

And he was still to serve for a year and more in the important role of superintendent of transportation as well as chief engineer.

But the basis of ithat official act (The South Carolina Canal and Rail Road Company's board of directors' decision to adopt steam power) was not the simple estimate resting on the facts as they existed on the Stockton and Darlington Railroad, but, as was stated in the report, was on the broad ground that in the future there was no reason to expect any material improve- ment in the breed of horses, while in my judgment the man was not living who knew what the breed of locomotive was to place at command. Contrast the eight-wheellocomotive of this day with the four-wheel locomotive of the Stockton and Darlington Road, and find some evidence that the position then taken was well taken, and then bear in mind that the end is not yet. Horatio Allen, in The Railroad Era, 1884