The ''Best Friend of Charleston'' was a steam-powered

railroad Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

locomotive A locomotive or engine is a rail transport vehicle that provides the Power (physics), motive power for a train. If a locomotive is capable of carrying a payload, it is usually rather referred to as a multiple unit, Motor coach (rail), motor ...

widely considered the first locomotive to be built entirely within the

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for revenue service. It produced the first locomotive

boiler explosion A boiler explosion is a catastrophic failure of a boiler. There are two types of boiler explosions. One type is a failure of the pressure parts of the steam and water sides. There can be many different causes, such as failure of the safety valve ...

in the United States.

History

The locomotive was built for the

South Carolina Canal and Rail Road Company The South Carolina Canal and Rail Road Company was a railroad in South Carolina that operated independently from 1830 to 1844. One of the first railroads in North America to be chartered and constructed, it provided the first steam-powered, schedul ...

by the

West Point Foundry The West Point Foundry was a major American ironworking and machine shop site in Cold Spring, New York, operating from 1818 to about 1911. Initiated after the War of 1812, it became most famous for its production of Parrott rifle artillery and oth ...

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in 1830. Disassembled for shipment by boat to Charleston, South Carolina, it arrived in October of that year and was unofficially named ''The Best Friend of Charleston''. After its inaugural run on

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Day, it was used in regular passenger service along a demonstration route in Charleston. At the time, it was considered one of the fastest modes of transport, taking its passengers "on the wings of wind at the speed of ." The only faster mode of travel was by an experienced horse and rider. On June 17, 1831, the ''Best Friend'' was the first locomotive in the US to suffer a

. The blast is said to have been caused by the

fireman A firefighter is a first responder and rescuer extensively trained in firefighting, primarily to extinguish hazardous fires that threaten life, property, and the environment as well as to rescue people and in some cases or jurisdictions also ...

tying down the steam pressure release valve; he had grown tired of hearing it whistle, so to stop the noise he closed the valve permanently. (Another account has him placing a stout piece of lumber on the safety valve and sitting on it.) He may also have tried to overpressure the boiler as the locomotive was expected to perform hard work (e.g. climbing a

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upon setting off); this was common practice and a common cause of boiler bursts until a tamper-proof safety valve was produced. The blocked valve caused the pressure within the boiler to exceed its capacity, and it exploded. The resulting blast was said to have hurled metal fragments over a wide area and killed the fireman. The locomotive's engineer Nicholas Darrell was uninjured in the explosion. According to Centennial History of South Carolina Railroad, this wrote a new rule in the SCC&RR operating manual that engineers were to remain on station at all times, with the aid of newly hired conductors to manage cars, passengers and switches. Salvageable parts from the ''Best Friend'' were used to build the ''Phoenix,'' which seems to have run up to the time of the

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. To restore passenger confidence, a

flatcar A flatcar (US) (also flat car, or flatbed) is a piece of rolling stock that consists of an open, flat deck mounted on a pair of trucks (US) or bogies (UK), one at each end containing four or six wheels. Occasionally, flat cars designed to carry ...

piled high with protective cotton bales was placed between the locomotive and its passenger cars.

Replicas

Today, an operable replica of the locomotive is in the hands of the Charleston, SC Chapter,

National Railway Historical Society The National Railway Historical Society (NRHS) is a non-profit organization established in 1935 in the United States to promote interest in, and appreciation for the historical development of railroads. It is headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsyl ...

. It was built in 1928 to commemorate the centenary of the South Carolina Canal and Rail Road, and widely exhibited. On August 6, 2005, the City of Charleston lent it to the

Norfolk Southern Railway The Norfolk Southern Railway is a Class I freight railroad in the United States formed in 1982 with the merger of Norfolk and Western Railway and Southern Railway. With headquarters in Atlanta, the company operates 19,420 route miles (31 ...

(NS), the original SCRR line's current operator, for five years. After refurbishment at their shops in Chattanooga, NS brought the replica to

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for display on December 12, 2005, outside the

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in a ceremony commemorating 175 years of

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railroad history. It was then put on public display at NS

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headquarters at 1200

Peachtree Street Peachtree Street is one of several major streets running through the city of Atlanta. Beginning at Five Points (Atlanta), Five Points in downtown Atlanta, it runs North through Midtown Atlanta, Midtown; a few blocks after entering into Buckhead ...

in midtown Atlanta, GA; then transported by truck in October 2013 to Charleston, SC. Another full-size replica is on exhibit at the

South Carolina State Museum The South Carolina State Museum has four floors of permanent and changing exhibits, a digital dome planetarium (opened in 2014), 4D interactive theater and an observatory (both opened in 2014). The State Museum, is located along the banks of the Co ...

, in

Columbia, South Carolina Columbia is the capital of the U.S. state of South Carolina. With a population of 136,632 at the 2020 census, it is the second-largest city in South Carolina. The city serves as the county seat of Richland County, and a portion of the city ...

Best Friend of Charleston Museum

In May 2014, the Best Friend of Charleston Museum opened on 23 Ann Street in the

Charleston Historic District The Charleston Historic District, alternatively known as Charleston Old and Historic District, is a National Historic Landmark District in Charleston, South Carolina. The district, which covers most of the historic peninsular heart of the city, c ...

behind the Charleston Visitor Center and near the

Charleston Museum The Charleston Museum is a museum located in the Wraggborough neighborhood in Charleston, South Carolina. It is one of the oldest museums in the United States. Its highly regarded collection includes historic artifacts, natural history, decora ...

Timeline

* October 1830: the ''Best Friend'' arrives in Charleston from West Point Foundry. * December 25, 1830: The ''Best Friend'' runs for the first time in Charleston. * June 17, 1831: The boiler explodes on the ''Best Friend''. * Remains of ''Best Friend'' rebuilt in Charleston as ''Phoenix'', which runs until the

References

External links