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West Point was the third steam locomotive constructed in the United States. [1] It was constructed for the South Carolina Railroad by the West Point Foundry of New York and built to plans from Horatio Allen.
The locomotive was built in 1830 and shipped to Charleston, South Carolina, on the Lafayette, arriving there on February 28, 1831, and entering service shortly thereafter.
Its frame and running gear were identical to the earlier Best Friend of Charleston from the same builder, but instead of the Best Friend's vertical boiler, the West Point was fitted with a horizontal locomotive boiler.
A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material to heat water in the locomotive's boiler to the point where it becomes gaseous and its volume increases 1,700 times. Functionally, it is a steam engine on wheels.
Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, 0-4-0 represents one of the simplest possible types, that with two axles and four coupled wheels, all of which are driven. The wheels on the earliest four-coupled locomotives were connected by a single gear wheel, but from 1825 the wheels were usually connected with coupling rods to form a single driven set.
The Best Friend of Charleston was a steam-powered railroad locomotive widely considered the first locomotive to be built entirely within the United States for revenue service. It produced the first locomotive boiler explosion in the United States.
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The Southern Railway was a class 1 railroad based in the Southern United States between 1894 and 1982, when it merged with the Norfolk and Western Railway (N&W) to form the Norfolk Southern Railway. The railroad was the product of nearly 150 predecessor lines that were combined, reorganized and recombined beginning in the 1830s, formally becoming the Southern Railway in 1894.
A Meyer locomotive is a type of articulated locomotive. The design was never as popular as the Garratt or Mallet locomotives. It can be best regarded as 19th Century competition for the early compound Mallet and also the Fairlie articulated designs. Most single cab modern trains are of a similar design such as power cars, freight diesel locomotives, and some passenger locomotives.
The Georgia Railroad and Banking Company also seen as "GARR", was a historic railroad and banking company that operated in the U.S. state of Georgia. In 1967 it reported 833 million revenue-ton-miles of freight and 3 million passenger-miles; at the end of the year it operated 331 miles (533 km) of road and 510 miles (820 km) of track.
The Midwest Central Railroad is a 3 ft narrow gauge heritage railroad operating within the confines of Mount Pleasant, Iowa's McMillan Park, site of the Midwest Old Thresher's Reunion. The railroad is a registered, 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. The mainline track is a 1 mile loop with traffic moving in a clockwise direction regulated by an electrically signaled block system. The mainline loop features two stations: at the north end, the original Hillsboro, Iowa, depot along with a Milwaukee Road signal tower; and at the south end, a newer wood frame/metal sided building.
Tom Thumb was the first American-built steam locomotive to operate on a common-carrier railroad. It was designed and constructed by Peter Cooper in 1829 to convince owners of the newly formed Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) to use steam engines; it was not intended to enter revenue service. It is especially remembered as a participant in a legendary race with a horse-drawn car, which the horse won after Tom Thumb suffered a mechanical failure. However, the demonstration was successful, and the railroad committed to the use of steam locomotion and held trials in the following year for a working engine.
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, scheduled passenger train service in the United States.
The South Carolina Rail Road Company was a railroad company that operated in South Carolina from 1843 to 1894, when it was succeeded by the Southern Railway. It was formed in 1844 by the merger of the South Carolina Canal and Rail Road Company (SCC&RR) into the Louisville, Cincinnati and Charleston Railroad Company. It was built with a track gauge of 5 ft.
The William Aiken House and Associated Railroad Structures make up a National Historic Landmark District in Charleston, South Carolina, that contains structures of South Carolina Canal and Railroad Company and the home of the company's founder, William Aiken. These structures make up one of the largest collection of surviving pre-Civil War railroad depot facilities in the United States. The district was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1963.
The South West African Zwillinge 0-6-0T of 1898 was a narrow gauge steam locomotive from the German South West Africa era.
The Manchester and Augusta Railroad was a Southeastern railroad that operated following the American Civil War. The Manchester and Augusta Railroad was chartered in the 1870s, and built a line from Sumter, South Carolina, southwest to Denmark, South Carolina.
The South African Railways Class NG2 0-4-2ST of 1897 was a narrow-gauge steam locomotive from the pre-Union era in Transvaal.
The Namaqualand 0-6-2 Clara Class of 1890 was a South African steam locomotive from the pre-Union era in the Cape of Good Hope.
The Finley Roundhouse is a historic railway roundhouse located in the Acipco-Finley neighborhood of Birmingham, Alabama. It is one of the last two surviving railway roundhouses in the City of Birmingham and one of three surviving in the State of Alabama. It is also the largest reinforced concrete roundhouse in Alabama. It was built by the Southern Railway in 1915.
The Flying Dutchman was an American horse-powered locomotive operated by the South Carolina Canal and Railroad Company. It was built in New York by engineer Christian Edward Detmold and won an 1830 locomotive competition. Driven by a horse on a treadmill, it could carry 12 passengers at a speed of around 12 miles per hour (19 km/h). The South Carolina Canal and Railroad Company operated the Flying Dutchman on a 6-mile (9.7 km) stretch of track from early 1830. It was replaced by a steam-powered locomotive, the Best Friend of Charleston, by the end of the year.