page break

The “South Carolina”

Designed by Horatio Allen, the “South Carolina,” the fourth engine built by the West Point Foundry Association of New York, was the first eight-wheeled locomotive built in America, and was placed in service by the South Carolina Railroad in 1832. The locomotive had a vibrating truck on each end and a double-ended boiler, with the firebox in the middle. The flues from the fiirebox extended to the end of the boiler. It had a double smokebox and double stack, with a fire door on the side of the firebox, and flexible steam and exhaust pipes. The “South Carolina” was not a practicable locomotive for working trains, but possessed the feature which was subsequently embodied in a successful double-ended articulated engine.

(From “The Development of the Locomotive” published by The Central Steel Company, Massillon, Ohio, U.S.A.).