I'm planning some models of the early Charleston & Hamburg RR (a.k.a. South Carolina Canal & RR Co.) locomotives. Info on the "Best Friend of Charleston"/"Phoenix" is fairly easy to find. I also have *just* enough info for a model of the "West Point," the C&H's second locomotive. It's harder to find info on the other engines, particularly Horatio Allen's pioneer double-enders, the "South Carolina"/"Constitution" and its three sisters*.

Does anyone out there know of any more info anywhere on the "South Carolina?" In particular, I'm interested in the following:

- Driver and pony wheel diameter, as well as the diameter of the boiler barrel and the size of the firebox. These can, of course, be estimated from the contemporary drawing (attached), but if the info has been preserved anywhere...

- How the axles were mounted to the frame. The contemporary drawing looks like the driving axle was mounted on top of the frame, but very clearly shows springs UNDER the axle as on the pony wheels. I can't quite work out how this would have worked.

- Where the fire door was located, and how the fire was stoked.

- The available descriptions I've read seem to indicate a total of four boiler barrels, two on each end with a single cylinder between them. It's not clear if these two boilers per end fed a single stack, or each had their own stack (i.e. two stacks total or four stacks total). The drawing looks like it could go either way.

- Cylinder bore and stroke

*The South Carolina, an articulated 2-2+2-2, was placed into service in February of 1832. It exploded that December. The engine was rebuilt and renamed "Constitution." Three more engines of the same type followed.

This is no help whatever, but I'll add a question that's always bothered me: how was fuel conveyed to wherever the firebox was? I suppose that water was brought from the tender via a pipe to somewhere, but did they have sort of a bucket brigade to pass the wood?

Herb Harwood

Right on my own book case, in a catalog of the 1929 Fair of the Iron Horse, I found a photo of a model of the South Carolina. Apparently, it was one of the Pangborn models that were destroyed. That photo answered my questions about the stacks and where the firedoor was. Apparently, the firedoor was in one side, between the drivers. I can only assume that the wood was put in the firebox by a slave bending over the side, and that the wood supply was carried on the engineer's platform, restocked from a tender at station stops.

I'm wrestling with the main driver bearings right now. They appear to have been on TOP of the frames with springs extending BELOW the frame. I can't fathom how this would have worked. I'm going to look for something similar in carriage construction. Meantime, any of you mechanical types got any bright ideas?

Looks like the pony truck boxes are attached to the shackles binding the centers of their springs. The drivers boxes are probably supported by yokes extending down around the frame to the shackles binding the centers of those springs as well. There may be some rods running through holes in the boxes coming up from the frames and binders on top to assure the boxes don't travel far from their longitudinal location while being able to ride freely up and down within the confines of the design. Hard to do more than guess based on the little drawings.

dave

There probably is some sort of carriage suspension that is similar. In automotive practice, the "underslung" frame was commonly used in the early days, and was standard on MG's and other European and British cars until the early 1950's. It did lower the vehicle's center of gravity, something that seemed to be on the minds of many early locomotive designers. I think the last production use of an underslung frame was the 1967 Austin-Healy 3000 Mk. III. Just go to a British car show and you can see how it all works. I would agree with Dave in that there would have to be some sort of longitudinal locating device, whether it was rods of some sort, or pedestal binders on the top of the frame. On cars, the driveshaft served that function (although in many cases, not particularly well) One of the neat things about the early locomotives is all the experimentation, no one knew what was going to work the best, so they tried just about anything they could think of.

After spending a good deal of time fussing over the two pictures and a sheet of paper, I've decided a few things about the South Carolina:

- The articulation had to be between the pony wheels and drivers, since the single cylinder per end was between the boilers along the engine's center line. This means the boilers, firebox, and drivers were all part of one unit and the pony wheels were really more like really big radial two-wheel trucks.

- I'm assuming 36" pony wheels and 70" drivers. This is worked out from the height of the person in the contemporary drawing, assuming he's about 5'-4", is slightly bent over, and his legs aren't proportionally correct.

- It's been reported that the valve gear was always problematic. I think this was because they hadn't worked out a good reverse system yet.

- Horatio Allen was certifiable.