In the latter part of 1827, the Delaware & Hudson Canal Company put the Carbondale Railroad under construction. The road extends from the head of the Delaware & Hudson Canal at Honesdale, Pa., to the coal mines belonging to the Delaware & Hudson Canal Company at Carbondale, a distance of about sixteen miles. This line was opened, probably in 1829, and was operated partly by stationary engines, and partly by horses. The road is noted chiefly for being the one on which a locomotive was first used in this country. This was the "Stourbridge Lion," which was built in England under the direction of Mr. Horatio Allen, who afterward was president of the Novelty Works in New York, and who is still (1889) living near New York at the ripe age of eighty-seven. Before the road was opened, he had been a civil engineer on the Carbondale line. In 1828 Mr. Allen went to England, the only place where a locomotive was then in daily operation, to study the subject in all its practical details. Before leaving this country he was intrusted by the Delaware & Hudson Canal Company with the commission to have rails made for that line, and to have three locomotives built on plans to be decided by him when in England. This, it must be remembered, was before the celebrated trial of the "Rocket" on the Liverpool & Manchester Railway, which was not made until 1829. Previous to that trial, it had not been decided what type of boiler was the best for locomotives. The result of Mr. Allen's investigations was to produce in his mind a decided confidence in the multitubular boiler which is now universally used for locomotives. Other persons of experience recommended a boiler with small riveted flues of as small diameter as could be riveted. An order was therefore given to Messrs. Foster, Rastrick & Co., at Stourbridge, for one engine whose boiler was to have riveted flues of comparatively large size, and another order was given to Messrs. Stephenson & Co., of Newcastle-on-Tyne, for two locomotives with boilers having small tubes. The engine built by Foster, Rastrick & Co. was named the "Stourbridge Lion." It was sent to this country and was tried at Honesdale, Pa., on August 9, 1829. On its trial trip it was managed by Mr. Allen, to whom belongs the distinction of having run the first locomotive that was ever used in this country. In 1884 he wrote the following account of this trip: When the time came, and the steam was of the right pressure, and all was ready, I took my position on the platform of the locomotive alone, and with my hand on the throttle-valve handle said: "If there is any danger in this ride it is not necessary that the life and limbs of more than one should be subjected to that danger."