Heritage railways in Kauai
Encyclopedia
There are two heritage railways in Kauai, the birthplace of Hawaiian railroading.
The Grove Farm Museum
preserved original steam locomotives from the earliest days of rail transport in Kauai
, restoring the small-gauge engines without much notice beyond the local community. The museum acquired property where historic right-of-ways had run, and found, in the thick vegetation, track beds ready for restoration, allowing the Museum to display their authentic, working locomotives.
The second heritage railway
in Kauai is the Kauai Plantation Railway at Kilohana. Unlike the Grove Farm Museum trains, which are brought out only once a month, the Kauai Plantation Railway is a daily fee-based attraction.
led to the introduction of railways to Hawaii. Rail transport in Hawaii began in the late 19th century when small-gauge locomotives were brought in to replace oxen or horses to haul harvested sugar cane from the fields to mills, and then to transport the raw sugar to docks for shipment to refineries in California
.
Hawaii’s first commercial sugar plantation was created in Koloa, Kauai in 1835, and sugar rapidly grew to dominate Kauai’s economy—and the economy of the Hawaiian archipelago—through the 19th and 20h centuries; railways were but one of several innovations introduced to Kauai to increase efficiency and capitalize on available resources during the 19th century. For example, steam plows were used by around the middle of the century, and abundant electricity was generated from mountain streams both to power mills and illuminate the fields for 24-hour shifts as early as 1885. Kauai’s early leadership in rail transport in Hawaii is consistent with this tradition of innovation.
at about the same time in 1881.
and created 30-gauge tracks through the sugar cane fields. The first spike in this track was driven by Princess Liliuokalani, then Regent and soon to assume the throne as last Queen of the Kingdom of Hawaii
. She had arrived the day before, disembarking at Hanalei
, a nearby port, and was invited to the September 24 ceremonial opening at the site of what is now the town of Kilauea
. The assembled dignitaries included Governor Paul P. Kanoe and the Plantation Manager, Robert A. Macfie, Jr. This is often credited as Hawaii’s first railway.
While field railways ran on “literally little more than panels of snap-track laid and re-laid across the fields as the seasonal cutting progressed,” more permanent right-of-ways were soon established to provide freight and passenger service from mills to ports, where raw sugar was packed aboard ocean-going ships bound for California refineries. An engineer, sent to Kauai from Honolulu in 1898, took the train from Waimea
, on the coast, to the Kilauea Plantation’s Kekaha mill, situated in the midst of the cane fields, and he described the trip:
(known as the Big Island), a larger railway was also under construction, with the first tracks being laid in March 1881 in Māhukona
, North Kohala; its official charter of Incorporation under the name of The Hawaiian Railroad Company was granted in July 1880. The Hawaiian Gazette reported that twelve miles (19 km) of track had been laid in September 1881, but its unofficial opening was in March 1882.
The New York Times
, however, reported that the first steam railway was to be built on the Big Island in 1899, which may be a misunderstanding based on financial reorganization of the existing railways.
, the “Kahului railroad has met all the requirements for transporting freight.”
Although one source claims that Oahu
did not enter the railway age until 1889, it appears that Oahu had a field railway using the engine Olomana
in 1883.
, led by Mabel and Elsie Wilcox, nieces of George Norton Wilcox
, who bought Grove Farm Plantation in 1864.
The sisters fought to preserve the trains when the Koloa Plantation
was taken over by Grove Farm Plantation in 1947 and later when the trains were taken out of service in the late 1950s. About 1970, the trains were almost sold to the Disney Company for $500 each, when Mabel Wilcox matched the price and kept the locomotives in Kauai.
When Mabel Wilcox turned the Plantation she had inherited into the Grove Farm Museum in the 1970s, the four locomotives were given to the museum. When she died in 1978, her estate included an endowment for the operations of the Museum, including the locomotives. They are currently listed in the National Register of Historic Places
as Grove Farm Company Locomotives. The collection includes four locomotives, all of which saw extensive service on Kauai.
steam engine built in Düsseldorf
, Germany for the Koloa Plantation for $4,000, which arrived in 1888. This engine is also notable because it is today the oldest steam locomotive in the state of Hawaii currently being run on rails; it pre-dates all steam locomotives in the State, in any condition, except for two: one is a 24 inches (609.6 mm) gauge Baldwin Locomotive from 1883 that is said to be buried in a sand dune in Puunene
, on the island of Maui; the other is the Claus Spreckels, dating from 1882, originally a coal-fired engine later converted to oil, which is in storage in Maui in operational condition.
At one time, it was thought the first locomotive on Kauai was this 1887 engine. It is a wood-fired side-tank locomotive weighing some 10 tons and has a 30 inches (762 mm) gauge. This engine is named Paulo, a tribute to Paul Isenberg
, a wealthy sugar planter in the 1880s. Paul Isenberg spent many years in Kauai, arriving in 1858 and by 1862, at age 25, was manager of the Lihue Plantation, the second oldest plantation after Koloa. He greatly expanded the plantation and also was a partner in the Koloa sugar mill and the Kekaha sugar mill. He returned to his native Germany in 1878, leaving his brother Carl to assume his responsibilities at Lihue Plantation. Paul remained active in the business, however, and arranged for the immigration of 124 people from Germany to Kauai. The Paulo engine was shipped from Germany in 1887 to Koloa Plantation. Carl Isenberg started the Lihue Plantation Railway in 1891.
The Paulo engine remained in active service hauling cane until 1920, when it was retired and put on display by the Koloa Sugar Plantation. Grove Farm Plantation bought the Koloa Sugar Plantation in 1947, and Paulo became property of Grove Farm. Paulo was restored to full operating condition in 1981 after years of preservation work by the Grove Farm Museum and a team of volunteers led by Scott Johnson, who maintains the Grove Farm collection. Johnson grew up on Maui and has worked on almost every steam engine in the state.
The Grove Farm Museum locomotives are displayed at the Lihue Plantation Sugar Mill site trackage of the LP & Grove Farm rail lines once a month and on special occasions
such as Ohana Day (‘ohana’ translates as ‘family’) in 2010 with the opening of the Kauai Museum exhibition, ‘The Industrial Revolution on Kaua‘i: Steam Power and Other Innovations’. In addition, the museum reconstructed a flat car and a cane car, and has two replicas with benches for passengers.
in Philadelphia, was originally owned by the McBryde Plantation, and was sold to the Lihue Plantation in 1932. The McBride Plantation introduced two electric locomotives to its operations prior to 1899, when it added two steam engines. Grove Farm Company acquired the Wainiha, named for a stream and valley on Kauai's north shore, in 1957, and it was the last steam locomotive in service for the sugar industry in Hawaii. It is operational, having been restored in 1975. In 2000, the Wainiha was used in filming a World War II
drama, To End All Wars
, to portray a Japanese train transporting British prisoners of war. The Paulo engine also was in the film.
Company. Its name was originally Port Allen, after the harbor on the western shore of Kauai and the terminus of that rail line. The engine passed through the hands of the McBryde Sugar Company in 1938 when it acquired its present name, after a stream in west Kauai, and in 1947 was sold to Grove Farm Company. Restoration of this engine is on-going as funds allow.
This right-of-way was unknown when the Grove Farm Museum purchased 7 acres (28,328 m²) from Lihue Plantation Company and another 15 acres (60,702.9 m²) from William Hyde Rice
Ltd. to provide a buffer from development in the area. Only later did the Grove Farm Museum officials discover that the right-of-way for the Lihue Plantation passed through the newly purchased plot, and restored the disused track bed.
They were grandchildren of missionary Abner Wilcox
(1808–1869), with the fortune grown by their uncles George Norton Wilcox
(1839–1933) and Albert Spencer Wilcox
(1844–1919).
of Hawaii. The railway has both enclosed coaches and a coach with open sides. The coaches sit on six 35 feet (10.7 m) flatcars originally built in 1941 at Pearl Harbor
by the U.S. Navy, which were then used by the Oahu Railway and Land Company
and afterwards sold to White Pass and Yukon Route
in Alaska.
The original plan for the railway called for steam engines to pull the coaches, with diesel engines in reserve. The railway opened under the power of a 1948 diesel-electric end-cab two-axle General Electric locomotive, however, with a 1939 two-axle Whitcomb diesel-mechanical locomotive providing backup. Steam locomotives are scheduled to take over from the diesel engines when renovation of a pair of Baldwin outside-frame 0-6-2 tank engines is complete. These steam engines had originally worked at the Honolulu Plantation Company on Oahu
prior to World War II. They were purchased for the Kauai Plantation Railway from a company in the Philippines
where they had been in service until 2001.
The trains run on rails salvaged from a Soo Line Railroad
branch in North Dakota
. Most of its 31,680 spikes were driven by hand with 11-pound mauls.
The Kauai Plantation Railway is 36-gauge, which has no historical precedent in Kauai; most of the previous railways were smaller 30-gauge. The route passes a 16000 square feet (1,486.4 m²) estate home built in 1935 for Gaylord Wilcox. In more recent times, the 105 acre (0.4249203 km²) Kilohana Plantation, has been devoted to preserving the island’s plantation-era heritage and interpreting it for both locals and tourists. The Kauai Plantation Railway is an outgrowth of this activity, which included horse-drawn carriage rides on the estate. The train passes plots leased by farmers who grow a wide variety of crops, from the culturally important taro
to pineapple
, papaya
, rambutan
, tropical hardwood trees, and coffee
, a more recent cash crop in Kauai. The idea is to show the future of Kauai’s agricultural industry in its rich historic and cultural context.
It is located at 21°58′15"N 159°23′29"W, just off Route 50
.
The Grove Farm Museum
Grove Farm (Lihue, Hawaii)
-History:German immigrant Hermann A. Widemann started one of the first sugar plantations in Hawaii known as Grove Farm in 1854.During the American Civil War, the demand for Hawaii sugar grew, but Widemann supported the Confederate States....
preserved original steam locomotives from the earliest days of rail transport in Kauai
Kauai
Kauai or Kauai, known as Tauai in the ancient Kaua'i dialect, is geologically the oldest of the main Hawaiian Islands. With an area of , it is the fourth largest of the main islands in the Hawaiian archipelago, and the 21st largest island in the United States. Known also as the "Garden Isle",...
, restoring the small-gauge engines without much notice beyond the local community. The museum acquired property where historic right-of-ways had run, and found, in the thick vegetation, track beds ready for restoration, allowing the Museum to display their authentic, working locomotives.
The second heritage railway
Heritage railway
thumb|right|the Historical [[Khyber train safari|Khyber Railway]] goes through the [[Khyber Pass]], [[Pakistan]]A heritage railway , preserved railway , tourist railway , or tourist railroad is a railway that is run as a tourist attraction, in some cases by volunteers, and...
in Kauai is the Kauai Plantation Railway at Kilohana. Unlike the Grove Farm Museum trains, which are brought out only once a month, the Kauai Plantation Railway is a daily fee-based attraction.
Context of Kauai’s railroading origins
Sugar plantations in HawaiiSugar plantations in Hawaii
Sugarcane was introduced to Hawaii by its first inhabitants in approximately 600 AD and was observed by Captain Cook upon arrival in the islands in 1778. Sugar quickly turned into a big business and generated rapid population growth in the islands with 337,000 people immigrating over the span of a...
led to the introduction of railways to Hawaii. Rail transport in Hawaii began in the late 19th century when small-gauge locomotives were brought in to replace oxen or horses to haul harvested sugar cane from the fields to mills, and then to transport the raw sugar to docks for shipment to refineries in California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
.
Hawaii’s first commercial sugar plantation was created in Koloa, Kauai in 1835, and sugar rapidly grew to dominate Kauai’s economy—and the economy of the Hawaiian archipelago—through the 19th and 20h centuries; railways were but one of several innovations introduced to Kauai to increase efficiency and capitalize on available resources during the 19th century. For example, steam plows were used by around the middle of the century, and abundant electricity was generated from mountain streams both to power mills and illuminate the fields for 24-hour shifts as early as 1885. Kauai’s early leadership in rail transport in Hawaii is consistent with this tradition of innovation.
Hawaii’s first railways
Railways were under construction in both Kauai and on Hawaii islandHawaii (island)
The Island of Hawaii, also called the Big Island or Hawaii Island , is a volcanic island in the North Pacific Ocean...
at about the same time in 1881.
Kauai's first railway
In Kauai, the Kilauea Sugar Plantation purchased a steam locomotive from GermanyGermany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
and created 30-gauge tracks through the sugar cane fields. The first spike in this track was driven by Princess Liliuokalani, then Regent and soon to assume the throne as last Queen of the Kingdom of Hawaii
Kingdom of Hawaii
The Kingdom of Hawaii was established during the years 1795 to 1810 with the subjugation of the smaller independent chiefdoms of Oahu, Maui, Molokai, Lānai, Kauai and Niihau by the chiefdom of Hawaii into one unified government...
. She had arrived the day before, disembarking at Hanalei
Hanalei, Hawaii
Hanalei is a census-designated place in Kauai County, Hawaii, United States. The population was 478 at the 2000 census. Hanalei means "lei making" in Hawaiian...
, a nearby port, and was invited to the September 24 ceremonial opening at the site of what is now the town of Kilauea
Kilauea, Hawaii
Kīlauea, on the Island of Kauai, shares the name of the active volcano, Mt. Kilauea. The name literally translates to "spewing" or '"much spreading" in Hawaiian. Kilauea, the town, is a census-designated place in Kauai County, Hawaii, United States....
. The assembled dignitaries included Governor Paul P. Kanoe and the Plantation Manager, Robert A. Macfie, Jr. This is often credited as Hawaii’s first railway.
While field railways ran on “literally little more than panels of snap-track laid and re-laid across the fields as the seasonal cutting progressed,” more permanent right-of-ways were soon established to provide freight and passenger service from mills to ports, where raw sugar was packed aboard ocean-going ships bound for California refineries. An engineer, sent to Kauai from Honolulu in 1898, took the train from Waimea
Waimea, Kauai County, Hawaii
Waimea is a census-designated place in Kauai County, Hawaii, United States. The population was 1,787 at the 2000 census...
, on the coast, to the Kilauea Plantation’s Kekaha mill, situated in the midst of the cane fields, and he described the trip:
The railroad is a cute affair, only 30 inch gauge—cars mostly flat for hauling cane and sugar in bags….All cars are no more than 4 feet wide….Engines… are regular toys—they weigh about eight tons….[We] bowled over the four miles of toy railroad to the headquarters of the Plantation….They have engineer only—no fireman—no breakman. No breaks on cars.
First railway on the Big Island
On Hawaii islandHawaii (island)
The Island of Hawaii, also called the Big Island or Hawaii Island , is a volcanic island in the North Pacific Ocean...
(known as the Big Island), a larger railway was also under construction, with the first tracks being laid in March 1881 in Māhukona
Mahukona, Hawaii
Māhukona is a former settlement on the island of Hawaii. The extinct submerged volcano Māhukona, off shore and to the south, is named for this area. It was once the terminus of the Hawaiian Railroad.-History:...
, North Kohala; its official charter of Incorporation under the name of The Hawaiian Railroad Company was granted in July 1880. The Hawaiian Gazette reported that twelve miles (19 km) of track had been laid in September 1881, but its unofficial opening was in March 1882.
The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, however, reported that the first steam railway was to be built on the Big Island in 1899, which may be a misunderstanding based on financial reorganization of the existing railways.
Initial railways in Oahu and Maui
The Hawaiian Gazette, in the same 1882 issue that it mentions the initial freight hauling by steam on the Big Island, also states that on MauiMaui
The island of Maui is the second-largest of the Hawaiian Islands at and is the 17th largest island in the United States. Maui is part of the state of Hawaii and is the largest of Maui County's four islands, bigger than Lānai, Kahoolawe, and Molokai. In 2010, Maui had a population of 144,444,...
, the “Kahului railroad has met all the requirements for transporting freight.”
Although one source claims that Oahu
Oahu
Oahu or Oahu , known as "The Gathering Place", is the third largest of the Hawaiian Islands and most populous of the islands in the U.S. state of Hawaii. The state capital Honolulu is located on the southeast coast...
did not enter the railway age until 1889, it appears that Oahu had a field railway using the engine Olomana
Olomana (locomotive)
The Olomana is an 0-4-2 steam locomotive in the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania, on loan from the Smithsonian Institution. It was the third self-propelled vehicle to operate in Hawaii.- History :...
in 1883.
Grove Farm Plantation
The preservation of steam locomotives on Kauai is largely due to the Grove Farm MuseumGrove Farm (Lihue, Hawaii)
-History:German immigrant Hermann A. Widemann started one of the first sugar plantations in Hawaii known as Grove Farm in 1854.During the American Civil War, the demand for Hawaii sugar grew, but Widemann supported the Confederate States....
, led by Mabel and Elsie Wilcox, nieces of George Norton Wilcox
George Norton Wilcox
George Norton Wilcox was a businessman and politician in the Kingdom of Hawaii and Territory of Hawaii.-Life:George Norton Wilcox was born in Hilo August 15, 1839.His father was Abner Wilcox and mother was Lucy Eliza Hart...
, who bought Grove Farm Plantation in 1864.
The sisters fought to preserve the trains when the Koloa Plantation
Old Sugar Mill of Koloa
The Old Sugar Mill of Kōloa was part of the first commercially successful sugar plantation in Hawaii, which was founded in Kōloa in 1835 by Ladd & Company. This was the beginning of what would become Hawaii's largest industry. The building was designated a National Historic Landmark on December...
was taken over by Grove Farm Plantation in 1947 and later when the trains were taken out of service in the late 1950s. About 1970, the trains were almost sold to the Disney Company for $500 each, when Mabel Wilcox matched the price and kept the locomotives in Kauai.
When Mabel Wilcox turned the Plantation she had inherited into the Grove Farm Museum in the 1970s, the four locomotives were given to the museum. When she died in 1978, her estate included an endowment for the operations of the Museum, including the locomotives. They are currently listed in the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
as Grove Farm Company Locomotives. The collection includes four locomotives, all of which saw extensive service on Kauai.
Paulo
Pride of place in the Grove Farm Museum locomotive collection is one of the earliest steam locomotives in Kauai, an 1887 HohenzollernHohenzollern Locomotive Works
The Hohenzollern Locomotive Works was a German locomotive-building company which operated from 1872 to 1929...
steam engine built in Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf is the capital city of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and centre of the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region.Düsseldorf is an important international business and financial centre and renowned for its fashion and trade fairs. Located centrally within the European Megalopolis, the...
, Germany for the Koloa Plantation for $4,000, which arrived in 1888. This engine is also notable because it is today the oldest steam locomotive in the state of Hawaii currently being run on rails; it pre-dates all steam locomotives in the State, in any condition, except for two: one is a 24 inches (609.6 mm) gauge Baldwin Locomotive from 1883 that is said to be buried in a sand dune in Puunene
Puunene
Puunēnē is an unincorporated town in the central part of Maui, Hawaii, near Kahului. Although the land in that area is fairly level, the words Puu nēnē mean "nene goose hill" in Hawaiian...
, on the island of Maui; the other is the Claus Spreckels, dating from 1882, originally a coal-fired engine later converted to oil, which is in storage in Maui in operational condition.
At one time, it was thought the first locomotive on Kauai was this 1887 engine. It is a wood-fired side-tank locomotive weighing some 10 tons and has a 30 inches (762 mm) gauge. This engine is named Paulo, a tribute to Paul Isenberg
Paul Isenberg
Paul Isenberg was a German businessman who developed the sugarcane business in the Kingdom of Hawaii.-Life:Paul Heinrich Friedrich Carl Isenberg was born April 15, 1837 in Dransfeld, Kingdom of Hanover, Germany...
, a wealthy sugar planter in the 1880s. Paul Isenberg spent many years in Kauai, arriving in 1858 and by 1862, at age 25, was manager of the Lihue Plantation, the second oldest plantation after Koloa. He greatly expanded the plantation and also was a partner in the Koloa sugar mill and the Kekaha sugar mill. He returned to his native Germany in 1878, leaving his brother Carl to assume his responsibilities at Lihue Plantation. Paul remained active in the business, however, and arranged for the immigration of 124 people from Germany to Kauai. The Paulo engine was shipped from Germany in 1887 to Koloa Plantation. Carl Isenberg started the Lihue Plantation Railway in 1891.
The Paulo engine remained in active service hauling cane until 1920, when it was retired and put on display by the Koloa Sugar Plantation. Grove Farm Plantation bought the Koloa Sugar Plantation in 1947, and Paulo became property of Grove Farm. Paulo was restored to full operating condition in 1981 after years of preservation work by the Grove Farm Museum and a team of volunteers led by Scott Johnson, who maintains the Grove Farm collection. Johnson grew up on Maui and has worked on almost every steam engine in the state.
The Grove Farm Museum locomotives are displayed at the Lihue Plantation Sugar Mill site trackage of the LP & Grove Farm rail lines once a month and on special occasions
such as Ohana Day (‘ohana’ translates as ‘family’) in 2010 with the opening of the Kauai Museum exhibition, ‘The Industrial Revolution on Kaua‘i: Steam Power and Other Innovations’. In addition, the museum reconstructed a flat car and a cane car, and has two replicas with benches for passengers.
Wainiha
The Wainiha, a 1915 locomotive from the Baldwin Locomotive WorksBaldwin Locomotive Works
The Baldwin Locomotive Works was an American builder of railroad locomotives. It was located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, originally, and later in nearby Eddystone, Pennsylvania. Although the company was very successful as a producer of steam locomotives, its transition to the production of...
in Philadelphia, was originally owned by the McBryde Plantation, and was sold to the Lihue Plantation in 1932. The McBride Plantation introduced two electric locomotives to its operations prior to 1899, when it added two steam engines. Grove Farm Company acquired the Wainiha, named for a stream and valley on Kauai's north shore, in 1957, and it was the last steam locomotive in service for the sugar industry in Hawaii. It is operational, having been restored in 1975. In 2000, the Wainiha was used in filming a World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
drama, To End All Wars
To End All Wars
To End All Wars is a 2001 war film starring Robert Carlyle, Kiefer Sutherland and Sakae Kimura and directed by David L. Cunningham.- Storyline :...
, to portray a Japanese train transporting British prisoners of war. The Paulo engine also was in the film.
Wahiawa
The Wahiawa, also from Baldwin, was designed primarily to pull a passenger train in 1921 for the Kauai RailwayKauai Railway
The Kauai Railway is a former narrow gauge railway company in Hawaii, United States. It was created 1906 and operated a long railroad line in the track gauge of from Port Allen to Koloa and Kalaheo on the south coast of the island of Kauai...
Company. Its name was originally Port Allen, after the harbor on the western shore of Kauai and the terminus of that rail line. The engine passed through the hands of the McBryde Sugar Company in 1938 when it acquired its present name, after a stream in west Kauai, and in 1947 was sold to Grove Farm Company. Restoration of this engine is on-going as funds allow.
Kaipu
The Kaipu, a 1925 engine, also from Baldwin, was one of the last locomotives built for the Hawaiian sugar cane industry. Originally named the Kokee by its first owner, the Hawaiian Sugar Company, it was renamed for one of the plantation’s lunas, or foremen, in 1941 when acquired by Grove Farm. This unusual engine has a steel cab, with driving wheels smaller than the other Kauai Baldwins, and external counterweights with main rods connected to the rear drivers. It was retired in 1953, restored in 1983, and is operational.Historic Right-of-Ways
In 2004, Grove Farm Museum locomotives began rolling on a short stretch of historic right-of-way from the Lihue sugar mill to Grove Farm Plantation, along Haleko Road, near the center of modern Lihue. Haleko Road was originally known as Halekoa, or “house of cane” Road.This right-of-way was unknown when the Grove Farm Museum purchased 7 acres (28,328 m²) from Lihue Plantation Company and another 15 acres (60,702.9 m²) from William Hyde Rice
William Hyde Rice
William Hyde Rice was a businessman and politician during the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii. He collected and published legends of Hawaiian mythology.-Life:William Hyde Rice was born at Honolulu, Hawaii on July 23, 1846...
Ltd. to provide a buffer from development in the area. Only later did the Grove Farm Museum officials discover that the right-of-way for the Lihue Plantation passed through the newly purchased plot, and restored the disused track bed.
Kauai Plantation Railway
The Kauai Plantation Railway opened for business in January, 2007 as “the first new railroad to be built in Hawaii in 100 years.” Indirectly, both the Grove Farm and Kauai Plantation heritage railways share common ancestry. Kauai Plantation Railway offers a tour of Kilohana, the former estate of Gaylord Parke Wilcox (1881–1970), manager of Grove Farm Plantation. His sister, Mabel Wilcox, heir to much of the Wilcox fortune, created Grove Farm Museum from her former family homestead nearby.They were grandchildren of missionary Abner Wilcox
Abner Wilcox
Abner Wilcox was a missionary teacher from New England to the Kingdom of Hawaii.-Life:Abner Wilcox was born April 19, 1808 in Harwinton, Connecticut. His father was Aaron Wilcox and mother was Lois Phelps. He was fourth of nine children.On November 23, 1836 he married Lucy Eliza Hart who was born...
(1808–1869), with the fortune grown by their uncles George Norton Wilcox
George Norton Wilcox
George Norton Wilcox was a businessman and politician in the Kingdom of Hawaii and Territory of Hawaii.-Life:George Norton Wilcox was born in Hilo August 15, 1839.His father was Abner Wilcox and mother was Lucy Eliza Hart...
(1839–1933) and Albert Spencer Wilcox
Albert Spencer Wilcox
Albert Spencer Wilcox was a businessman and politician in the Kingdom of Hawaii and Republic of Hawaii. He developed several sugar plantations in Hawaii, and became a large landholder.-Early life:...
(1844–1919).
Vintage elements in a modern reconstruction
The Kauai Plantation Railway follows a 3 miles (4.8 km) loop through agricultural displays on the historic Kilohana estate and plantation. The Kauai Plantation Railway was designed by Boone Morrison, a historic restoration architect. Its rolling stock is new, but carefully modeled after passenger cars of 1880s trains that operated on the Big IslandHawaii (island)
The Island of Hawaii, also called the Big Island or Hawaii Island , is a volcanic island in the North Pacific Ocean...
of Hawaii. The railway has both enclosed coaches and a coach with open sides. The coaches sit on six 35 feet (10.7 m) flatcars originally built in 1941 at Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor, known to Hawaiians as Puuloa, is a lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. Much of the harbor and surrounding lands is a United States Navy deep-water naval base. It is also the headquarters of the U.S. Pacific Fleet...
by the U.S. Navy, which were then used by the Oahu Railway and Land Company
Oahu Railway and Land Company
The Oahu Railway and Land Company, or OR&L, was a narrow gauge common carrier railroad that served much of the Hawaiian island of Oahu until its dissolution in 1947.-Origin:...
and afterwards sold to White Pass and Yukon Route
White Pass and Yukon Route
The White Pass and Yukon Route is a Canadian and U.S. Class II narrow gauge railroad linking the port of Skagway, Alaska, with Whitehorse, the capital of Yukon. An isolated system, it has no direct connection to any other railroad. Equipment, freight and passengers are ferried by ship through the...
in Alaska.
The original plan for the railway called for steam engines to pull the coaches, with diesel engines in reserve. The railway opened under the power of a 1948 diesel-electric end-cab two-axle General Electric locomotive, however, with a 1939 two-axle Whitcomb diesel-mechanical locomotive providing backup. Steam locomotives are scheduled to take over from the diesel engines when renovation of a pair of Baldwin outside-frame 0-6-2 tank engines is complete. These steam engines had originally worked at the Honolulu Plantation Company on Oahu
Oahu
Oahu or Oahu , known as "The Gathering Place", is the third largest of the Hawaiian Islands and most populous of the islands in the U.S. state of Hawaii. The state capital Honolulu is located on the southeast coast...
prior to World War II. They were purchased for the Kauai Plantation Railway from a company in the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
where they had been in service until 2001.
The trains run on rails salvaged from a Soo Line Railroad
Soo Line Railroad
The Soo Line Railroad is the primary United States railroad subsidiary of the Canadian Pacific Railway , controlled through the Soo Line Corporation, and one of seven U.S. Class I railroads. Although it is named for the Minneapolis, St. Paul and Sault Ste...
branch in North Dakota
North Dakota
North Dakota is a state located in the Midwestern region of the United States of America, along the Canadian border. The state is bordered by Canada to the north, Minnesota to the east, South Dakota to the south and Montana to the west. North Dakota is the 19th-largest state by area in the U.S....
. Most of its 31,680 spikes were driven by hand with 11-pound mauls.
The Kauai Plantation Railway is 36-gauge, which has no historical precedent in Kauai; most of the previous railways were smaller 30-gauge. The route passes a 16000 square feet (1,486.4 m²) estate home built in 1935 for Gaylord Wilcox. In more recent times, the 105 acre (0.4249203 km²) Kilohana Plantation, has been devoted to preserving the island’s plantation-era heritage and interpreting it for both locals and tourists. The Kauai Plantation Railway is an outgrowth of this activity, which included horse-drawn carriage rides on the estate. The train passes plots leased by farmers who grow a wide variety of crops, from the culturally important taro
Taro
Taro is a common name for the corms and tubers of several plants in the family Araceae . Of these, Colocasia esculenta is the most widely cultivated, and is the subject of this article. More specifically, this article describes the 'dasheen' form of taro; another variety is called eddoe.Taro is...
to pineapple
Pineapple
Pineapple is the common name for a tropical plant and its edible fruit, which is actually a multiple fruit consisting of coalesced berries. It was given the name pineapple due to its resemblance to a pine cone. The pineapple is by far the most economically important plant in the Bromeliaceae...
, papaya
Papaya
The papaya , papaw, or pawpaw is the fruit of the plant Carica papaya, the sole species in the genus Carica of the plant family Caricaceae...
, rambutan
Rambutan
The rambutan is a medium-sized tropical tree in the family Sapindaceae, and the fruit of this tree. It is native to Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, and elsewhere in Southeast Asia, although its precise natural distribution is unknown. It is closely related to several...
, tropical hardwood trees, and coffee
Coffea
Coffea is a genus of flowering plants in the Rubiaceae family. They are shrubs or small trees native to tropical and southern Africa and tropical Asia. Seeds of several species are the source of the popular beverage coffee. Coffee ranks as one of the world's most valuable and widely traded...
, a more recent cash crop in Kauai. The idea is to show the future of Kauai’s agricultural industry in its rich historic and cultural context.
It is located at 21°58′15"N 159°23′29"W, just off Route 50
Hawaii Route 50
Route 50 is a road that stretches from Route 56 at the junction of Rice Street in Lihue to a point approximately 1/5 mile north of the northernmost entrance of the Pacific Missile Range Facility on the western shore of Kauai. It is the longest numbered road on the island of Kauai is named...
.
End of an era
Over 200 miles (321.9 km) of mostly 30 inches (762 mm) gauge track existed in 1915 in Kauai. By 1959, Kauai railroads were replaced by trucks. Today, even the trucks are gone, and the last sugar plantation on Kauai, Gay & Robinson, processed its last crop in October 2009.See also
- Ahukini Terminal and Railway Company
- Kauai RailwayKauai RailwayThe Kauai Railway is a former narrow gauge railway company in Hawaii, United States. It was created 1906 and operated a long railroad line in the track gauge of from Port Allen to Koloa and Kalaheo on the south coast of the island of Kauai...
- List of Hawaii railroads