Hawaii Consolidated Railway

Hawaii Consolidated Railway

Legend Paauilo HI Kukaiau HI Ookala HI Waipunalei HI Laupahoehoe HI (now a museum) Papaaloa HI Kapehu HI Maulua North HI Maulua tunnel (approx. 900 m) Kaiaakea HI Ninole HI Waikaumalo HI Hohohina HI Hakalau HI Wailea HI Honomu HI Kaupakuea HI Pepeekeo Mill Pepeekeo HI Kawainui HI Onomea HI Paihaaloa HI Papaikou HI Paukaa HI Hilo HI Waiakea HI Hilo Bay HI Olaa HI Keaau HI Ohia HI Kukui HI Mountain View HI Glenwood HI Makuu HI Pahoa Junction HI Pahoa HI Kapoho HI Kaueleau HI Kamaili HI

The Hawaii Consolidated Railway (HCR) is a former railway company in Hawaii ( United States ). They operated a network of standard gauge railways in the east of the island of Hawaii .

history

The company was founded as the Hilo Railway on March 28, 1899 after the US government allowed the island's population to export sugar duty-free in 1876. First, the 13-kilometer stretch was built from the port of the island's capital Hilo (later Waiakea train station ) to Keeau in the south . It was opened in 1900.

Junctions to Pahoa and Kamaili were soon added and the line was extended into the capital Hilo. Since the train should also be used as a means of transport for tourists, the branch to Keeau was extended to Glenwood , from where excursions to Kilauea volcano start. Glenwood was the farthest inland train station on the island, about 22 kilometers from the coast.

At the end of June 1910, the railway company owned six locomotives, three passenger cars, two combined passenger, mail and baggage cars, 20 closed, 60 flat freight cars, three material cars, one coal wagon, one tanker, one office car and eight work cars. In the 1909/10 financial year, 77,074 passengers and 158,525 tons of goods were carried.

The network was expanded for the last time between 1909 and 1913. A 54-kilometer stretch of road from Hilo to Paauilo was built along the coast . 13 trestle bridges had to be built, the highest of which was around 59 meters high. The route also had several tunnels, of which the Maulua Tunnel was the most prominent at around 900 meters in length. The route network had now reached a length of 124 kilometers. The immense costs of the construction ultimately led to the bankruptcy of the railway company, which was reorganized on May 1, 1916 into Hawaii Consolidated Railway .

After the sharp decline in transport performance after the Great Depression , which in 1932 fell victim to the Mountain View – Glenwood section, the numbers skyrocketed in the Second World War , as many military transports took place. Shortly after the end of the war, the railroad came to an end. After a tsunami devastated large parts of the coast on April 1, 1946 and the line between Hilo and Paauilo was destroyed, the railway ceased operations and shut down the remaining lines. Some sections of the route south of Hilo were operated by local plantation owners until 1948. Today a railway museum in Laupahoehoe bears witness to the railway. Today the coastal road lies on the route north of the capital.

literature

• Mike Walker: Comprehensive Railroad Atlas of North America. Pacific Northwest. SPV-Verlag, Dunkirk (GB), 1998.
• Gale Driver: Hawaiian Railway Album: WWII Photographs, Vol. 2 - Along the Main Lines of the Oahu Railway & Land Co. and the Hawaii Consolidated Railway. The Railroad Press. ISBN 1931477140
• George H. Drury: Hawaiian Railroads , in: William D. Middleton, George M. Smerk, Roberta L. Diehl (Eds.): Encyclopedia of North American Railroads. Indiana University Press, Bloomington IN / Indianapolis IN 2007. ISBN 978-0-253-34916-3

Web links

• Railway Museum in Laupahoehoe

Individual evidence

1. ^ Poor's Manual of Railroads, 44th Annual Number. Poor's Railroad Manual Co., 1911, 1404.