Kilauea Sugar Plantation Railway

Kilauea Sugar Plantation
Workers train
Route length:	28 km
Gauge :	610 mm ( 2 foot track )
Legend Anchorage at Mo'ko'lea Point 4.8 Kahili Landing Makanaano Place Kilauea Road 0 Sugar factory in Kilauea Lili'uokalni Street Kilauea River Lepeuli - Ahupuaʻa North end of Aalona Street Kolo Road Pukalani Place Kuhio Highway Kuawa Road Waiuli Dam Puukumu Stream 4.8 End of the route

The Kilauea Sugar Plantation Railway or Kilauea Track Line was 1881-1944 a total of up to 28 km long narrow-gauge railway network with a gauge of 2  feet (610 mm) for sugar cane and sugar transport in Kilauea on the island of Kaua'i of Hawaii .

history

'Pilaa' locomotive at the Kilauea Sugar Co. sugar factory, 1895

The building materials for the track construction and the first locomotive were imported from Great Britain. In addition to the Fowler narrow-gauge steam locomotive with serial number 4085, John Fowler & Co., from Leeds, England, also supplied a complete package with 4248 railway sleepers, railroad tracks, curves and switches, hardware and other products as well as several tons of coal. It arrived in Honolulu on August 27, 1881, on board The City of Glasgow from Glasgow and was shipped from there to Kauai shortly afterwards.

Construction of the line began on September 24, 1881, when Princess Lydia Pākī, who later became Queen Liliʻuokalani , struck the first sleeper nail in one of the railway sleepers. CV Houseman was the track construction manager. At the end of November 1881, a 5.8 km (3 mi) line had already been laid and put into operation.

In 1882, the plantation acquired another locomotive from the Hohenzollern Works , which had been built in Düsseldorf with works number 284 and was called Kilauea . The plantation also procured the Pilaa and Kahili locomotives from the Baldwin Locomotive Works in Pennsylvania in 1894 and 1902 . In 1910, the route network consisted of 20 km (12½ miles) of fixed track and 8 km (5 miles) of overhead track , 200 sugar cane transport trucks, six sugar transport cars and four locomotives. The locomotives could each pull up to ten wagons loaded with sugar cane .

Routing

Flying track

Horse tram

Sugar cane transport

The route was the first on the territory of Hawaii. The three-mile mainline started at the north end of Aalona Street in Kilauea and went south on Kolo Road and then onto Pukalani Square. It crossed the Kuhio Highway and then headed south along the Kuawa Road and finally crossed the Waiuli Dam and Puukumu Stream.

Loading the sugar at Kahili Landing at Mo'ko'lea Point

The second, also 4.8 km (3 mi) long, led from the sugar factory to Kahili Landing, where the packaged, ground sugar was loaded onto the steamers anchored at Mo'ko'lea Point using a wire rope winch. It started halfway on Kilauea Road, then headed north and east to Makanaano Square and ended at Kahili Landing above Mo'ko'lea Point. There the ships anchored to be loaded with 125 pound (57 kg) bags of sugar. The Kahili Landing and the railway line leading to it were abandoned in 1928, after which the sugar was transported from the sugar factory for shipment to Ahukini Landing. In the spring of 1942, trucks had replaced railroad locomotives and sugarcane wagons to transport sugarcane to Kilauea Mill.

A third route led over Lili'uokalni Street, crossed the Kilauea River on a bridge and ended in the area of Lepeuli .

The sugar cane transport was carried out with five steam locomotives. Railway operations were gradually discontinued from the end of 1939 until spring 1942 because truck transport proved to be more advantageous.

Sugar factory

Railroad tracks at the sugar factory

Two steam locomotives at the sugar factory

The company was founded in Hawaii in 1880 under the name Kilauea Sugar Company Limited . It was called the Kilauea Sugar Plantation Company after it was bought by a California company in April 1899. The company was headquartered in San Francisco , California with a local office in Kilauea. His commercial agency in Honolulu, the C. Brewer and Company Ltd, acquired the majority of shares in the company of the Honolulu sugar factor (agent) of the company, the C. Brewer and Company Ltd., the majority of shares in the company, which thereupon again became the Kilauea Sugar Company Limited called. Operations ceased on December 31, 1971.

environmental pollution

Plantation workers with poison containers, 1914

The photos of a herbicide tank and a tank truck, taken in 1914, alerted the health department to investigate the environmental pollution caused by the sugar cane industry. An extensive remediation program was then carried out in 2012, including the removal of 814 tons of contaminated soil in the area.

Wai Koa Loop Trail

The Wai Koa Loop Trail ( location ) is an easy, up to 8 km long hiking trail to the foundations of the bridge piers of the former railway. The Kauai Mini Golf & Botanical Gardens bike rental, gift shop, and café have forms that must be signed prior to the hike as the trail is privately owned, through a mahogany plantation and several smaller family businesses.

See also

• Kauai Railway
• Kauai Plantation Railway

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h} Jack Guishiken: Anaina Hou Yesterday and Today. Retrieved August 5, 2018.
2. ^ Kauai Railroad History. Retrieved September 6, 2018.
3. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g} Hank Soboleski: The Kilauea Sugar Plantation Company railroad. January 29, 2017. Retrieved September 6, 2018.
4. ↑ Kauai Sugar Plantations.
5. ↑ Using GIS to discover historic areas of contamination.
6. ↑ Hiking the Wai Koa Loop Trail.

Coordinates: 22 ° 12 ′ 39.5 ″  N , 159 ° 24 ′ 24.9 ″  W.