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Re: Hawaii Railway Society Machinist Group

Posted: Sat Mar 24, 2018 12:18 am
by Glenn Brooks
Mike,

Many thanks for the photos and update on Olomana, Chole, and the Doctor. Superb photograghy as always! I’ll have to ask around the front office tomorrow about the various Sugar Cane plantation railways on Oahu. We’ve got a couple of local guys who are pretty avid historians. They may have some maps or other historical detail about where the Waimanolu plantation line was first located. Waimanolu is a pretty small area, physically, and located just over the hill from us- but no trace currently exists so far as I can see from casual observation. Also the undergrowth is pretty thick in the area, which tends to quickly overgrow and obscure the meager efforts of man. If I find any early day maps or photos I will try to reproduce and post.

Kahuku Plantation, just around the corner from Turtle bay, up at the top of the windward coast also had a 36” gauge railway leading to Laie, which connected to Oahu railway end of track, but folded after a few years due to lack of ridership. I haven’t found any info on that either, so will ask if the Historical Society has any archives or photos on both.


Glenn

Re: Hawaii Railway Society Machinist Group

Posted: Sat Mar 24, 2018 1:03 am
by NP317
Glenn:
There are several good books about the various Hawaiian Island railways.
The first one was written by John Hungerford, my Wife's Great Uncle.
I have it in my still-boxed library, post house move. Someday...
~RussN

Re: Hawaii Railway Society Machinist Group

Posted: Sat Mar 24, 2018 1:53 am
by Glenn Brooks
Russ, Do you recall the title? HRS has a couple of RR books for sale, that I will be buying and taking home. Very interested in your great Uncle’s book. I’ll look for his name in he store tomorrow.

Glenn

Re: Hawaii Railway Society Machinist Group

Posted: Sat Mar 24, 2018 10:31 am
by NP317
Glenn:
I just did a quick Google search and found 4 different books on Amazon.
Here's the Amazon link for the Hungerford book:
https://www.amazon.com/Hawaiian-Railroa ... dpSrc=srch

It's long out of print. I'm fortunate to have the Author's personal copy, plus his original black and white photo prints.
~Russ

Re: Hawaii Railway Society Machinist Group

Posted: Sat Mar 24, 2018 1:21 pm
by Mr Ron
Is it possible to get the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard involved in the project? They should have a good amount of machinery and tooling in their shops.

Re: Hawaii Railway Society Machinist Group

Posted: Wed Mar 28, 2018 2:47 pm
by Glenn Brooks
Mr. Ron, good idea. PH does have a surplus program, actually just the standard US Gov disposal process. Although occasionally the smaller non capital items just get scrapped and thrown out in the junk bin. One of the volunteer guys in the back shops once found a 36” slip roller in the scrap bin, missing one spur gear and the handle. Apparently the submarines each have one of these in the galley. The cook uses the slip roller to make large metal cans, which they fill up with garbage and eject through the hull when submerged on a mission. Also they sourced a brush platting device at one point - think electrolysis, but with the electrolyte painted on the surface, instead of the part being submerged in a tub of liquid. It’s used to clean and recoat thru hull fittings.

At the moment, we’ve decided to look for a smallish bench mounted mill, for little jobs. The shop is so crowded with stuff, there is almost not enuf room to turn around. The state has agreed to build a new museum display building and plantation era ticket office. However the state DOT agency isn’t interested in doing the engineering, so nothing is moving forward, and the shop area is buried with storage that could go into the display building. Once the building gets built, (or the shop gets a serious cleaning up and re organization ) it will open up more room for a proper mill.

Glenn

Re: Hawaii Railway Society Machinist Group

Posted: Sat Mar 31, 2018 5:58 pm
by Glenn Brooks
Just wrapping up my stay here on Oahu. Here’s a few miscellaneous photos of some of the Society’s preserved RR stuff.

I did find an original 1938 map of Oahu and took a couple of photos of several of the old plantation NG railway ROWs.hopefully the photos will be distinct enuf to view on screen. I’ll post the map images in a separate thread dedicated to plantation railway info.

All the wheels and trucks and rolling stock were and are 36” narrow gauge allover the island, except for a small bit of 24” equipment that came out of the WW2 Navy ammunition depot.

1890 Oahu Railway rollin stock Trucks with wooden bolsters
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1942 box car trucks, all metal castings and weld nets
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Honolulu Trolley wheels - circa 1890, cast in Edinborugh
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Typical WW 2 Naval railway box car, restored to service.
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Re: Hawaii Railway Society Machinist Group

Posted: Sat Mar 31, 2018 6:10 pm
by Glenn Brooks
Oahu RWy Motive power 1941 diesel electrics plus restored 1880’s era coal fired 0-6-2t .

174 and 423 are still in service as road engines, hauling weekend tourist trains on the Societies 7 miles of maintained track between the railhead at Ewa Villages, out leeward to Ko’Olina and back.
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Glenn

Re: Hawaii Railway Society Machinist Group

Posted: Sat Mar 31, 2018 8:54 pm
by Glenn Brooks
In response to Harlock and Russ earlier post, I did manage to locate a 1930 Topograghic survey map of Oahu. Actually it is pinned to the center hallwall of the Society’s ticket office/Quonset hut. So not to difficult to find. The map contains several of the plantation railroad right of ways that existed just after the peak of the King Sugar industry in 1930. Apparently there were a dozen or more plantation lines on the island over time- all with fixed mainlines connecting their big processing sugar cane processing plants with their major field divisions, and portable rail that field workers would move from individual field to feld as the cane matured and became ready for harvesting. Again - all 36” narrow gauge.

Hawaii historians note that railway technology was the major technical innovation of the day. For example, each cane car held 2.5 tons of cane stalks. Prior to introducing tank locomotives, such as the Olomana shown by Harlock in his earlier post, harvesting the sugar cane took 6 months labor to cut and move small ox carts of cane stalks from each field to the local mill. After the plantation railways were built, cane stalk rail cars moved massive quantities of raw cane, reducing harvest time to 6 weeks. So, the sugar industry in Hawaii benefited from enormous labor savings suring harvest, and realized greatly increased agricultural productivity - essentially doubling field productivity by allowing a second crop to be planted and harvested on the same ground each year. Almost every plantation throughout the islands developed specialized railway equipment, such as the unique cane car rolling stock, pineapple and molasses cars, and operational techniques such as laying and moving portable rail, and adopting steam technology to build tracked cranes with massive clam shells that could move from field to field to pick and load the massive 2.5 ton bundles of raw cane stalks onto the rail cars.

Here are a couple of photo segments from the overall map.

Map title and legend-
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Waimanolu Sugar Plantation Railway alignment
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A few segments of the original ROW still exist in Google Maps. The RR primarily linked the sugar cane fields with the Plantation processing mill located just Mauka (mountain side) of the plantation workers housing camp - now the old beach section of Waimanolu town.

Laie - Hauula District Railway - independent NG venture to link windward agricultural areas with terminus of the Oahu Railway. Also intended to eventually extend rail service back into Honolulu from the Windward Area. Failed after a few years operation due to low ridership and low freight revenues. Iam a little fuzzy on the ownership and proper name for this main line NG extension. My reference books are being shipped back to the mainland. Will update info next week.
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Dillingham Ranch Railroad - Mokuleia District- a few miles east of Ka’ena Point. Again, not sure of the traditional name. More research needed. James Dillngham’s Plantation Railway parallel the Oahu Railway shoreline route along Oahu’s NorthnShore, from Kaena Point to roughly the intersection with Haleiwa Town. The RR also exhibits several feeder spurs extending upcountry to sugar cane and pineapple fields adjoining mid way up Wailea Canyon. At least one junction with the Oahu Railway mainline at Haleiwa provided connecting rail freight and passenger service around the Leeward Coast to Honolulu, and eastward past Turtle Bay to Laie. In the early 20th century, prior to World War 2, Passengers could connect with early day motorized land transport to travel onwards to Honolulu, by crossing over the Koola Mountain range. Not an inconsiderable feat in those days, likely taking an additional 2 or 3 days travel to negotiate the 20 or so miles separating Honolulu from the Kailua/Kaneohe districts.
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Re: Hawaii Railway Society Machinist Group

Posted: Mon Apr 02, 2018 2:59 am
by Glenn Brooks
Last post discribing the Oahu Railway mainline alignment. Google earth images of Keaena Point (NW tip of Oahu) still show the original railbed laid down in the 1880’s. Management decided early on that following a coast route around the island was more feasible than building ROW and infrastructure up and over the rugged upper reaches of the Eva Plain. Water supplies for the steam engines were also a problem mauka - towards the mountains. So the RR build essentially a flat ROW near water level from Honolulu, past Pearl Harbor to the burgeoning sugar plantations around Waipahu and Eva. Then a year or two,latter extended the line counterclockwise up and around Kaena Point to James Dillingham’s plantation and Ranch at
Waialua, and on across the top of the island - now known as the North Shore -to Kahuku and the district Kuhuku Sugar mill just over on the windward side of Turtle Bay.

Dillingham was also the owner and President of the railroad. So the RR had little difficulty securing funds and corporate approval to undertake the venture! Old timetables report people in Honolulu could board the train at 9:00 in the morning and be in Haleiwa shortly after lunch! Or continue on to the Kahuku settlement and sugar mill an hour latter. A trip that previously took several days by horseback. Must have been an astonishing achievement in those early days.

We drove up to Ka’ena Point a few days ago to look around. It is still a remote and scenic, virtually undisturbed place. Very next beach for miles and miles,mostly uninhabited. Old Hawaii at its best. Except the old railbed has been maintained as a dirt “Jeep” trail and hiking path. Making it possible for hardy souls to mountain bike, or walk all the way around the island, if one wished to do.

Here’s a couple of snap shots of the raw volcanic terrain at the end of the paved portion of road, and a screen capture showing the existing google imagery of the remote, uninhabited terrain at the point. I regreat not having explored this area earlier in our stay. Would have made a great biking trip from the end of road around to the inhabited portion on the leeward side. Next time for sure!
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Glenn

Re: Hawaii Railway Society

Posted: Mon Apr 02, 2018 10:11 am
by NP317
That's an exploration trip around the NW of Oahu I've wanted to do for many years!
Thanks for sharing.
~RN

Re: Hawaii Railway Society

Posted: Sat Feb 02, 2019 2:35 am
by Glenn Brooks
Quick update on the Oahu Railway shops at Ewa Beach. ( Pronounced Eva).

Iam back on Oahu for the winter to volunteer in the back shops again. This time I plan to work on restoring a couple of old shapers the RR has in storage. One is a decent sized 24” machine donated years ago by the BYU machine shops over on the windward side. I think the shaper originally was used in the Kahuku sugar plantation machine shop, eventually purchased by BYU Laie campus, then eventually surplused out to the RR Society. Also will put in some time restoring one of the original parlor cars that carried passengers on scheduled service in and out of Honolulu from turn of the century up through the war years. The car frame is now ready for the superstructure to be added. So lots of carpentry needed to bolt down the sills, erect the frames, detail out the sides, windows, interior, and clestory roof structures. Fortunately the old timer who started the project three years ago made detailed drawings and measurements of each original bit of structure. So we have a complete errection plan to go by,

The RR society shipped one of the 25 ton road switchers off island a couple of months ago to Railway Constructors in Cheyenne, Wyoming for a complete overhaul. This is the first major work on the loco since the end of WWII. Cheaper to barge it to the mainland and ship to Wyoming than do the work locally. Plus the shops in Wyoming know what they are doing. The loco will get a new paint job in addition to rebuild and be sent back to Hawai’i latter this year.

Here’s a photo or two of the remaining motive power parked outside the Ewa Shops a few days ago. I hope to get checked out on the yard switcher this month. Be fun to drive around the real McCoy.

James Dillingham’s parlor car got a complete rebuild this past summer. New wood siding, deck, refurbished running gear, paint, the whole works. It looks and smells brand new - the enamel paint is still curing, you can actually smell the external oil based patina close up. The volunteer RR carpentry crew did the work. Extremely well done restoration. And certainly accomplished in short time frame! Original build was 1901 if memory serves. I’ll have to check and correct the date if I am wrong.

The last few photos are close up of the Dillingham car running gear. The truck frames are solid wood, through bolted and painted per original specification.

Also, took a close up look at the old ten wheeler on display in the yard out back. Castings indicate a build date of 1886. Appears to be a full size frame, with inside drivers to accommodate the 36” narrow gauge used on Oahu. Fascinating to be able to see and inspect the frame and spring hanger details - stuff that usually is obscured by the outside drivers and running gear.

Wahiawa #6 is currently parked outside the engine shed. It was the first locomotive to be built locally here in the islands, completed around 1890 or so. it’s an 0-6-2t work horse, that pulled Sugar Cane trains from the fields around central Oahu and North Shore down into the Sugar mills at Waipahu and Eva Villages, then finished product into the docks in downtown Honolulu for export to the mainland and overseas. The loco ran for 65 years or so, and is still capable of being fired, but is not fully operational due to a management decision to keep it in display mode only. Some day perhaps the old girl can be restored and certified in operating condition. All the crews would certainly like to see it steam again.

If anybody is interested in construction photos or measurements of any parts on the rolling stock, or,locos just let me know. I’ll be working - volunteering that is, in the back shops thru April.

Glenn