Kaua'i Sugar Train
Plantation railroad reborn
by Alan D. McNarie
Volcano Architect Boone Morrison
has been railroad buff all his life. Now he's living a dream.
Morrison is supervisor of the Kaua'i Plantation Railway, three miles
of narrow gauge steel nostalgia that circle Kilohana Plantation on Kaua'i.
The railway hauled its first passengers last month, is currently operating
with two restored antique diesel locomotives, and is in the process
of restoring two steam locomotives that originally worked a plantation
railroad on O'ahu.
The railroad is the latest attraction at Kilohana Plantation, a locally
owned museum, shops and experimental farm located on the Wilcox Estate
near Lihue. The family owned Ali'i Plantation and Grove Farms; their
16,000 square-foot Tudor-style house, built in 1935, was once the hub
of Kaua'i's social circuit. Today, the first floor still displays many
original furnishings; other rooms in the mansion and outbuildings feature
local crafts and fine arts for sale, while the patio contains Gaylord's
Restaurant. Local farmers lease the surrounding land to produce vegetables,
livestock, sugar cane, wetland taro, and over 50 varieties of fruit
trees.
Morrison first got involved with the plantation when he was called in
to restore the Wilcox mansion after it was devastated by Hurricane Iniki.
Kilohana Plantation partner Fred Atkins then sought Morrison's advice
on creating "an agrovisitor destination." Atkins suggested
a rubber-tired tram to give visitors tours of the farms. Instead, Morrison
lobbied for the same type of narrow gauge railroad once used on local
sugar plantations.
Although Kilohana Plantation never had a railroad, but its neighbors
had. Kaua'i plantations once used 25 locomotives and nearly 200 miles
of track to haul cane from the fields to the mills. Those tracks had
been 30" gauge-that is, the distance between the two rails was
30 inches-but Morrison soon discovered that 30" gauge rolling stock
simply wasn't available. So he set out on a hunt for 36" gauge
stock, which had been common on the other islands. He learned that the
White Pass and Yukon Railroad in Alaska was selling off flatcars that
were built in 1942 for the U. S. Navy to use at Pearl Harbor. Morrison
bought ten of the cars for their scrap value, and contracted with a
company in the Philippines to build passenger coach bodies for them.
He designed the coaches himself, modeling them on the old Kalakaua cars
(named after Merrie Monarch-and railroad buff-King Kalakaua) once common
on island railroads. Morrison's cars hold 36 passengers, whereas the
original Kalakaua cars held 12-14; otherwise the new cars match the
design and ambiance of the originals.
Morrison wanted steam engines, preferably ones that had served in Hawai'i,
but knew those were going to be difficult to find. He decided to start
out with diesel engines, which had also seen service on Kaua'i in the
first half of the 20th Century.
His first find, he says, was "a lovely 1939 machine built by the
Whitcomb Company and owned by a museum on the West Coast." The
little engine was the same model as the first diesels that reached Kaua'i,
but was in "very bad shape." Morrison turned to Brook's Locomotive
Works, one of the nation's leading railroad restoration companies, which
rebuilt the little diesel in California and shipped it to Kaua'i.
Morrison found a second diesel in a limestone quarry in Arkansas, and
set up his own maintenance shop set up on Kaua'i. The engine came straight
to the Garden Isle, and was restored entirely by Kaua'i craftsmen.
Meanwhile, a miracle had occurred. One of Morrison's Philippine contacts
put him in touch with Tim Bennett, the manager and co-owner of the Philippine
Hawaiian Sugar Company on the island of Negros. Bennett had two Baldwin
steam locomotives originally built for a plantation on O'ahu.
Bennett and Morrison had actually met before, at a music jam in Hamakua.
"It turns out, he's a Big Island boy. His dad was in the plantation
industry on the Hamakua Coast," says Morrison.
Brook Rother set out for the Philippines to check out the two engines.
He had to hire armed escorts to get to the plantation, since the country
between it and the local port was infested with Abu Sayaf guerillas.
"The older engine, named Halawa, was constructed in 1899,"
says Morrison. "The younger, Manana, was constructed and delivered
in 1911 to the same company. They ran on the Honolulu Plantation Company
until 1947. They were sold to the Hawaiian Philippine Sugar Company
in that year, and remained in service there until 1999."
Brook's Locomotive Works near Sacramento is restoring the engines for
$250,000 each and both should be ready in about 18 months.
The railroad has quadrupled the Kilohana Plantation payroll to over100
people-all of them from Kaua'i, Morrison notes proudly. All the plantation's
shareholders also live in Hawai'i except one, who used to. All of Morrison's
conductors and track crew are native Hawaiian.
When the project started, none of the employees had any railroad experience.
But 250 tons of iron rail, 7,000 railroad ties, 27,000 hand-driven spikes
later, they're railroad men.
When the railroad made its maiden run on April 27, the little Whitcomb
diesel's wheels began slipping on wet track. Morrison ordered the second
diesel to hook up to the back of the train to push. His crew had never
done that maneuver before, but carried it off smoothly. When the train
reached the top of the grade, the rear engine unhitched while the train
was still rolling: again with no problem, though the crew had never
done that before, either.
"We're resourceful. We aloha the visitors, but rely on ourselves,
our guys," Morrison says. "That is how Kaua'i got through
the aftermath of Iniki, Our guys. My cousin, my friend, my so-in-so...
that's how we built the railroad. That's what Kilohana is all about."
On the Web:
Kaua'i Plantation Railway
kauaiplantationrailway.com
Kilohana Plantation
kilohanakauai.com
PQ: When the project started, none of the employees had any railroad
experience. But 250 tons of iron rail, 7,000 railroad ties, 27,000 hand-driven
spikes later, they're railroad men.
PQ: The railroad has quadrupled the Kilohana Plantation payroll to over100
people-all of them from Kaua'i.
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