Echoes of Yesterday...Last Vestiges of the Oahu Railway & Land Co

[Eric_Mueller]

I thought it would be interesting to photo document and share where evidence of the OR&L still emerge from the shadows of modern Oahu. Beyond the tourist railway ( The Hawaiian Railway Society - Oahu, Hawaii), virtually nothing exists, and many local folks have no knowledge that even that operation still runs trains! I know some trackage exists on base, where photography is generally forbidden, and last year Oldest Daughter and I documented an adventure along the cuts and bridges on the island’s western tip ( Ke Ka’a Ahi na a Leina a ka Uhane / Train to the Leap of the Soul). There is also a good stretch of track out west in Waianae where the Navy ran ammunition trains through the Vietnam War (I have to refind those photos!). The rest is a treasure hunt, and, hopefully, by opening this topic, it will help sharpen my eyes in my pursuit of yesteryear.

The project started this weekend. Oldest Son and I were stopping by our favorite board game store (for gamer and those seeking the actual location, see Retail Store- Other Realms LTD. (other-realms.com)), a place we’ve visited dozens of times before. I spotted what appeared to be two parallel lines and a hint of metal, so I let him head inside while I checked it out. Sure enough, it was a bit or rail!

You can just make out the faint outline of the other track over to the left. The track runs East-West, with these ghost rails terminating in a modern warehouse style building clearly built right over the top of them. I was playing dodge car, so no photo…To the east, however, is the Dole Cannery facility. This building now houses shops and banquet halls, but was once the place for a summer job, if not a career, in Honolulu. In fact, CINCHOUSE’s older relatives all worked here or in similar canneries that were once located in this general area.

This facility would be one of the last customers of a rail system that served a Kingdom, a Territory, and a State for a century. Dole alone holds out as the last commercial pineapple grower, though the cannery and rails that once brought “Hawaiian gold” to the world are gone, repurposed, or, like these rails, awaiting rediscovery.

More to follow as I find either a.) old picures or b.) new discoveries!

Eric

[Rick_Marty]

Thanks for sharing Eric. Searching out old abandoned rail grades has always been great fun for me so am looking forward to coming along with you on this search.

[Rooster]

Maps & Drawings – The Oahu Railway & Land Company

https://oahurailway.com/exhibit/canneries/#lg=1&slide=0

OR&L Model Railroad – The Oahu Railway & Land Company

[PeterT]

The drawings on Roosters first link are interesting, especially this ‘observation’ coach. An easy bash from a Bachmann coach.

[Rooster]

How easy Pete? Tried that with an Aristo heavyweight back in the day and opted against it .

[Eric_Mueller]

Pete,

I keep combing the local used market for a suitable donor for something like this. Both the LGB and B’mann coaches are “good enough” representatives, so it will be a matter of which pops first!

Eric

[PeterT]

@Rooster

Tried that with an Aristo heavyweight

The Obs already has a recessed platform, so all you would need is to cut out the windows?

@Eric_Mueller

the LGB and B’mann coaches are “good enough” representatives,

That’s what I thought. You should be able to find one for a few $$. If I find one for $5, you can pay for mailing in a shoebox!

[Cliff_Jennings]

Eric, I think it’s great that you’re tracing that line, and the remaining evidence.

I’m doing similar with the Dayton, Sutro & Carson Valley RR near Dayton, NV. I’ve been working on it a lot for several months, and can say that it’s very rewarding to discover things (physical evidence, newspapers, historical photos, etc.), correlate and document, and work with other historians to get the clearest picture possible.

It can be a super-engrossing thing, especially if you engage others who are passionate about it.

Best wishes on this,

Cliff

[freddy (Fred Mills)]

You might find lots of historical information, and pictures in old issues of the Shortline and Narrow Gauge Gazett. I know I remember seeing them ages ago.
The Railroads of the Islands have been well documented over the years; you just have to try to find the documentation, through deep research.
I know that I have read a lot of it, but never preserved it, because that area of the World was not of great interest to me.
I happen to be sitting here, wearing a cap lettered for the “Hawaii Consolidated Railway Ltd” There is a museum connected to that name, that should be able to aid in your research. “Laupahoehoe Train Museum”
FJM

[PeterT]

@freddy

old issues of the Shortline and Narrow Gauge Gazett.

Er, it’s actually the Narrow Gauge & Short Line Gazette, and 50 years of back issues are still available on Bob Hayden’s DVD, which is searchable. It’s not compatible with all versions of windows.
https://bobhayden.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=107

A couple of Xmas’ ago, I got a copy of “Hawaiian Railway Album WWII Photographs”, which is mostly the collection of a serviceman in WWII who was an avid RR photographer

[Eric_Mueller]

Pete,

I have been slowly accumulating those books that you mentioned. They are great! Someone else wrote a comprehensive work on plantation railways, but, at $300, it would’ve blown my hobby budget! I picked up a neat little book on Fowler’s in use during the Kingdom period, which was cool. As Fred ( @freddy ) mentioned, the stuff is out there, it is just a matter of tracking it down!

Oh, Fred, the Laupahoehoe Train Museum is pretty tiny. It is on another island, which may as well be the moon, as you have to fly from island to island. AnyqY, we were there in 2016 shortly before Kid-zilla entered the scene. It is all that is left of the HCR. It was a wye for both the standard gauge HCR and the narrow gauge system that connected at that point. The have a standard gauge caboose, a narrow gauge TNT car, and a narrow gauge critter. I am not sure the museum survived COVID.

Maui is desperately trying to save what’s left of the Lahaina Kaanapali and Pacific Railroad. Kauai has couple museums, one we’ve visited. The other may as well be on the back side of the moon! Some day…

Eric

[Eric_Mueller]

@PeterT

If I find one for $5, you can pay for mailing in a shoebox!

Let me know! Thanks for keeping your eyes open on our behalf!

Eric

[freddy (Fred Mills)]

Eric;
I just did a bit of searching, and found that “The Little Train Museum”, Laupahoehoe Train Museum; is alive and well…seemingly thriving…
It is very much a full community enterprise, with a growing amount of historical collectables and knowledge.
Do a search on your 'puter…
Fred

[PeterT]

@freddy

alive and well…seemingly thriving

Well, I hope it is in better shape than when we visited during covid times, a couple of years ago. It was closed and looked deserted.

[Eric_Mueller]

@freddy

“The Little Train Museum”, Laupahoehoe Train Museum; is alive and well…seemingly thriving…

I am glad to hear that. Next time we get over that way, we might have to take another look!

[Eric_Mueller]

Oldest Son and I had another “accidental” discovery last weekend as we traipsed about central Oahu. This time, we were exploring Kipapa Gulch as part of the annual Forum on Hawaii’s Military and Warrior Past. A 1933 map showed an OR&L branch, but it gave no clue to its customers at the time. The branch split from the main Wahiawa branch that served Schofield Barracks and, later, pineapple plantations, so we assumed that it served some small agricultural concerns. It probably made the most money for the company, however, during the frenzied construction of a network of fuel an ammunition storage bunkers in the lead up to and during the Second World War.

I tried to imagine the noise of construction equipment, steam engines, soldiers, and laborers as they furiously sought to ensure Oahu could survive the conflict that would soon engulf the world. After the War, the fuel storage would serve on through the '90s, outliving the OR&L that enabled its construction, and you could still smell the jet fuel in the concrete.

What evidence of rail service remains are shown below, a single length of a grade crossing…

…and the discarded, twisted heaps of the iron arteries that once carried the economic lifeblood of the island.

You can see the recent evidence of clearing, and I wonder if anyone stopped to wonder about the irony of tossing away the remnants of a once proud system even as our new rapid transit slowly comes to life.

• Eric

[Eric_Mueller]

I finally remembered to grab photos of the exposed right-of-way along the south coat of Oahu just beyond Pearl Harbor. This section survived into the 1970s, carrying munitions from Lualualei Magazine in Waianae to the ammo piers at West Loch, Pearl Harbor. Local lore says that among the weapons were the ultimate guarantors against nuclear sneak attack. I have reason to doubt that, but it is a good legend!

In earlier times, this would have been your view heading west towards the major plantations.

The right of way connects with the historical railway, and the tracks then run through the resort areas of Ko’olina before becoming unserviceable at Kahe Point. The rails still poke above the ground all the way to the old magazine, though.

Honolulu bound trains would have seen this.

From here, they would shortly reach Pearl Harbor and Hickam Field before running to the terminus at the docks in Iwilei. Today, the landward side has light industries, shops, apartments, and old plantation homes. The seaward side runs past homeless encampments, luxury homes, and military housing.

This SHOULD all be part of a groomed bikeway for commuting. Unfortunately, some areas are relatively isolated, and bikers (to include friends) have been assaulted along the wester portions of the route. As a consequence, while I have jogged the route from Pearl Habor to close the photos above, I did not carry my phone to avoid attracting additional attention to myself. Hawaii is a paradise, but it is an earthly paradise with earthly realities, unfortunately.

Eric

[Eric_Mueller]

While note part of the OR&L per se, the following are a neat physical legacy of Oahu’s “secret” railroad.

These are spikes a buddy of mine salvaged from the 2’ gauge line that the Navy used to build its underground Red Hill fuel storage facility. The project was so secret, that workers had to be convinced they could talk about it when they tried to write a history of it in the late 20th century! Unfortunately, a recent industrial accident led to the pollution of our aquafer, bringing this storied engineering project to an infamous end. For what it is worth, they have revitalized the railroad with new equipment. I hope that some of it will end up alongside its pre-WWII predecessors out at the museum.

As fascinating as the history is, the myths surrounding this line are better…

…that it secretly transported the dead and wounded of the Day of Infamy to hide the dead.
…that it connected to the hospital that is now the Marine Forces Pacific Building.
…that it went under Pearl Harbor to connect all the piers to the weapons facility at West Loch.
…that it transported “special weapons.”
…that you can still hear it rumbling under the mountains, carrying the ghosts of long dead miners to and from their shifts.

More stuff on our railroad history as I discover it. And, no, I will not hunt it. I will let it come to me!

Eric

[JRad (Jon Radder)]

Cool. I have a large number of railroad artifacts, but none of them have that provenance! Just rusty junk I picked up along the right of way of our local lines. They were displayed on my RR in a rust garden. Now that I’m moving they pose a problem. I can hardly lift a milk crate full of them and big ones, like a full size mainline fish plate, are too big and heavy to take. I hate to toss them in the recycle bin, but it may come to that. I have an ‘industrial crap’ picker stopping by this week. He has already purchased a number of old items from me so I’m hopeful that for free he will be interested in adding them to his pile.

Regarding the accident: I read about that a while back. If I recall, it was leaking fuel for a long time before it was discovered Too bad fiberglass tanks didn’t exist in the 40’s.

[Cliff_Jennings]

Excellent story, Eric. It’s got railroads, history, mystery and ghosts, there’s a lot to play with there. Some might go strictly historic, which is great. Some might go whole hog on legendary, and have a blast. Or both.

When you showed your photo of the spikes, I immediately thought of Jon’s rust garden, so I’m glad he described it.

Jon, bummer you didn’t haul it north so I could haul it back south, but I get it, you’ve got tons of other things to deal with. Good luck with your disposals!