Well
Many of you may think the "lil Critter" locos are somewhat fantasy, but there is one real on at the HAWAIIAN RAILWAY SOCIETY.
It is Diesel Locomotive 7750, a 150 horsepower diesel electric built by General Electric in1942 Used as a switcher by the military. Four wheel Weight: 25 tons.
http://www.hawaiianrailway.com/Train%20Images/javascriptphotos/operational/large/7750/7750_1.jpg
Another purdy loco is the Steam Locomotive - Ewa 1, a loco Built 1890 by Baldwin Locomotive Works Wheel Arrangement: 0-4-2T with tender. Weight: 12 tons First steam locomotive used on the Ewa Sugar Plantation.
http://www.hawaiianrailway.com/Train%20Images/javascriptphotos/historical/large/Ewa1/ewa1_1.jpg
With the prospect of irrigation water available from underground sources, Ewa Plantation Company was incorporated in 1890. Mr. B.F. Dillingham sublet more than 11,000 acres of land to the newly formed company, considering the future hauling business a necessary factor in the success of his Oahu Railway plans.
Clearing the land began on January 6, 1890 with 15 men, two horses and nine mules. The first seed cane, the Lahaina variety, was planted two months later. During the first year of operation, 22 wells were bored and 775 acres were planted at Honouliuli and Ewa. In April of 1890, the first Japanese laborers arrived at Ewa Plantation.
Excavation for the mill began in January 1891 and in the same year the high lift pump began bringing water into a reservoir.
The first crop, harvested in 1892, produced 2,849 tons of sugar. By 1923 Ewa Plantation was the first sugar company in the world to raise ten tons of sugar per acre and, by 1933, the plantation produced over 61,000 tons of sugar a year.
By 1910 the Ewa Plantation Company community of 2,500 people contained several laborers camps, the plantation store, kindergarten, clubhouse, hospital and dispensary, and several outlying camps.
Approximately 30 miles of railroad track serviced the plantation. Sugar form the mill was conveyed by the Oahu Railway and Land Company to Honolulu Harbor or shipping.
Ewa Plantation was considered one of the most prosperous plantations in Hawaii and in 1931 a new 50 year lease was executed, completing the agreement with Oahu Railway and Land Company and beginning an association with the James Campbell Estate.
A new hospital was built in 1935, part of an exemplary health care system which included kindergartens, child health clinics, and nutrition studies.
By 1936 Ewa Plantation Company was the first plantation to have a fully mechanized harvesting operation and by 1946 tests were made to convert the hauling of cane from railroads to large trucks. {HOW COULD THEY??? TRUCKS? MY OH MY}
Due to the proximity of Pearl Harbor, Ewa Plantation Company suffered some damage from machine gun fire and anti-aircraft shells during the December 7, 1941 air attack. With the entry of the United States into World War II, the Army took possession of over 500,000 acres of Ewa Plantation land. As with all Hawaii sugar companies, Ewa Plantation's most serious wartime problem was a shortage of laborers.
By 1951 a good sugar crop and substantial investment in new equipment and development had mitigated the effects if the war and a labor strike in 1946, and a record crop was produced.
In 1962 Castle and Cooke Ltd. Purchased majority control of Ewa Plantation Company stock and in 1970 Ewa Plantation Company merged with Oahu Sugar Company in Waipahu, Oahu.
Afew more PURDY Steam locos:
This one, A Steam Locomotive - Kauila 6- Built 1889 by Baldwin Locomotive Works. Wheel Arrangement: 0-4-2T Weight 12 tons. This coal burner was the first locomotive bought and used by Oahu Railway & Land Company.
http://www.hawaiianrailway.com/Train%20Images/javascriptphotos/historical/large/Kauila6/kauila_1.jpg
At its peak in the early 1900s, the Oahu Railway and Land Co. one of seven major railroads that served the Islands, extended 160 miles, hauling sugar to docks, pineapples to canneries and construction materials to work sites. It also was used for military and civilian transport, particularly during the World War II years.
One of the most sophisticated systems of its day, the "narrow gauge" line featured a double-track main line, automatic block signals, commuter operations and four Mikado locomotives similar to those used on Colorado's Durango line.
The first nine miles of the OR&L opened on Nov. 16, 1889, King Kalakaua's 53rd birthday, with more than 4,000 residents taking advantage of free rides.
OR&L was started by Benjamin F. Dillingham, who had opened a hardware company to serve the burgeoning sugar industry.
It wasn't long before Dillingham, who had arrived in Hawai'i in 1864, started leasing land in Kahuku and 'Ewa for his own plantations.
Recognizing the need for more efficient transport of agricultural products to O'ahu ports for shipment, Dillingham got permission from Kalakaua to establish the railroad system.
The rapid expansion of the railway played a significant role in generating new land sales and new agricultural industries, including pineapple.
The development of roads around the island led to the slow demise of railroads.
OR&L's fate was effectively decided by the 1946 tsunami that destroyed long sections of track and by a series of sugar strikes that drastically reduced the amount of freight that needed to be moved.
http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/dailypix/2006/Jul/02/sesq2oahurailway.jpg
One more PURDY loco:
http://www.hawaiianrailway.com/Train%20Images/javascriptphotos/historical/large/Waco6/waco6_1.jpg
Hope you have enjoyed this bit of Hawaiian Railroad history!
*sigh* aren't the steamers PURDY??
Have a GREAT day!