Oahu Railfanning

nkp174

nkp174

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Oct 10, 2006
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Cincinnati, O.
Recently I had a chance to visit the Hawaiian Railway Society in Ewa, HI. It is a 3' gauge line with a 4 steam locomotives, a few diesels, and probably around 15 cars. One of their steam engines, an 0-6-2t is currently being restored. I didn't get there in time to ride, but I did get their in time to be impressed by both their operation and by how large of an operation the Oahu Railway was in the 1940s (double track mainline, automatic block signals, and 2-8-2s).

Here's there 0-6-0 which was actually as powerful as the Class 56 2-8-0s used extensively on the continent
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And a modern freight car
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Their restored private car
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There website is: http://www.hawaiianrailway.com/

Michael
 
Those are some neat pictures. I was not aware there was steam on Oahu. On several occasions, I have had the chance to ride the Sugar Cane Train between Lahaina and Kaanapali on the island of Maui. Fun stuffs. I'd post some pics but those were the days when I was still using 35mm slides.
 
Michael,

Nice pictures, thanks for sharing. I really like the 0-6-0. Those trucks under the tender look almost like they are touching. I think that would be a neat switcher to model. 0-6-0's weren't real common in 3' gauge were they.

Greg
 
Greg Elems said:
I really like the 0-6-0. Those trucks under the tender look almost like they are touching. I think that would be a neat switcher to model. 0-6-0's weren't real common in 3' gauge were they.

Greg
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I am really curious about it. The tender is just great. I wonder if it was a freight locomotive or a switcher. (narrow gauge roads typically just used older 2-8-0s and 2-6-0s for switching...and the first D&RG 2-8-2s came equipped with sloped back tenders) Previously, the only 3' gauge 0-6-0s I can recall seeing were tank engines.
 
Triplex said:
Pardon my ignorance, but what's a Class 56?
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The Class 56 2-8-0s were the little sisters of the more famous Class 60 2-8-0s (later known as the C-16s). The South Park's Baldwin 2-8-0s were not C-16s, but rather Class 56 copies. The Rio Grande had a bunch of both the C56s and C60s. The C56s disappeared as the mainline was standard gauged and when the first 2-8-2s arrived. Hence, they ended up on many lines both as second hand power from the Rio Grande and as original power. All of Otto Mears's properties had Class 56s...but not Class 60s. The F&CC started off with leased c56s and c60s. A C56 ended up on the Uintah. I think one C56 lasted long enough for the re-classification of the 1920s...when it received the designation C-14. The 0-6-0s were more powerful than the C56s, but not the C-16s. The 0-6-0s were ALCOs. I've since found, thanks to George Hinton's book, that the OR&L also had 0-8-0s!
 
Your brining up the Oahu Railway led me to realize that Hawaii is definitely the forgotten state in terms of railroads. I was searching for information on the Oahu Railway and the other railways. There isn't much online, especially when it comes to photos. Okay, the railways collapsed right after WW2, but you'd think there'd still be something. I'm most disappointed by not being able to find anything useful on the Honolulu terminal operation, which outlasted the rest of the Oahu Railway by 25 years. By my reckoning, that makes it the second-last narrow gauge railway in the United States.
 
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