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VIDEO REVIEWS


The Kahului Railroad and Lihue Plantation By Radix Automation, Inc. Order from Direct Music Café, 1256 Industrial Ave., Escondido, CA 92029; www.DirectMusicCafe.com; 760/ 747-2734. 23 minutes each plus 60 minutes of bonus features; DVD only. $24.95 each plus $5.95 shipping; CA residents add sales tax.


and had an extensive 30-inch gauge railroad working its cane fields. At its peak in 1910 it was 31 miles long with six locomotives and 420 cars. We see only diesel power here, some 30-ton GE center cabs and a couple of smaller critters, each named for a local flower. This visit took place in 1959, the last year of railroad operations. Some clips show field operations and a few field train runbys, show how cane is harvested and snap track is used. Loads and empties are seen, every- thing using link and pin couplers. We watch as trains run along the coast, cross a sub- stantial bridge, pass through a golf course (expanded after the railroad’s abandonment to 18 holes), pass a resort hotel and end at the mill. This was the last sugar railroad in Hawaii to close. The equipment was sold to Cuba but was never paid for (small matter of a revolution). The program consists of field footage plus some talking head interviews. Both DVDs have a main feature which is


Long before today’s massive Hawaiian tourism industry but only about 60 years af- ter Captain Cook’s third and unfortunately lethal trip to this island chain, Hawaii was a perfect place to grow sugar cane. In its hey- day prior to statehood, around the time of the California Gold Rush and the Civil War and beyond, scores of tiny railroads operat- ed on the islands to move cane to the mills, where output went to the mainland. The Queen drove a golden spike. Who knew? These railroads are similar in many re-


spects to the sugar plantation lines in Cuba with their small steam or diesel locomotives, purpose built cars, thee-foot gauge fixed right of way as well as two-foot or 30-inch gauge “snap track” to allow the rapid move- ment of track around the cane fields. Even- tually, Hawaiian sugar production declined as other sources came to the fore, including Cuba. Here, Maui native Bob Haney nar- rates his films showing the last days of cane operations on two islands and recounts, via talking head interviews, his experiences with the railroads and mills as well as his days during and after the Pearl Harbor at- tack in 1941. The Kahului Railroad on Maui was the


first three-foot gauge Hawaiian railroad built, and the last to abandon steam power. This program is the only one of the two which shows steam action as No. 12, a spiffy 1929 Baldwin 2-6-2 tender engine, switch- ing and on the main line, albeit normally pushing its consists. (No. 12 recently ran on the Georgetown Loop Railroad in Colorado and is being moved to the Midwest Central in Mount Pleasant, Iowa.) We also see five diesels in action; No. 1 is a two-axle critter and Nos. 2-5 are two-truck center cabs which move a variety of regular freight in- cluding tank cars of molasses and some truss rod freight cars (by this late date, the cane traffic had transitioned to trucks). Note the early creation and use of containers here, later adopted by Alaska and eventual- ly morphing into today’s dominant ocean shipping method. This 1960 visit takes us from the east end of the line down to the mill and docks where freighters are loaded. We watch cane being unloaded at the mill and view mill overview clips. Bob talks of riding the passenger trains to school in the 1930s and an empty 11-stall roundhouse is seen along with the locomotive dead line in 1967. The overall quality of the original films is best on this DVD, I believe. The Lihue Plantation on Kauai was huge


23 minutes long as described above. They are introduced by some scenic and train shots and good historical narration contin- ues throughout. The content of interest to railfans is regular 8mm Kodachrome home movies of varying quality from both compo- sition and technical standpoints. The films are indeed rare and were suitably cleaned, transferred and digitally enhanced. There is no dubbed sound, just narration and some string music. Maps explain the overall situ- ation on each island, but I found the lines used very thin and difficult to read. In addi- tion to the vintage film imagery is talking head footage of Bob Haney. Each DVD has over an hour of extra ma-


terial, ranging from all the raw film footage related to each DVD before editing to a nine- part segment covering Bob’s experiences during and right after the Pearl Harbor at- tacks in 1941. His war recollections are quite vivid and educational and explain some cir- cumstances glossed over by the usual docu- mentaries. These were most fascinating and well worth watching as oral history; Bob was on the team that chiseled a hole in the bot- tom of the U.S.S. Oklahoma to save sailors in the capsized ship. The Kahului extra content includes a by-the-numbers review of each diesel on the railroad, a Hana Plantation vis- it discussion and a review of sugar cane ship- ping methods. The Lihue extra content is the same, minus the diesel review. The Hana Plantation segment recounts taking a plea- sure boat trip to the plantation where a two- foot gauge critter was fired up for a jaunt (which is not shown). These are the first videos I have seen of


the Hawaiian sugar cane railroads and their related operations and infrastructure. (Sev- eral books have been published on Hawaiian railroads and there are some historical groups on the islands and a couple of tourist trains, with expansions to come). The visual quality varies from quite acceptable or good to quite dark or overexposed. Some se- quences are just clips while others are longer takes. The professional narration is quite comprehensive and well done. The editing and homework have produced a very educational product. This is very rare footage and these pro-


grams warrant consideration by railfans and historians who are not critical of 50- year old amateur film. The producer has ex- tensive footage of the Oahu Railway and will consider producing a program on that line as well. Aloha! — TOM KELCEC


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