Re: Grove Farms/Lihue Plantation Railroad

Fortunately for us narrow gauge fans a Hawaiian born rail fan, Robert Haney, documented some of the Hawaiian railroads while they were still in operation.


In 2012 I produced two film documentaries, available for sale in DVD format, on Hawaiian railroads featuring some of the Robert Haney film footage.


One is called: Lihue Plantation The Last Hawaiian Sugar Train.

Here is some data of interest.

The sugar cane from the Grove Farm was processed at the mill of the Lihue Plantation (LP) starting in the 1870’s. The Grove Farm never built it’s own mill.

The Grove farm railroad and the LP railroad were connected. The LP railroad ran from 1892 to 1959.

The LP introduced diesel locomotives in 1938, ran both steam and diesels until 1951, and from 1951 to 1959 ran only diesels when Robert Haney filmed the operation.

The railroad of the LP Corporation was completely scaped in 1959, while the steam engines of the privately owned Grove Farm railroad were parked in their engine shed and left when the railroad shut down.

In 1931 the LP railway had 31 miles of main line of track and 5 miles of portable track.

The documentary features film taken by Robert Haney of the railroad’s operation in 1959, two weeks before the railway was to shut down. Robert Haney was given permission by the plantation to film, and spent three days documenting the operations.

Lihue Plantation The Last Hawaiian Sugar Train

A You tube trailer of the Lihue DVD can be seen at:

[www.cdsdirectmusic.com]

The second documentary is on the 36 inch gauge common carrier of Maui:


The Kahului Railroad

[www.cdsdirectmusic.com]

Dave Swanson