Kauai Plantation Railway

There are two heritage railways in Kauai, the birthplace of Hawaiian railroading. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on January 19, 1979.The Grove Farm Sugar Plantation Museum preserved original steam locomotives from the earliest days of rail transport in Kauai, restoring the small-gauge engines without much notice beyond the local community. The museum acquired property where historic right-of-ways had run, and found, in the thick vegetation, track beds ready for restoration, allowing the Museum to display their authentic, working locomotives. The second heritage railway in Kauai is the Kauai Plantation Railway at Kilohana. Unlike the Grove Farm Museum trains, which are brought out only once a month, the Kauai Plantation Railway is a daily fee-based attraction.Context of Kauai’s railroading originsSugarcane plantations in Hawaii led to the introduction of railways to Hawaii. Rail transport in Hawaii began in the late 19th century when small-gauge locomotives were brought in to replace oxen or horses to haul harvested sugarcane from the fields to mills, and then to transport the raw sugar to docks for shipment to refineries in California.Hawaii’s first commercial sugar plantation was created in Koloa, Kauai in 1835, and sugar rapidly grew to dominate Kauai’s economy—and the economy of the Hawaiian archipelago—through the 19th and 20th centuries; railways were but one of several innovations introduced to Kauai to increase efficiency and capitalize on available resources during the 19th century. For example, steam plows were used by around the middle of the century, and abundant electricity was generated from mountain streams both to power mills and illuminate the fields for 24-hour shifts as early as 1885. Kauai’s early leadership in rail transport in Hawaii is consistent with this tradition of innovation.