Kahe Point railroad restoration spans big gap
By James Gonser
Advertiser Leeward Bureau
Volunteers helped expand the reach of the Hawaiian Railway Society over the weekend by building a 32-foot bridge over a wash near Kahe Point where the tracks dead-end.
What: Chartered train trips on the historic O'ahu Railway & Land Co. track for students, seniors and other groups and trips for the general public. The 13-mile ride to Kahe Point and back takes 90 minutes. When: 12:30 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. Sundays. Be there a half hour before departure. Where: The 'Ewa station at the end of Renton Road. Cost: $8 for adults, $5 for children and $5 for seniors. Other: On the second Sunday of every month, the society takes out the restored Dillingham Car No. 64, built in 1900 for Ben Dillingham. Cost is $15 and reservations are required. Information: Call 681-5461.
A 10-member crew and a crane from Hawaiian Dredging Construction Co. lifted the steel and timber beams, setting them in place to make the bridge.
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Old-time train trip
Larry Howard, with the Hawaiian Railway Society, said the new bridge replaces a wooden bridge that fell into disrepair about 30 years ago.
"There hasn't been any train over it since the 1970s," Howard said. "In the next month or so we will get the ties and rails put in, which will allow the train to move up a little further. It will give us another half-mile maybe. That is how we work, a half-mile at a time."
The bridge work is part of a restoration and maintenance project on the historic O'ahu Railway & Land Co. track. Fifteen miles of train right-of-way, which is on both the State and National Registers of Historic Sites, are all that remain of the 70-mile main line once used by the OR&L formed by Ben Dillingham in 1889. Service around most of the island was discontinued in 1947. OR&L kept up industrial service to the Iwilei canneries and docks until 1972.
Howard said the society is also working a second 40-foot bridge just past the Hawaiian Electric power plant.
"We've been working on the bridge for more than two years," Howard said. "The metal beams were donated by the Navy. We had to weld them to make them work."
The society is the custodian of the right-of-way on land owned by the state. To date, almost half the right-of-way has been restored to operating condition and the group plans to restore the stretch from Kahe Point Beach Park to Lualualei Road in Ma'ili.
Richard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser
The society operates an old-style railway trip across the 'Ewa Plain 13 miles to Kahe Point and back. The 90-minute round trip moves along around 15 mph while passengers listen to the history of the railway from when 47 sugar plantations had private railway systems and railway signs were handwritten in Hawaiian.
Ben Schlapak, a volunteer with the Hawaiian Railway Society, touches up a railway trestle. The society operates an old-style railway trip across the 'Ewa Plain to Kahe Point.
"We think it is an important part of our history," Howard said. "All over the world historic trains are coming back as an interest for people to see, and there is nothing like riding an old locomotive to get a good feel of what it was like."
Jim Prentice, general superintendent for Hawaiian Dredging, said when both bridges are finished the train will be able to reach Nanakuli.
"Old Mr. Dillingham built the railroad out there, so we feel it is part of our heritage," Prentice said. "He also founded Hawaiian Dredging (in 1902). A lot of my men are from that community, so we get involved with a lot of projects out there."
