Oahu Railway and Land Company
The Oahu Railway and Land Company (OR & L) is a former railway company in Hawaii (United States). It operated a network of railways in a gauge of three feet (914 mm) on the island of Oahu.
History
Benjamin Franklin Dillingham founded on 4 February 1889, the company to build a railroad from Honolulu to Ewa. The concession for this he had received on 11 September 1888 by King Kalākaua. The track went on 16 November 1889 to Aiea in operation. On January 1, 1890 Pearl City was reached. The extension for Ewa was opened in May 1890. On July 4, 1895, rail track Waianae already reached Haleiwa on the north coast, where Dillingham built a hotel on the west coast of the island and on 1 June 1898. From this time, the line was operated in passenger transport. The Haleiwa Limited required for the route from Honolulu to Haleiwa only two hours. On December 28, 1898, the 115 km long main route Honolulu Kahuku was completed and in operation. In 1906 came another 17 km long branch line from Waipahu added after Wahiawā who also produced following the Schofield Barracks, an important barracks of the U.S. Army. Main goods transported were passengers in addition to sugar and pineapple, but it was also transported cargo.
End of June 1910, there were 16 locomotives, 25 passenger cars, four combined passenger, mail and baggage car, two parlor cars, three baggage cars, 152 closed, 86 flat freight cars, three material cars, 37 coal cars, 32 tankers and eight service vehicles owned by the railway company. In fiscal year 1909/10 617 719 passengers and 531 751 tons of goods were transported.
In 1921, the route from Honolulu to Waipahu Junction was expanded to double track and equipped with automatic block signals. During the Second World War, the U.S. Army built a 17- kilometer link from Wahiawā until after Puuiki on the north coast and a branch after Halemano. This had become necessary after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, as the coastal route for attacks was vulnerable and the sheet was urgently needed for the transport of troops and military equipment. In Halemano was a depot of the army. In addition, a six- kilometer Army connection of Nanakuli originated from in order to connect an ammunition bunker at Lualualei. To meet the strong demand for transport, the railway acquired used cars of different pathways from the continental U.S., including the Boston, Revere Beach and Lynn Railroad in Massachusetts.
On April 1, 1946, a tsunami destroyed large parts of the north coast of the island, including the railway line. While they built the track back on, the generally poor condition of tracks and cars, however, led to the fact that the traffic was stopped on 31 December 1947, the routes were largely eliminated. Only the double-track section of the main route from Honolulu to Kahili remained as a goods terminal railway in operation. In addition, the U.S. Navy led by irregular ammunition transports from the ammunition depot at Nanakuli to Pearl City. In 1961 the railway company was restructured as Oahu Railway and Terminal Warehouse Company. The following year, the traffic to Kahili and only 16 kilometers of track ended in the greater Honolulu remained as sidings still in use until 1972. 1970 also ended the military transports by rail.
1970 founded railway enthusiasts the Hawaiian Railway Society and purchased a part of the military route. On 1 December 1975, the route Ewa Mill Nanakuli on the National Register of Historic Places (German National Register of Historic Places ) was added. In operation, there is only the portion Ewa Mill Kahe Point, but plans to expand the operation to Nanakuli.