Hawaii’s Back Yard Cheryl Chee Tsutsumi

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Nostalgic train trip chugs into Kauai's past

When Pepe Trask says he's had hands-on involvement with Kauai Plantation Railway, he means it. Over eight months last year, the genial general manager of Kauai's newest attraction helped lay every one of the 7,920 70-pound wooden ties and 1,056 600-pound steel rails for its three-mile train track at Kilohana Plantation.

Kauai Plantation Railway Meet at: Kilohana Plantation, 3-2087 Kaumualii Highway, about one mile south of Lihue, Kauai. In addition to train tours, there are horse-drawn carriage rides, great shopping, dining and special events facilities. Tours: Five tours are offered daily from 10 a.m. Check in 30 minutes before departure. Cost: $18 for adults, $14 for ages 2 through 12, free for younger than 2. Ask about kamaaina, school and group rates. Call: (808) 245-7245. Reservations taken between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. daily. E-mail: Train@hawaiilink.net Web site: www.kauaiplantationrailway.com

"The entire track was built the old way, by hand," said Trask. "The rails are secured by 31,680 spikes that were driven into the ties with 11-pound mauls. Nobody in the crew knew how to build a train track, or had ever built one before, but a train consultant/engineer came from the mainland every two months to advise us."

Kauai Plantation Railway's tour enhances visitors' experiences at 105-acre Kilohana Plantation, a State of Hawaii Historic Landmark that's touted as Kauai's premier dining, shopping and entertainment venue. A vintage diesel train chugs past orchards, vegetable gardens, taro patches, and expansive pastures where sheep, goats, cattle, horses and wild pigs graze.

The Plantation's centerpiece is the elegant 16,000-square-foot Tudor-style home built in 1935 as the residence of sugar baron Gaylord Wilcox. In the heyday of Kauai's sugar industry at the turn of the last century, Grove Farm, owned by the Wilcox family, had more than 22,000 acres planted in cane, and there were eight other sugar plantations operating on the island.

In 1881, Kilauea Sugar Plantation brought the first trains to Kauai to transport harvested cane from its fields to its mill for processing and to carry raw sugar to the docks for refining in California. Kauai's other plantations soon followed suit.

"The trains improved operations and vastly increased sugarcane production," said Trask. "Prior to that, oxen, donkeys and mules were the primary means of transportation on the plantations."

Trucks replaced trains by the late 1950s, which is why Kauai Plantation Railway's tour has awakened nostalgia. When it launched in January, all the senior citizen clubs on Kauai were invited to experience it.

"Those people are in their 70s, 80s and 90s now," said Trask. "Many of them were born, raised and worked on the plantations, and all of them have vivid memories. They saw trains every day, but only a privileged few got to ride on them. I've seen old-timers quietly sit and cry when they take the tour."

THE 40-MINUTE ride often strikes such deep emotional chords, participants are inspired to donate photographs of their and their family's life on the plantations to Kauai Plantation Railway. As the pictures come in, Trask frames and mounts them in a permanent exhibit on the train depot's walls.

New, longer tour includes hike and lunch Starting April 9, the Kauai Plantation Railway will be offering a Train, Hike and Lunch tour at 9 a.m. and noon. This two-and-a-half-hour option includes a train ride and guided hike into Kahuna Nui Valley, a tranquil Eden where noni (Indian mulberry), ginger, heliconia, coconut palms and a host of other tropical plants flourish. You'll walk beside a stream; spin on a rope swing; "talk story" in a scenic spot; and learn about the flora, fauna, history and legends of Kauai on this 90-minute walk, which is easy enough for a child. Lunch will consist of a turkey, ham or roast beef sandwich; chips; macadamia chocolate chip cookies; and beverages. Tour prices are $75 for adults, $60 for ages 2 through 12, and free for younger than 2. Ask about kamaaina and group rates. The Kilohana Farmers Market is being constructed in the front of Kilohana Plantation, off Kaumualii Highway. Fruits, vegetables, nuts and flowers grown at the plantation will be sold there when it opens in late summer. Plans call for agricultural students from Kauai Community College to participate in the market operations.

"Captions tell who the families are and what plantations they worked for," he said. "This display is our way to honor, document and preserve the memory of our kupuna (elders) and ohana (families) who contributed to and are an important part of Kauai's history."

That, in fact, was the vision Fred Atkins and the late Kirk Smith had when they created Kilohana Plantation in 1985.

"Our tagline for the project was 'Kilohana: A Glimpse of Kauai's Past,' " Atkins recalled. "By walking through Gaylord Wilcox's home and seeing the vegetable gardens and old workers' cottages, we wanted to give visitors a taste of the old plantation life."

In 2002, the two partners teamed up with renowned historic restoration architect Boone Morrison to create an agricultural park on 68 acres of fallow sugarcane land adjacent to Kilohana Plantation. Fourteen farmers lease the land to grow a cornucopia of crops, including bananas, papayas, eggplant, peanuts, cashews, coffee, avocado, taro, tropical flowers, hardwood trees, and exotic fruits such as longan, lychee and rambutan.

"The agricultural park provides a look at the future of agriculture on Kauai," said Atkins.

"At Kilohana, visitors can experience not only old plantation life, but they can see the variety of crops that have taken the place of sugar on the island."

Kauai Plantation Railway's tour, he said, links past, present and future. Although the idea for it was conceived at the same time as the agricultural park, efforts to bring it to fruition didn't begin in earnest until 2004, when the entrepreneurs heard two Baldwin steam engines once used at Honolulu Plantation Co. in Aiea were available for purchase in the Philippines.

Halawa was built in 1899 and Manana was built in 1916. When Honolulu Plantation Co. went out of business in 1947, the engines were sold to the Hawaiian-Philippine Co. on Negros island. They were retired in 2000 and put up for sale.

"To have found a pair of former Hawaii locomotives was a miracle," said Atkins. "We decided to acquire both and preserve them."

The engines currently are stored at a facility in Georgetown, Calif., awaiting funds for restoration.

"It will cost $300,000 to refurbish each one, and right now we're not able to do that," said Atkins. "In the meantime, we're fortunate to have secured, refurbished and put into service two diesel locomotives, a 1939 Whitcomb and a 1948 General Electric."

These locomotives pull four 36-passenger cars with big picture windows and gleaming mahogany interiors. Custom-made in the Philippines following specifications for passenger cars used by King Kalakaua, they're named after Kauai's Hanalei, Wailua, Waimea and Wainiha rivers.

Now that Kauai Plantation Railway's tour is rolling along smoothly, Atkins hopes to start a fundraising drive to restore Halawa and Manana.

"We'd like to put a donation box in the train depot and eventually obtain grants," he said. "Hawaii's train history isn't well known or well documented.

Halawa and Manana are part of that history, and we know there are people who want to bring those steam engines back to Hawaii, who want to bring history home."