Group in Hawaii wants to acquire more engines for the proposed plantation rail operation on Kauai. My understanding is the three engines already there are in operable condition. How many do they need for a 2 1/2 mile operation?

http://starbulletin.com/2004/03/17/business/story5.html
ryarger@rypn.org

I suppose that the biggest question is how many visitors are projected for the facility and are they planning to be an all steam operation. Schedule frequency will be dictated by the projected number of daily visitors and the capacity of each train. If the group projects that they will need to operate two passenger trains daily, that would leave only one back up locomotive to protect the scheduled service and perhaps perform some MOW work. Also, if a locomotive was down for maintenance, then there is no spare locomotive available if needed.

Another thing that us mainlanders have to remember is that even though the site being developed is on one of the smaller islands, there is a lot of inter-island air traffic (both tourist and residential). My family spent the 2001 Christmas holiday on Maui and Dad and I spent a day in Honolulu, visiting the USS Arizona and other sites. Inter-island fare for the two of us was about $75 round trip including taxes on Aloha. We were able to buy our tickets with cash at the airline ticket counter and the security check was thorough but efficient. Aloha schedules their inter-island 737s with departures as frequent as the Washington Metro. We had unrestricted tickets, so we had a flexible schedule knowing that and if we missed one flight, there would be another within half an hour to our destination. Also, it was nice to know that they wouldn't cancel the flight due to low passenger loads. Whether it's got one passenger or one hundred, that 737 is needed at the destination and is leaving come departure time. Once the inbound passengers were deplaned, they loaded us up. We had only about half a planeload and not having assigned seating helped speed up loading. Show your ticket and ID at the door, get on and grab an empty seat. I think our flight was so short that they did not offer in-flight services. It was definately no frills air travel but with it being so cheap, convienant and reliable, it's no wonder that there is so much inter-island traffic. Many people who work in Honolulu actually live on the other islands and commute daily via Aloha 737.

awalker1829@yahoo.com

The Grove Plantation with its three operable 30" engines is planning on relaying some track. Nearby there is a proposal for a 36" gauge line that is the one looking for locos. They apparently had hoped to get some ex-Oahu Sugar locos, but that plan developed some snags. The source of this info is Trainline, the TRAIN monthly, which in turn credits the the Honolulu Advertiser, and The Fast Main. There was also an informative post about the 36" guage line on the NGDF.

jbwest@att.net