Ka'eleku Sugar Co 0-4-2 Locomotives in the USA

Class Morris (Locobase 14211)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University Volume 49, p. 179. See also Maui Island History: Lessons from the Past--A Guide to the Future published at []. (Thanks to Lucas Eddy for his 13 May 2018 email correcting the Morris's track gauge.) See also and "Train Jumps Track, Five Killed, Many Hurt" in Maui News, 23 June 1915, Page 1, Works number was 37764 in May 1912.

This little plantation saddle tank was ordered by Brewer & Company to serve the Ka'eleku plantation on Maui as a younger, smaller companion to the Haeleku described in Locobase 14212. The plantation had originally opened as the Hana Plantation, but was renamed in 1907 and widened to 36" gauge. By 1910, the plantation ran for ten miles (16 km) along Maui's windward coast and boasted two locomotives (a Fowler and a Baldwin) and many cane cars. Annual rainfall of 70 inches meant no irrigation was needed and water was even available for fluming the Yellow Caledonia cane to the roller mills. From the mill, an engine pulled cane cars to Hana harbor for shipment to Honolulu.

A 22 June 1916 accident involving a locomotive on the Ka'eleku plantation was fully documented in the Maui News. Because the other Baldwin is shown in service for several decades, Locobase suspects, but cannot be sure, that it was the Morris that left the rails.

"Five are dead, one is dying [the locomotive's engineer Nishiyama], 27 others are badly hurt, while a dozen or more are are suffering from minor injuries, as the result of a wreck on the railroad of the Kaeleku Sugar Company," the Maui News reported. Two of the dead were the locomotive's fireman Tokushige and cane cutter Murai. Nishiyama had run locomotives for 15 years and was "known to be a reliable and careful driver."

The locomotive and three cars plunged off a 25-foot high trestle while bringing 40 and 50 Japanese, Filipino and .Portuguese laborers home from work in the Mokae section of the plantation beyond Hamoa. "Without a second's warning," the paper continued, the men were "dumped into a struggling mangled, screaming mass of humanity upon the rocks at the bottom of Haneoo gulch ...That more were not killed outright is the remarkable feature of the accident; but as it was scarcely a man escaped without injury."

A relief train was dispatched within a few minutes from the mill and volunteers "Within a few minutes after the disaster occurred, a relief train was sent from the mill to the scene, and volunteers "began the task of separating the wounded from the dead ...As the injured were removed, they were rushed to the Catholic church, which was thrown open as a hospital, and where Dr. Litchenfels and volunteer assistants struggled for hours to relieve the suffering."