Waiakea Mill Company 0-4-2 Locomotives in the USA

Class Kapunakea (Locobase 14525)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University Volume 54, p. 406. See Locobase 14212 for a description of the plantation system this locomotive served. Works number 44281 in October 1916.

This was a larger version of the tanks bought for Waiakea Mill in 1909 and 1911, which are described in Locobase 14212.

Class Waiakea (Locobase 14212)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University Vol 49, p. 181. Works numbers were 33478 in June 1909 and 37228 in November 1911

Theo. H. Davies & Co owned several sugar plantations and was counted among the "Big Five" of the Hawaiian sugar business in particular and Hawaiian politics as well.

The General Plan history describes the camps that served these plantations: "The self-sufficient camps, generally divided by ethnicity, were comprised of schools, stores,

churches, recreational facilities, and medical centers. Plantation camps, often named for their ethnic inhabitants such as 'Portuguese Camp' or 'Hawaiian Spanish Village', perpetuated the cultural traditions of each group, which in turn has had a profound influence on modern day Maui."

To serve its far-flung plantation systems, T H Davies had Brewer & Company buy a series of saddletanks. The first of the two shown in the same spec headed for the Waiakea Sugar Mill on the Big Island of Hawai'i. Kaeleku was the second of the two in the order and was delivered two years later to the namesake plantation on Maui. By 1931, it too was operating on the Big Island for the Hamakua Sugar Mill.