Ola'a Sugar Company 2-6-0 "Mogul" Locomotives in the USA

Class 8 (Locobase 13766)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University Volume 36, p. 242 , Vol 54, pp. 425+ and Vol 63, pp. 235+. See also the Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association Plantation Archives concerning the Puna Sugar Company/Olaa Sugar Company at [], last accessed 21 January 2012. Works numbers were 35291 in September 1910, 37123 in October 1911, 42863 in February 1916, and 54465 in January 1921.

Brewer & Company were dealers in locomotives to the Hawaiian Islands. The Olaa Sugar Company was located 9 miles (14.5 km) from Hilo on the Big Island. According to the Archives, the Olaa Sugar Company took over the adjacent Puna plantation in 1905.

Ironically, given the heavy rain discussed below, a lack of dependable water supply meant that the 72 miles of flumes constructed to convey sugar cane to the mill contributed less than the 35 miles of standard-gauge railroad over which locomotives like the oil-burning 8 pulled 60% of the cane. Curves were as tight as 18 degrees, the ruling grade amounted to 3%. Rail weights varied widely - in some sections rail weighed 25-lb/yard (12.5-kg/metre) while others were as heavy as 60-lb/yard (30-kg/metre).

The 16 was delivered in 1916 with a bigger tender weighing 70,000 lb (31,752 kg) and holding 3,500 US gallons (13,248 litres) of water. Weight on the drivers increased as well, to 66,200 lb (30,028 kg) and engine weight rose to 77,300 lb/35,063 kg). And the arrival of the 21 in 1921 was accompanied by further weight gain with adhesion weight climbing to 70,500 lb (31,752 kg) and engine weight now 84,000 lb (38,102 kg). The tender also added a ton and now weighed 72,000 lb (32,659 kg)) loaded. Locobase can find no details in the three specifications that would suggest why the later engines were so much heavier.

The 8 operated for the OSC for about 40 years before being scrapped in 1950. The other three were sold to US buyers in the same year, but lost at sea en route to the mainland.

Conditions always challenged the OSC's ability to turn a consistent profit. Frequent heavy rain compromised the health of many of the more common sugar-cane species. A 1914 tsunami contributed to chaotic conditions. By 1947, says the archive, "Olaa Sugar Company owed its agents, American Factors, Ltd., $2,000,000. Sugar prices, the tariff, rationing, epidemics of leafhoppers and armyworms, and volcanic eruptions had taken their toll on company profits."

Mechanizing the operation helped, but the archives record what might be seen as the decisive contribution to permanent prosperity: "On March 28, 1960, a name change from Olaa Sugar Company, Ltd. to Puna Sugar Company, Ltd. was voted on at a stockholders meeting. Apparently, the directors felt "Olaa" was jinxed and that a name change might erase the failures of the past. With a new name and the monies accrued from land sales, the company did make a comeback and by 1963 had the best year ever with a 36% profit gain. In 1966, Puna Sugar Company was free of debt for the first time in its history."