Open-Platform Coach
Oahu Railway & Land Company
Narrow-Gauge Passenger Car
Built by:
O. R. & L. Shops – about 1900
Type of Car:
First Class Coach
Donated by:
Oahu Railway & Land Co. – 1953
A.53.15.20
Open-platform coach No. 1 was built about 1900 by the Oahu Railway’s own carshop in Hawaii. The car is essentially a copy of some earlier cars the railroad purchased in the 1890s from the Carter Brothers manufacturing firm in northern California. Though constructed a decade or two later, the car is a prime example of a typical wooden passenger car from the mid-19th Century. The car has the characteristic ‘open platforms’ on each end, rather than the enclosed vestibules that had become standard on cars by the 1890s. As a “First Class” passenger car on the Hawaiian railway, it sported an interior of beautifully stained mahogany.
The story continues below, scroll down...
Please be a friend to the Trains!
Consider making a donation to help our museum volunteers restore the trains and improve your Travel Town experience!
More Interesting Information:
Pulled by Oahu Railway steam locomotive No. 85, the “Hawaiian Train” ran a 1/2-mile route through Griffith Park as the Crystal Springs & Southwestern Railroad from April 16, 1955 until June 30. 1961. During that 6-year operation, the train carried 328,756 children and 176,285 adult passengers! Costly boiler repairs required to keep old engine No. 85 running through the summer of 1961 were cited as the reason for an end to the very successful operation. In 1992, locomotive No. 85 was returned to Hawaii as part of a 3-way artifacts exchange. The engine is now back on display in Oahu; the wooden cars were deemed to fragile to make the ocean voyage back. Scroll down to see a few more fun images from Travel Town’s colorful past!
Travel Town’s “Hawaiian Train” in Griffith Park. 1960. Photos by Charles Wherry
