Hawaiian Railway Album - WW11 Photographs

Think of the Hawaiian Islands, and railroads are not normally the first thing that springs to mind. But the islands supported a major standard gauge common carrier rairoad on Hawaii itself, and an even larger 3 foot gauge system on Oahu, plus plantation railways on Oahu, Kauai and the other islands.

This book combines three previous volumes of exceptionally good B&W photographs taken during WW11, largely by American serviceman Victor Norton, with captions and text by him and Gale E. Treiber.

All the major railroads were very close to closing when the war broke out and brought about a period of huge traffic in war equipment and service personnel. The largest part of the coverage is of the 'Oahu Railway', probably because it linked the port of Honolulu to both Hickam Airfield and Pearl Harbour, and also had depots scattered all along its 70 mile long main line, some of which was double tracked with automatic colour light signalling.

Also covered are the standard gauge Hawaii Consolidated Railway and numerous plantation railroads which varied in gauge. Steam power predominates throughout.

272 pages jam packed with (at a guess) over 600 B&W photographs, plus maps, timetables and a fascinating text. Hardcover.