LIHU‘E — Jack Takemoto of Nebraska could not believe his luck Thursday. “I come to Kaua‘i every year and spend most of December, here, but this is one of the few times my stay coincided with Train Day,” Takemoto, the
LIHU‘E — Jack Takemoto of Nebraska could not believe his luck Thursday.
“I come to Kaua‘i every year and spend most of December, here, but this is one of the few times my stay coincided with Train Day,” Takemoto, the son of a 100th Infantry Battalion veteran, said. “My parents were born here and my sister lives here, so I come home to visit and always wanted to ride the trains.”
Scott Johnson, the Grove Farm Museum engineer, said Paulo (the steam locomotive) has been busy with one more big event to go before the end of the year.
Earlier in the month, the Grove Farm Museum hosted third grade students from Elsie Wilcox Elementary School for a lesson on “Simple Machines” with a twist of Kaua‘i history thrown in.
Paulo appeared in the annual Lights on Rice parade on Dec. 7, and it will make its final appearance for 2012 in the Waimea Lighted Christmas Parade Dec. 22 starting at 6 p.m.
“After that, Scott is taking a trip to the Mainland for about a month,” a volunteer said. “Sam Maehata will have to do the January Fire Up (Train Day event) by himself.”
The Grove Farm Museum hosts Fire Up days on the second Thursday of each month.
John Feagans of ‘Ele‘ele took advantage of the Fire Up day to treat his mother-in-law, visiting from Japan, to a free ride aboard Paulo, the oldest surviving operating plantation locomotive in Hawai‘i.
“John wrote a book about narrow-gauge railroads in Washington state,” Johnson said. “I’ve got to get me a copy of that book.”
Another writer, Frank Kyper of Florida, was also aboard the first run Thursday. Kyper is working with a film-based Yashica FX-3 camera for his photos.
“There’s always Wayne’s Photo in Kansas where you can get film,” Kyper said. “I was here in 1989 doing a story for a magazine, and I thought I could get an update on the trains.”
Paulo was built in 1887 at the Hohenzollern Works and shipped to the Koloa Sugar Co., the first commercial sugar plantation in the Kingdom of Hawai‘i, where it was used until 1920, states the Kaua‘i Trains website.
Keith Blake, a Kaua‘i Community College student, pictured Paulo working and had some of the photos of Train Day featured during the recent KCC Student Art Exhibit, a multi-media event at the One Stop Center.
Visit www.kauaitrains.com or call 245-3202 for more information.
