|
Next Stop Honolulu! The Story of the Oahu Railway & Land Co. | 
 enlarge | Authors: Jim Chiddix, Mackinnon Simpson
Publisher: Sugar Cane Press Ltd
Category: Book
Buy New: $59.95
New (1) Used (1) from $48.95
Rating:  3 reviews
Sales Rank: 835231
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Pages: 352
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 4.2
Dimensions (in): 12.1 x 9 x 1.1
ISBN: 0970621310
Dewey Decimal Number: 973
EAN: 9780970621313
ASIN: 0970621310
Publication Date: September 1, 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
| |
| Similar Items:
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
"Benjamin Franklin Dillingham fell off a rented horse, and the history of modern Hawai'i was changed forever. Dillingham was a New Englander, born on Cape Cod in 1844, and he went to sea at the age of 14. After a series of adventures - including capture by a Confederate raider - and a rapid rise in rank, he landed in Honolulu as first mate aboard the bark Whistler in 1864. He was 20. After breaking his leg in the topple from the horse, he was carried to the American Marine Hospital in Nu'uanu to heal. The Whistler sailed without him, and Dillingham was an ex-seafaring man, ashore for good. "After recuperating, he found work at a local hardware store. An entreprenurial spirit bubbled within, and in a few years he had borrowed some money and was the store's owner. He also married the daughter of a local missionary and started a family. Frank Dillingham's businesses - the hardware operation and later a large dairy - struggled with heavy obligations for decades, and he was constantly searching for a "big score" that would finally eradicate his debts and provide for his family. "That score was the Oahu Railway & Land Company, a narrow-gauge operation that established sugar as a phenomenally profitable crop on Oahu. The primary line headed west from the main station in downtown Honolulu, eventually stitching together sugar plantations in Aiea, Waipahu, Ewa, Waianae, Waialua, and Kahuku. A later branch wending its way to the center of the Island served the pineapple plantations around Wahiawa. For almost 60 years - from 1889 to 1947 - OR& L trundled both freight and passengers around the island, creating great fortunes not only for the Dillinghams, but for many others as well. This book is the story of that line." quarto (12.25x9.5"), color & b/w pictures, maps, topos, bibliography, appendices,rosters with extensive pictures and commentary, annual report data.
|
| Customer Reviews:
 The Oahu railway : packed with vintage photos, maps, charts, history March 18, 2006
D. Donovan, Editor/Sr. Reviewer (California, USA)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
If you're a rail buff you'll already know most rail books focus on the mainland railways and give little recognition to Hawaii: to fill the gap choose NEXT STOP HONOLULU: THE STORY OF THE OAHU RAILWAYS & LAND COMPANY. You can't get any more comprehensive than NEXT STOP HONOLULU, which traces the growth of the Oahu Railway from its roots when a New Englander fell off a rented horse and was stranded in Hawaii to its establishment as an opportunity for the sugar cane industry to become a profitable crop on Oahu. It comes packed with vintage photos, color illustration, maps, charts, reproductions, and history tracing almost sixty years of OR&L achievements. A truly outstanding, definitive achievement.
Right Up There With Gerald Best! January 13, 2006
Robert Traina (Mount Vernon, NY USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Comprehensive, profusely illustrated history of one of the less well-known railways in the U.S. I lived on Oahu from 1947 to 1968 and knew the OR&L only from the occasional line of pineapple cars crossing Nimitz Highway from the harbor to the canneries. A few mispellings of Hawaiian words, but otherwise it's a treasure.
 Next Stop Honolulu May 9, 2005
Cecile Lampton (Sausalito, CA)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
'Next Stop Honolulu' is obviously a wonderful book for railroad aficionados. For me, although the book's principal subject is interesting (the explanation of how steam locomotives work on page 66 was the first one I've ever actually found understandable), it is the general facts about Hawaii and its history and local lore that are fascinating. This is a very interesting book, with lots of delightful illustrations, beautifully reproduced, which include old newspaper articles, photographs, maps, etc. For someone who hasn't read much about Hawaii since Michener, this was an engrossing read about the railway company that linked the sugar plantations in Oahu, but with lots of additional colorful detail. Anyone who likes Hawaii or railroad history would love this book.
|
|
|
| |
