Bad Weeks For Our Maui Railroad

The whole place is the top of an active volcano, so a tripped-up li'l loco is gettin'off easy. (It is a cute li'l bugger though; nice pics.) However, I imagine it is a matter of perspective, huh, Don.

Your right. The air today is full of Vag (smoke) from the big island a hundred miles away. Don

When we visit your island, we always ride that little train, even though we know it is a short ride. Also enjoy visiting their shop.

Looks like they need a big tie replacement program. When the rail just rolls over on straight track for no apparent reason, there no ties left...just balsa wood in the dirt.  

Rich, Matt your a 100% right on. I cringe looking at some of these ties. There's more bad ones than good. Many spikes half out of the ties. They have a huge crane in place now trying to get the engine moved. That money would have been well spent replacing ties. Hope they can get everything working soon and work on the track. I've never seen any track crews in the two years we've lived here. Twice in heavy rains the track sunk into the mud at our end of the line. I really love this little narrow gauge but they need to work on the rails. Don

I rode your railroad back in June 1991 on my honeymoon.  I wish you the best of luck getting things running again.

Stuart

Gon, Maybe that RR should get Steve from ROSS to build up some track sections for them.

Don:  The story is a typical one for so many tourist, museum lines.  Never enough money or help to maintain the equipment and plant.  It's discouraging, I know, having once been there with a trolley operation in Wisconsin.  It's a lot of work and very time consuming when everything works right but when the problems start, they seem to be unsurmountable.

Just don't loose heart, keep plugging away and there will be many good days to reward you for the tough ones!

Paul Fischer

Sorry to hear of the problems. it is a cute railroad. I enjoyed the ride years ago. I still have a T shirt from them that a coworker got for me when I told him my prior shirt wore out.

The many previous times I have been on the Island of Maui, never knew the narrow gauge railroad existed. Sorry to hear of the condition of the track system and hope they get it fixed.

This is one place I have to take my Bride to visit. It is without a doubt my favorite vacation spot. You are very fortunate to call Maui home. By then the RR should be operational and we will not miss a ride.

Don

Not all is downhill on the Islands..

RYPN FORUM POST

Hows that steeplecab coming along?

Bruce

I rode behind one of their steamers....on a tourist package where you could fly among

the islands without funneling back through Honolulu (after 9/11)..hope that has

returned to normal, as I hope can be done with their steamers.  Surprised somebody missed it....it was well advertised and a thing to do, like whale watching off a boat,

and eating poi (skip it, you won't like it).

I checked it out this morning. They have all cars and engine back on tracks and they are repairing the rails. First whales are just arriving. We will have thousands within a month or two. Don

From the looks of the roadbed, might say a bad decade.

Hi Don, Of course, I was being jocular with you in my first reply, but maybe there is something serious to consider. You mentioned "Vag", and Rich Melvin mentioned rail roll. I wonder if the movement of the earth had something to do with your little engine that couldn't. I noticed in the news yesterday that Japan got some new land, around an active volcanic cone. Hawaii and Japan, like Alaska and California, are associated on the same Pacific Plate. It makes one wonder what might be next.

Just a thought.

Frank