The Sweetest Rails: Following Sugar Trains from Field to Cup
- Jun 20
- 4 min read
Sitting in the morning with a cup of coffee or tea, it’s easy to forget about the sugar you stir in to sweeten it. Yet before it ever reached your spoon, that sugar began its journey far away, often traveling by rail, starting right in the sugarcane fields themselves.
Sugar can come from a variety of sources, but we are going to focus on sugar that comes from sugarcane. Sugarcane is actually a tall, bamboo-like grass (yes, it is!) that grows in warm, tropical areas around the world. It needs a lot of sun and water to grow well, something tropical climates provide in abundance. People first began growing sugarcane in two distant regions of the world: New Guinea and southern China. The domestication history of sugarcane is fascinating, involving several different species of Saccharum and their hybrids. It is worth a closer look if you are interested.
Though sugarcane was domesticated thousands of years ago, it was in the 18th and 19th centuries, as industrialization spread across Europe, that the demand for sugar from sugarcane spiked. As it moved from being a relative luxury to a common staple, pressure to increase production grew. Sugarcane production expanded rapidly under colonial plantation systems, shaping where and how sugar was grown.
Once sugarcane’s woody stalks are cut, they need to move quickly because the sweetness inside the stalks begins to fade, making speedy trips from field to refinery essential. And this need for speed is where trains enter the story. Before trucks and other harvesting machines, sugarcane was cut by hand and loaded directly onto cane wagons that sat on narrow-gauge tracks. Over 100 years, these cane wagons were pulled by compact steam locomotives, built low to the ground and designed for hard, daily work out in the fields. Since they ran on narrow-gauge tracks, their wheels were smaller than those of a typical larger locomotive, allowing quick turns and bends necessary for working in an agricultural setting.
Plantation locomotives were usually tank engines, meaning they carried water in tanks wrapped around or sitting beside the boiler instead of pulling a separate tender. This gave these engines a very chunky look. The cab, where the engineer stood, was often little more than a metal roof and back plate. In tropical heat, protection from rain mattered more than warmth, and many engines left the sides open to the air. They would slowly chug their way back to the refinery, where processing of the sugarcane could begin immediately.
One such sugar train tank engine was found on the island of Oahu in Hawaii. The engine, named Olomana (originally named Pua’ali’I until around 1910), was built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1883. Olomana was a 3‑foot‑gauge, saddle‑tank steam locomotive with a 0‑4‑2ST wheel arrangement. For 62 years, it pulled sugarcane from the fields to Waimanolo Sugar Company until it ended service in 1944. Around that time, the sugar trains of Hawaii and elsewhere began to be replaced with trucks.
Perhaps one reason the name was changed was to reflect the local geography, as there is a nearby mountain called Olomana. According to legend, Olomana was a giant warrior of immense strength who terrorized the local population until he was challenged by another warrior, Palila, who defeated him by cutting him in half. Olomana’s lower half became Mount Olomana itself. Other sources suggest the name may simply be a corruption of the English words “old man.”
Olomana (the train that is!) typically pulled four cane wagons to the nearby refinery. Period photographs show that these trains carried freshly cut sugarcane from the fields, but they were also often used to transport workers to and from a day of cutting. Conditions in the fields could quite literally get sticky: once sugarcane was cut, sap would seep out and coat the rails. To keep the engine’s wheels from slipping, crews needed to spread sand on the tracks to improve traction.
In 1948, the engine was purchased by Gerald Best and shipped to California. Best worked on the locomotive with Ward Kimball, who turned out to be not only a rail enthusiast but also an animator for Walt Disney. Trains were a major interest of Disney’s and helped inspire some of his earliest ideas for what would eventually become Disneyland. It is no coincidence that Disneyland is encircled by a railroad. In fact, one of the Disneyland trains, No. 3, Fred Gurley (also built by Baldwin Locomotive Works), began its life on a sugarcane plantation in Louisiana in 1894. Before Disneyland was built, Disney rode many trains restored and operated by enthusiasts, including the Olomana, worked on by Best and Kimball. As you can see, trains have been inspiring people for a very long time!
Today, Olomana can be viewed at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania in Strasburg, Pennsylvania. So the next time you stir sugar into your favorite beverage, think of little Olomana rambling through sunny sugarcane fields long ago, carrying sweetness on its journey from field to cup.
We have a video about sugar trains! Be sure to check it out!
Sources:
Images of Old Hawaii
“Waimanalo Sugar Plantation.”
Olomana (locomotive). Wikipedia
Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania
"Olomana locomotive"
Steam Giants
"No. 3 Fred Gurly"
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