Big Island Railroad
The New BIRR
ALOHA!
The Big Island Rail is back in operation!
Following a complete tear down and move from Washington state to Colorado's Rocky Mountains, the BIRR is slowly being recreated like a new island in the Hawaiian chain. The trackplan is different, the layout is smaller, but trackage is in, bugs are getting worked out and TRAINS ARE ROLLING!!!
Here are some snapshots of the new BIRR layout under construction and a couple trains moving freight over the line.
Although the Big Island doesn't boast of the type of jagged lava mountains of Kauai's famous Napali Coast, I wanted to add a feel of the beauty of the lava and disguise the track as it curves around across a doorway and into hidden staging and the continuous running loop. This carved foam will eventually be covered in the rich red lava and green foliage scenery typical of the Islands.
Here I'm using a paper towel to rub in light-weight spackle between the carved ridges and to fill the gaps between pieces of the foam.
Adding color to the foam to get that red lava and famous Island Red Dirt look.
Foam has been colored and a first dusting of green scenic ground foan has been sprinkled onto the wet paint. Things are starting to take shape.
In this picture you really get a feel for the typical Island lava clifts and the lush green tropical foliage.
Here's BIRR "Puka" (tunnel) No. 3 well under way to being sceniced. Still a lot of finish work yet to do, tropical plants and a few more palms to add. The ravine below the truss bridge will be filled with lava rock and plants with a small stream. A signal will be added just before the portal to alert train crews when the tunnel is clear. I also am planning to install a rock fall warning fence and a retining wall to the left side of the Puka entrance.
This is the new south Hilo Yard. BIRR road switcher #15 is sitting on the loco service track in the clear while the North Hilo Transfer pumps up the air and heads north out of town with seven outbound cars and BIRR GP-9 #610 working the job. Two empty molassas tank cars sit in the yard (at right).
Here is the new Puna Sugar 'Diamond G' Transloading Elevators. This area is greatly enlarged from the old layout and car capacity is about 12 covered hoppers. The sugar track will now handle "unloading" two hoppers at a time. So switcher crews spot cuts of four cars on the sugar track,. Cars One and Three get unloaded, the cut is shoved east until cars Two and Four are in position for unloading. The silos will eventually get a new paint job with PUNA printed on them. (Lots of piping, lights and scenery are to come.) Bulk raw cane sugar is then transfered via a modeled convayor (behind the work house) into ships for the trip to California.
Here's the new Terminal 73, an abbreviated version of the two-track corner set-up from the old layout. The new Terminal 73 has one track, the Mi-Jack crane, containes and container "flats" and is very narrow but easier to access to switch. The spur is longer allowing for a complete three-to-five car set of intermodal well cars if needed.
This is the track running down the length of Pier 1. The rails will be "buried" in concrete to allow track and vehicle traffic into the peir complex and warehouse. To the left is the back of Puna Sugar complex. An overhead sugar convayor will be installed from the work house to a scratch-built loader that is still standing at the actual Pier 1 in Hilo. I now have some photos of the Pier 1 building...so someday I will replace the Walther's building with one that more acurately represents Pier 1.
(See below for one example.)
Hilo Harbor vintage view shows the sugar warehouse and Pier 1 in background with the loading cranes used to transfer bulk sugar into ocean-going vessels. Railroad tracks of the Hawaiian Consolidated RR ran on the Pier under the loaders.
We are looking north as the main (left track) and the switching/ yard drill track (right) curve towards South Hilo Yard. The spur curving off to the near right is the lead going into Puna Sugar. On the left is old BIRR freight house used as division offices. The South Hilo crew will park their idling locomotive here and head into the air conditioned building inbetween switching moves at Puna Sugar Elevators or the Intermodal Terminal 73. The Hamakua Sugar Mill can be seen in the distance, reconfigured to a smaller space from the old layout. The brick Global Coffee Dist. is on the new layout but is not served by the railroad anymore.
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