shrouded Wai'anae Mountain Range. The 3 ft gauge rails embedded in the crossing once made up part of the branch that split from the OR&L mainline at Nanakuli (MP 27.6) and climbed inland to the US Navy's Ammunition Depot. After the OR&L shut down and abandoned their mainline at the end of 1947, the US Navy purchased 12 miles of mainline from West Loch on Pearl Harbor to Nanakuli to retain access to this point. For another two decades ammunition trains traversed these rails with the final one running on September 18, 1968 when 65-tonner #174 delivered a train load 16" rounds to the USS New Jersey, an Iowa class battleship that was enroute to Vietnam. The Hawaiian Railway Society was formed in 1970 and originally was permitted to use the former Navy shop and trackage at NAD-L. However, in the late 1970s they were ordered to vacate and the rails were removed from Navy property down to the connection with the former OR&L which had fortunately been saved from scrapping. This bit of trackage in the street last felt the weight of steel rails more than three decades ago and now serves as mute reminder of Oahu's glorious railroading past....
