One of my favorite railroad authors is the late Gerald M. Best, who penned several books that populate the shelves of my library ("Iron Horses to Promontory" "Nevada County Narrow Gauge" "Snowplow"). Best was also a fan of Hawaiian railroads, and penned a book about them, "Railroad of Hawaii" (try and find a copy for under $200). In 1948 he bought a tiny tank engine from the Waimanalo Sugar Company and shipped it to California. The engine, originally named "Puaalii," came from Baldwin in 1883 and served its entire life on the Islands. Best restored it with the help of Ward Kimball, keeping its second name "Olomana," which means "big noise." After running it for several years on Kimball's Grizzly Flats Railroad in San Gabriel, Calif., Best donated it to the Smithsonian in 1977; it was sent to the RRMofPA in 1999 when the Smithsonian's Railroad Hall was given a facelift. Today the engine is not only a representative of the narrow gauge power that ran in Hawaii, but also stands as a monument to Best. His friend Walt Disney once called the locomotive "the nearest thing to a Mickey Mouse engine" he had ever seen.
