The Kilauea Sugar Plantation imported in 1881 a steam locomotive and the material needed for constructing the track.
John Fowler & Co., based in Leeds, England, delivered a complete package of 4,248 railway sleepers, rails, bends and switches, hardware and other products, as well as several tons of coal, in addition to the Fowler narrow gauge steam locomotive with works No 4085.
It arrived in Honolulu on 27 August 1881 aboard The City of Glasgow from Glasgow, Scotland, and was subsequently shipped from there to Kauai.

On 24 September 1881, the track construction work began when Princess Lydia Pākī, later Queen Lili'uokalani hit the first spike in one of the railway sleepers.
C.V. Houseman managed the track laying work.
At the end of November 1881, a 3 miles (5 km) route had already been laid and put into operation.

In 1882, the plantation acquired by the Hohenzollern Locomotive Works another locomotive, which was built in Düsseldorf with the factory number 284 and Kilauea was called.
The plant also acquired in 1894 and 1902 the locomotives Pilaa and Kahili from the Baldwin Locomotive Works in Pennsylvania.
The network consisted in 1910 of 12 ¹⁄₂ miles (20 km) permanent track and 5 miles (8 km) portable track, 200 sugarcane transport cars, six sugar transport cars and four locomotives.
The locomotives could each haul up to ten cars loaded with sugar cane.
The Kilauea Sugar Plantation imported in 1881 a steam locomotive and the material needed for constructing the track. John Fowler & Co., based in Leeds, England, delivered a complete package of 4,248 railway sleepers, rails, bends and switches, hardware and other products, as well as several tons of coal, in addition to the Fowler narrow gauge steam locomotive with works No 4085. It arrived in Honolulu on 27 August 1881 aboard The City of Glasgow from Glasgow, Scotland, and was subsequently shipped from there to Kauai.
On 24 September 1881, the track construction work began when Princess Lydia Pākī, later Queen Lili'uokalani hit the first spike in one of the railway sleepers. C.V. Houseman managed the track laying work. At the end of November 1881, a 3 miles (5 km) route had already been laid and put into operation.
In 1882, the plantation acquired by the Hohenzollern Locomotive Works another locomotive, which was built in Düsseldorf with the factory number 284 and Kilauea was called. The plant also acquired in 1894 and 1902 the locomotives Pilaa and Kahili from the Baldwin Locomotive Works in Pennsylvania. The network consisted in 1910 of 12 ¹⁄₂ miles (20 km) permanent track and 5 miles (8 km) portable track, 200 sugarcane transport cars, six sugar transport cars and four locomotives. The locomotives could each haul up to ten cars loaded with sugar cane.
Kilauea Sugar Plantation Railway