The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1900-11-21
DESKY ON
THE HEIGHTS
Tells His Company's
Plans For Future.
HOW ROAD WAS BUILT
Hotel Is To Be Erected Soon--Car'
Will Run lrreguIarIy for
Some Weeks.

! Ienjoyed the novelty of a ride in the hand
Isome cars. There has been some inquiry
J as to the intentions of the company for
J the future. c. s. Desky said yesterday:
J Very shortly after completing the
J grading of Kaiulani Drive upon Pacific
J Heights, which as you know is the prn--
J cipal thoroughfare, being little over
two miles in length, forty feet in width
and having a little less than 61a per
cent grade, 1 conceived the idea of build
} ing large hotel upon Pacific Heights
and of providing means of rapid transit
for the property. The reason for this
, was largely due to the fact that in the
, hauling of material for building purposes
, upon the Heights the driveway was be-
, ing cut up by the very heavy loads which
, had to traverse the same. Then, too,
the delays in getting back and forth, to
say nothing about the extraordinary ex-
, pense of hauling by wagon, rendered it
, necessary for me to provide more rapid
, means of transportation. Immediately /
Iset about to ascertain the most desirable
land efficient system to employ. Letters
were written to railroad and civil engi-
neers familiar with work of this kind in
the States, giving description of the
property and what was desired in the
\ way of transportation for It, and re-
questing from them their views as to
I what would be the best kind of system
to use.
"A number of answers were received,
I some Of which advocated the building of
la cable line to follow along Kaiulani
Drive to the point where a ravine comes
down through the center of the property.
\ and from there in direct line to the
4 summit at the hotel site. Others strongly
advised an electric railway. / found that
the expense of building a cable road
} would be less than it would be
to construct railway to be operated
electrically along Kaiulani Drive, for the
reason that the cable line would be much
lshorter. However, the cost of operating
cable line, after its construction, on ac-
count of the very steep grade, greatly ex-
ceeded the cost of operating an electric
railway that would have much less
n grade
= Having determined upon the electric
: railway system, 1 engaged the services
= of Mr.. f. j. Amweg, chief engineer of the
Honolulu Rapid Transit Land Co., tC
push the work as rapidly as possible Il
completion. About March 1st survey.
for the railway line We're made and tn,
bulk of the material ordered On May
21st last the actual work of construction
was started and on November 7th, lit
tie less than six months the first car was
run over the line for a distance of abou
two miles
1T gives me pleasure to state that Mr.
Amweg, in the laying out of the line an,
IN the ordering of the material, disDlaye,
excellent Judgment, and had there beer
no delays in transportation by ocean trav
tei. which could not have been foreseen
the road would have been completed at
somewhat earlier date.
The power plant consists of one Ii
horsepower Babcock & Wilcox boiler on
l25 horsepower New York safety cross
compound condensing engine, $50 revolu
lions per minute; one IS Kilo-watt IS
volt, $50 revolutions per minute Wrestling
house generator, for railway purposes
one 50 kilo-watt. 1900 volt, 800 revolution
per minute electric current generator 70
lighting purposes.
The passenger cars, two in number
and of the latest type, were manufactur
ef by the Holman Car Company of Sal
francisco, and are equipped with two No
A. 30 horsepower motors each, havin,
double controllers and mounted on Bril-
trucks, which recently received the frs
award at the Paris Exposition
THE railway line is built upon redwoo
ties, rock ballasted, with 40-pound rail
on 4-foot gauge, and the trolley lin
work is 40 construction. About midwa
on the line We have turnout which al
lows of the passage of cars ascendin,
and descending
II hope to have the railway fully com
ipleted to the hotel site In the course o
two or three weeks. We are now usin
u the two freight cars. manufactured 70
iii me by the o. X. & l.. Co., of this CITY 4
" hauling railway supplies and building ma
fterial to the higher elevations using tn
same as trailers upon the passenger me
- tor cars, which / find is far more eco
nomical than hauling with wagons an
which will reduce the cost of buildn
upon the Heights very materially.
Although the road is still incomplet,
the demand for pleasure riding has al
ready taxed the capacity of the cars, an
II would appear that at least two or pos
sibly three more would be required (
meet the demand upon the road. Thi
surely will be the case when a railwa
connection can be secured into the dowr
town portions of the city, plans for whic
are now well under way.
= The survey and engineering portion
the work. and the laying out of the Kei,
II. iani Drive was performed by Mr.. W. !
Wall, and has been spoken and common
ed upon as being a most excellent pieo
of civil engineering.
ic The grading and construction of II
to- streets, as well as of the wall along II
Of same. was performed by day labor und'
,ls the direction of foremen that have been
zoe my employ for several years past.
The electrical machinery was pu
chased on Mr.. Amwegs orders from II
westinghouse people, through the
agent. r. B. Elder, of San Francisco Tt
steam power equipment from the firm
Z. {. Moore & Co., San Francisco
Mr. Amweg has superintendent Il
IN construction of the railway line and
~ the equipment and installation of all Il
mechanical and electrical appliances, al
mas conddcted and managed the same
very satisfactory manner
AS heretofore stated, the road has n
been thrown open to the public, althou,
a great many have availed themselves
the very moderate cost of travel. fl
cents each way, which low rate of ia
hope to be able to maintain. SO as
L make Pacific Heights popular and q
trae tive place of resort as well as of re
. idence.
With regard to the matter of the h
tel project, the facts are about as stat
in your recent issue, and hope to ha
a Hhe same well under way in short tin
" We have preserved the names Sent in
}. the hotel, and hope to be able to a
lnounce the selection of the most suitat
ger lat an early date