page_title: Rail transport on the Mariana Islands
section_title: Saipan
hierarchical_section_title: Rail transport on the Mariana Islands / Saipan
caption_attribution_description: English: Troops resting beside the narrow gauge Japanese railroad on Saipan
context_page_description: Rail transport on the Mariana Islands was mainly related to the transport of sugar cane and military supplies by narrow gauge railways.
context_section_description: Japanese business man, Haruji Matsue, that introduced sugar cane farms and narrow gauge railways to the Island of Saipan in the 1920s. A narrow-gauge railway with a gauge of 760 mm (2 ft 5 ¹⁵⁄₁₆ in) nearly circled the island of Saipan and has been used by the Japanese for transporting sugar cane and military supplies. The operation of the railway from Charan-Kanoa to the Aslito air field was taken over by a US-American Seabee detachment, part of the 4th Mar. 
  Regiment under their commander Lt. Comdr. William G. Byrne of Butte, Montana. He has had focussed on re-using the railway, since he saw it on a map, and was lucky that former operators had not sabotaged its approximately 100 miles of track or rolling stock. The Seabees took-over nine locomotives, but two of them were impossible to recommission. Three of them were running by 22 July 1944, though, and the other four were be repaired.
  The US-Americans finally used one diesel locomotive and three steam locomotives, and recommissioned 100 flat cars. The railway was operated by the 1398th Engineer Construction Battalion. At the end of July 1944 the traffic volume was 150 tonne-miles (240 tonne-kilometres) per day. However, rail transport proved to be unfavourable on the Island overall, so that the rails were dismantled and a road was built on their route with the existing right of way. Two of the steam locomotives were then successfully used to sterilize waste bins. One locomotive has been plinthed in Sugar King Park, Garapan, Saipan.
caption: US-American troops resting beside the narrow gauge Japanese railroad on Saipan, July 1944
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