LIHUE — The wail of Kaipu 3’s steam whistle signalled Train Day on Friday. On the same day, a sign appeared in front of The Grove Farm Homestead Museum announcing “a Spook-Tacular Halloween event” on Oct. 31 — Halloween!
Presented by the Grove Farm Museum and the Waioli and Nuhou Corporation, the event called “Haunted Tracks &Treats” is a fun, friendly family night to support the historic Kaipu locomotive, which is one of the oldest operating steam locomotives in Hawaii.
Haunted Tracks &Treats will feature a Trunk or Treat from 6 to 7 p.m. Train rides through the Grove Farm historic tracks will start at 6:45 p.m. and continue until pau.
Costumes are encouraged, and fun is on tap for the evening, featuring “festive trunks full of treats, delicious pupu by Keoki’s Paradise — the provider of ono food when Kaipu 3 was dedicated — earlier in the year, and a haunted train ride.
Proceeds from the Haunted Tracks &Treats support the preservation of Kaipu 3 and the historic train tracks. Suggested donations include $20 for Trunk or Treat and heavy pupu, $25 for the Haunted Halloween Train Ride only, and $40 for the All-in Boo Bundle that includes Trunk or Treat, heavy pupu, and the train ride aboard the Kaipo 3 train of restored plantation cars.
Kaipu 3 celebrates its 100th anniversary this year. Built in 1925 for the Hawaiian Sugar Company located on the island’s Westside, it was purchased by the Grove Farm Company in 1945 and ran until 1953.
Kaipu was named for George Wilcox’s right-hand man, one of the first workers at Grove Farm. It was restored to operating condition in 1982 and again in 2025 to commemorate its 100th anniversary.
Kaipu 3, operated by Grove Farm Engineers Scott Johnson and Jonah Stein on Friday, is the current locomotive featured for the Grove Farm Museum’s Train Day, which takes place at the Locomotive Park on Haleko Road.
Reservations can be made online at www.grovefarm.org. This offers the only authentic sugar plantation train experience on Kauai, aboard trains pulled by one of four surviving plantation locomotives listed on the State and National Registers of Historic Places.
On Train Day, the train leaves at 10 a.m., 11 a.m., noon, and 1 p.m.
Train rides are available for $10 for adults, $7 for children, or a special ‘ohana package of $25 that includes two adults and two children.
Source: The Garden Island
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