Greg Menke
Diamond
- Joined
- Feb 22, 2004
- Location
- Baltimore, MD, USA
Hi all,
I'm out in Maui doing some work for 2 weeks (YES it is actual work, 12+ hr days lol)
Maui had a big sugar cane operation for a long time, the last plant closed about a year ago- apparently competition from sugar beets. The facility is visible from the highway looking interestingly industrial, so I stopped by the museum and found some neat stuff in the yard. The plant itself looks like it was built a fair number of decades ago and run into obsolescence. The equipment below is in the museum yard, some of it was still in use over the last 10-15 years.
From talking to locals, closure of the plant cost the area 600 or so jobs OTOH the operation had a considerable local environmental impact, including ash and smoke from the fields that had to be burned every few years. They talked about the ash falls all over the area depending on prevailing winds, and the smoke. The fields are closed down, some cane still growing here and there but its an extensive area of fallow ground with pesticide issues.
Plant front view- no access in from the fence, there are other older buildings behind showing signs of collapse and decay and clusters of rusting and old farm equipment. There is one newer facility looking like a polebarn, possibly a vehicle maintenance building- nothing visible from the highway to suggest process equipment such as seen in the photo below.
But here are the money shots;
A pair of rolls, looking like they run as-cast gears and the grooves built up by arc-welding;
A bull gear, also looking as-cast. Evidence of smearing on the tooth edges. Bearing cap is drilled and tapped for an oiling device;
Here is a pretty little press, the sign nearby indicated it was a hand-operated press for sampling the sugar cane;
This pump in use up until 2000;
And this crane in use up to 2008, used to load sugar cane out in the fields and elsewhere, presumably using jaws as shown;
Also found a couple nice little cats- but no information about how recently they were in service;
And a pile of interesting looking items, perhaps a few connecting rods from an old steam engine.. no sign of that or boiler equipment unfortunately;
I'm out in Maui doing some work for 2 weeks (YES it is actual work, 12+ hr days lol)
Maui had a big sugar cane operation for a long time, the last plant closed about a year ago- apparently competition from sugar beets. The facility is visible from the highway looking interestingly industrial, so I stopped by the museum and found some neat stuff in the yard. The plant itself looks like it was built a fair number of decades ago and run into obsolescence. The equipment below is in the museum yard, some of it was still in use over the last 10-15 years.
From talking to locals, closure of the plant cost the area 600 or so jobs OTOH the operation had a considerable local environmental impact, including ash and smoke from the fields that had to be burned every few years. They talked about the ash falls all over the area depending on prevailing winds, and the smoke. The fields are closed down, some cane still growing here and there but its an extensive area of fallow ground with pesticide issues.
Plant front view- no access in from the fence, there are other older buildings behind showing signs of collapse and decay and clusters of rusting and old farm equipment. There is one newer facility looking like a polebarn, possibly a vehicle maintenance building- nothing visible from the highway to suggest process equipment such as seen in the photo below.
But here are the money shots;
A pair of rolls, looking like they run as-cast gears and the grooves built up by arc-welding;
A bull gear, also looking as-cast. Evidence of smearing on the tooth edges. Bearing cap is drilled and tapped for an oiling device;
Here is a pretty little press, the sign nearby indicated it was a hand-operated press for sampling the sugar cane;
This pump in use up until 2000;
And this crane in use up to 2008, used to load sugar cane out in the fields and elsewhere, presumably using jaws as shown;
Also found a couple nice little cats- but no information about how recently they were in service;
And a pile of interesting looking items, perhaps a few connecting rods from an old steam engine.. no sign of that or boiler equipment unfortunately;