The Oahu Railway and Land Company, or OR&L, was a narrow gauge common carrier railway that served much of the Hawaiian island of Oahu, and was the largest narrow gauge class one common carrier in the U.S, until its dissolution in 1947. Origin The OR&L was founded by Benjamin Dillingham, a self-made businessman who arrived in Honolulu as a sailor in 1865. After falling from his horse and breaking his leg while riding in the countryside, Dillingham was forced to stay in Hawaii and recuperate. He decided to make the island kingdom his home. Dillingham had a great deal of business acumen and soon became quite wealthy and influential in the early Honolulu community. Among his development ideas, he conceived in the 1870s of the arid Ewa Plain as an excellent location for human settlement. However, there were two problems: a lack of water and, more significantly, a lack of transportation. A trip from Honolulu to the Ewa by horse-drawn wagon was an all-day affair. The key was to build a railroad. Around the time Dillingham was dreaming of his railroad, another businessman, James Campbell successfully dug Ewa's first artesian well in 1879, effectively solving the water problem. Campbell, who had purchased of Ewa land thought he might start a cattle ranch, but quickly realized that Ewa's rich volcanic soil (which overlays a massive ancient coral reef) combined with year-round sunshine and a supply of water was ideal for growing sugarcane. Within a couple of years sugarcane plantations were sprouting up in this southwestern part of Oahu. The need for transportation between the harbor and Ewa was becoming essential. Early phase of OR&L While Dillingham's dream of large-scale settlement on the Ewa Plain would have to wait until the last decades of the twentieth century, his plan for a railroad to the area came together quickly. He leased Campbell's Ewa and Kahuku land to start two sugarcane plantations and obtained a government railroad charter from King David Kalākaua on September 11, 1888. After securing the capital, Dillingham broke ground in March 1889 with a goal of connecting the between Honolulu and Aiea (as demanded in the charter) by fall 1889. On November 16, 1889, the king's birthday, the OR&L officially opened, giving free rides to more than 4,000 passengers. By 1892, the line was long, reaching Ewa sugar mill, home of Dillingham's Ewa Plantation Company property. Although progress stalled during