Ironically , just as the HCR was finally emerging from its long-standing financial troubles , it was literally hit with a blow from which it never recovered . On the morning of April 1 , 1946 , a massive tsunami caused by an Aleutian Islands earthquake struck Hilo and the Hāmākua coast , devastating the city and instantly wiping out a number of railroad bridges . The destruction was so massive that the HCR filed for abandonment soon after the tsunami , receiving permission from the Interstate Commerce Commission to do so as of December 31 , 1946 . Parts of the original Hilo Railway line southeast of Hilo were taken over by the local sugarcane plantations , but those were soon abandoned for trucks in 1948 . Despite its destruction , the bridge-laden Hāmākua division was later appropriated by the Territorial Government and became part of the Hawaii Belt Road north out of Hilo . One of the only remnants of the railway is the roundhouse built in 1921 in Hilo at coordinates , which is on a list of most endangered historic sites in Hawaii
Aleutian Islands earthquake
1946 Aleutian Islands earthquake
Hawaii Consolidated Railway