Going back 90 years: Diesel Progress November 1953

A P&H shovel loads a Euclid truck at the Johns-Manville strip mining operation in Lompoc, Calif., in 1953. The Euclid trucks on this job were powered by General Motors and Cummins diesel engines. Known today as Imerys Filtration, the operation remains a major supplier of diatomite used in filters, paint, cosmetics and other applications.

Starting with the May 1935 issue, Diesel Progress – or Power Progress as it’s known today – has covered engines and engine-powered equipment. Through those nine decades, the writers and editors of this publication have witnessed the adoption of technology that was considered science fiction in the 1930s, and they’ve praised (as proper non-biased journalists) the entrepreneurs, executives and especially the engineers that made that progress possible. It’s been – and it continues to be — an amazing thing to watch. Throughout 2025, we are celebrating those 90 years. With this department, we’re going back to some of the unique applications, forgotten firms and companies that have been part of the industry and this media company since the beginning of both.

Diesel power and the sugar industry

Diesel Progress editor Bruce Wadman was traveling in Hawaii when he got an opportunity to “look around” Oahu Sugar Co. Ltd.’s plantation on Oahu.

“The sugar cane fields were being harvested at the time, and it was a spectacular sight to see the completely mechanized manner in which the cane is harvested and delivered to the mills,” he wrote. “Diesel equipment is used exclusively in the entire operation from cutting the cane to hauling and dumping it into the bins that convey the cane into the mill that converts it into raw sugar.

“In 1948 Oahu Sugar Co. started switching from rail hauling of cane from fields to the mill with steam locomotives to diesel truck hauling. Half the plantation was converted in 1948, and the process of changeover to truck hauling for the whole plantation area was completed in 1950. This is one of the latest plantation conversions to diesel truck cane-haulers — a trend that has been sweeping over most of the island plantations. Truck hauling operations have been going on in ... other plantations in Hawaii ever since World War II.... The plantation built and maintains 178 miles of roads.

An Oshkosh cane-hauler is shown being unloaded via crane at a sugar mill in Hawaii in this photo from the November 1953 issue of Diesel Progress.

“Twelve Oshkosh Model W-2209M tractor trucks and semi-trailers are the newest equipment that Oahu Sugar Co. has put into operation to haul cane. These huge cane-haulers can carry a payload of 30 tons and are powered by Cummins 300 hp Model NHRBS-600 supercharged diesels. Hans L’Orange, the manager of Oahu Sugar Co. plantation, who has been with the company since 1911 … is satisfied with his new all diesel operation and strikes a praiseworthy note at the efficiency and trouble-free operation of his newest diesel equipment.

“’The equipment, engineered for the type of land and weather conditions encountered in the fields,’ he said, ‘has proved itself to be sound in design and very satisfactory in operation.’

“The use of diesel trucks in cane hauling is more economical and efficient than rail hauling for a number of reasons: 1.) the diesel equipment is much more flexible. If it rains in one part of the plantation, the trucks can be moved to another dry section with a minimum of time lost, whereas with rail operations, the tracks had to be taken up and moved to another field. 2.) the diesel cane-haulers bring the cane to the mill quicker and in a much fresher state. 3.) less manpower is required, and the fuel and maintenance costs are much less than in rail operations.”

When Wadman visited, Oahu Sugar had been in operation 54 years and had 12,000 acres in cultivation and 400 pieces of equipment in its fleet. It closed in 1995. The sugar mill and its 170 ft. smokestack has been restored and is home to the YMCA of Honolulu.

This article originally appeared in the June 2025 issue of Power Progress.