We flew in to Yogjakarta from Bali hoping to meet a new
Indonesian friend, Aditya, but he wasn’t there so we went straight to Pabrik
Gula (PG or sugar mill) Madukismo. Aditya caught up with us there. It turns out he lived in Manchester from age
11 to 28.
Maduksimo is a privately-owned mill that was built from
scratch by the East Germans and so its entire rail system came as a job lot in
1955 and the locomotives are a rare type built by VEB Karl Marx Babelsburg. There are no field lines, but quite a
few locos work in the yard with plenty more in the shed, nearly all complete. A
regular mud train is run but we weren’t there at the right time to see it.
This is a very friendly mill, and our guide, Shinta, spoke
very good English.
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| The VEB locos move loris from transhipment yard to the mill |
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| The shed contains plenty of locos in reserve |
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| Stern warnings in the cabs |
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| Some of the loris were built with brakes like this one |
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| The mill mud tramway |
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| Aditya, Shinta and Scott |
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| Maintained with pride |
We next visited Gondang Baru, a mill on the way from Yogya
to Solo, where we were to stay the night. There are quite a few locomotives,
mostly steam, “preserved” here. Only one diesel is in use on cane operations
and is used to move empty loris. The
shunting of fulls is done by rubber-wheeled tractors. Perhaps the most
interesting operation is the 400mm gauge limestone tramway. There are tourist
rail operations, with a working steam loco, on a Sunday.
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| Linke Hoffmann locomotive |
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| Orenstein and Koppel steamed on Sundays for tourists |
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| The fascinating 400mm gauge limestone tramway |
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| The only locomotive on cane duties |
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| Sectioned at the "museum" |
We then travelled on to Solo, otherwise known as Surakarta.
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| A residential street close to the railway station |
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