Indonesian railways - PJKA era

[jhb171achill]

The Indonesian railway system had a truly amazing array of locomotives, with building dates from 1979 right through to 1966, all operating side by side in Java and Southern / eastern Sumatra in the 1950-8- period. It was a mecca for enthusiasts (including myself) at the time, but I've never seen any models of the prototype. 

 

Perusal of the internet shows up the odd "modern image" Java-based layout, but nothing steam, which is surprising as there was still some operating main line steam as late as about 1988, and a few sugar lines are even still steam operated.

 

Just an enquiry, therefore: is anyone aware of any model of the 1950-late 80s period in this region? 

 

Thanks

jhb171

[jjb1970]

There are quite a lot of hobbyists in Indonesia but it is much more model aircraft and military subjects (tanks, vehicles, figures) than railways. There is now a big middle class in Indonesia (remembering that a modest percentage of a big number can still be a big number) and there economy has done very well over the last decade. I think the reason for the relative lack of interest in trains is more that there is a much greater interest in air travel than rail travel over there. Whilst there is a lot of poverty in Indonesia (and poverty in Indonesia is real poverty, not the relative poverty we talk of in Europe) there is an awful lot of wealth too and much of Jakarta is now very modern and high end. My wife has a relative (no idea what relation he is, with Asian families I find it easier just to use the word "cousin" rather than try and keep track of who is who) who travels all over Indonesia taking photographs of trains and travelling on trains but the rest of the family dismiss him as a bit of an oddball.

There was a really nice model shop in the Taman Angrekk mall in Jakarta which sold some incredible stuff, it is the only shop where I've ever seen Fine Art model ships and trains on display.

[Sunbird24]

There is actually a lot of interest in railways in Indonesia now but whatever existed prewar was virtually destroyed by the Japanese occupation followed by various postwar conflicts which continued well into the mid 1960s. What was left of the railway in 1945 fell into a gradual decline in spite of the arrival of a fleet of 100 2-8-2s for the main lines. All the branch lines, although on paper being part of the nationalised system, carried on much as before with what they had. They had lost their Dutch masters and had no replacements. Everything was run into the ground. Although they had several hundred steam locomotives on the books and almost 100 different types, the vast majority were out of use in reality and many would never run again. Everywhere one went there were long lines of rusted hulks often overgrown with weeds and bushes. Away from the main lines there might be one or two locomotives working if you were lucky but more often than not nothing was working. the locomotive had gone for overhaul, it might be back next week, month, year, or never. Until the new diesels started to arrive nothing much happened and even then, as they became due for overhaul or repair they would be away forever and just maybe a steam locomotive would be resurrected to continue the service.Hardly surprising that there were few local enthusiasts about when there was little to be enthusiastic about. Although a large number of steam locomotives have been preserved only a handful are in working order and many of those originally set aside for preservation have since been stolen by scrap thieves, Many have been stolen from where they were displayed or stored.

If anyone is interested in modelling any of the old steam locomotives there are at least plenty of scale drawings with all the required dimensions for virtually all classes which have ever existed and there are also plenty of photographs both prewar and postwar but there is unlikely to ever be a market for mass production so its all down to scratch builders. A lot of the locomotives were sourced from German builders to similar designs to those used in Germany at the time so there are likely to be some German models which could be adapted to look like Indonesian locos. The Krupp 2-8-2s are one example. Many years ago I built an 00 gauge model of a B13 2-4-0T and it ran for years but recently the bodywork and particularly the glue succumbed to the dry Spanish weather and it fell apart. Nothing plastic lasts very long in Spain due to the dry summer heat with shade temperatures over 110ºF and humidity almost nil.

[bingley hall]

There is actually a lot of interest in railways in Indonesia now but whatever existed prewar was virtually destroyed by the Japanese occupation followed by various postwar conflicts which continued well into the mid 1960s. What was left of the railway in 1945 fell into a gradual decline in spite of the arrival of a fleet of 100 2-8-2s for the main lines. .....

 

I've just been uploading some more pics from my 1978 Indonesian adventures to my Flickr pages. Here is one of the Krupp 2-8-2s on a freight at Cirebon in August 1978

 

[St Enodoc]

When I was doing some project work in Jakarta in 1997 (strictly speaking the Perumka era not PJKA I suppose), a number of us visited Taman Mini Indonesia Indah (Beautiful Indonesia Miniature Park) which had a number of eclectic steam locos on display. I don't know if they are still there (Wikipedia suggests that they are). There was also a miniature railway, a cable car and an elevated Aeromovel pneumatic line. Separately, we took a ride out to the western suburbs (can't remember exactly where) on a rather decrepit loco hauled train and a ride to Bandung on the Argo Gede service.

[Sunbird24]

The Taman Mini museum still exists and it has a good selection of old locomotives there. It could have had a few more if the scrap thieves had no got to them first. I actually visited the museum when some of the exhibits were arriving by rail from Manggarai in 1987. On that same trip I had also visited the other museum locations at Ambarawa and Bangil and also seen and photographed the majority of the other preserved and 'to be preserved' locomotives, all marked TMII. Photoraphs from this trip can be seen here:  http://searail.malayanrailways.com/PJKA1987/PJKA1987.htm

The museum at Ambarawa also still exists and has operable steam locomotives, though mostly outbased at other locations. Sadly that at Bangil has apparently not survived. It was supposedly going to become the East Java Railway Museum.

It was during that visit that I was told that gangs of scrap thieves were going around stealing anything metal and no one seemed able or willing to intervene. A similar thing is happening in South Africa at the moment where recently even some operational track was stolen ahead of a steam special which subsequently derailed.