Steam in Java

This page contains more detailed information and links on the steam scene in Java than the main Indonesian section.

Now read on for my very personal perspective on a very special island in a very special country.

Java Sugar Steam 2008

Well, if you like your steam REAL - although I am afraid I know from experience that most of you prefer it laid on a plate, porno style - then Java in July/August every year is the place to be. Here traditional values continue, I ran tours here for over 20 years without any of the problems that have beset first Cuba and more recently China. You can visit Java as an independent traveller and expect to receive a warm welcome and no demands for money save the official entry fee charged for access to most of the mill areas which are not in the public domain. Read (added 29th April 2007) how David Longman fared in 2006. If you are going in 2008 (or plan to go in 2009), you should read the reports for 2008 (updated 12th August 2008).

After reading the reports you may wish you had joined one of my very special full Java tours, if so, sorry, it's too late now....

Never been to Java? Well it's probably an acquired taste..

Tasik Madu 2003

Olean 2003

Asembagus 2003

In 2002 I produced a series of pages containing photographs of the best steam action. Trangkil is now history, the rest could have been repeated in 2003, since when Sragi has lost its field lines and Asembagus has now gone green.:

The Cepu Forest Railway
The Sragi Roster
The Tasik Madu Roster
Steam Action at Olean
An afternoon at Asembagus
The Trangkil Roster

Inside Java's sugar mills - veteran stationary steam!

Olean Sugar Mill - a candidate for a World Heritage Site

Visiting Olean in 2008? Need some help with transport to chase the trains?
Please contact Zaenal Combo vidicombo@hotmail.com

This is my country - the best kept steam secret in the World today. Some years ago there were 55 or so sugar mills, with over 40 using more than 200 narrow gauge steam locomotives. The main season runs from June to mid-September although some mills start earlier and others finish later. With various closures etc, the figures are now about 45 mills and in 2003 about 20 used just around 70 locomotives (the 2005 figures were probably 15/45) and you can now read the 2004 report (20th September 2004), there are links to earlier reports in it. David Longman was here as an independent traveller, read his own perspective on my favourite island (8th September 2004), Bernd Seiler also has a report on his own site (24th October 2004). The Java 2005 sugar season has been and gone and is now covered in my 2005 report (updated 4th October 2005). Reports for the 2006 season are now available (updated 1st October 2006), with a link to an independent traveller's guide (added 9th May 2006), LCGB tour pictures added 10th September 2006, last report, 14th October 2006, my late season Olean report, 1st October 2006. To which very late (added 29th April 2007) I have added David Longman 2006 trip report. I hope it encourages a few of you to follow in his footsteps in 2008.... Reports are available in news of the 2007 season (latest addition 31st December 2007) and the 2008 season (updated and illustrated 12th August 2008). Out of season, things don't look so good, read about the 'Sleeping Beauty' (23rd May 2008) but Tasik Madu has found a way to run steam 52 weeks a year (23rd May 2008). This was my first real sight of Java sugar steam in 2008, newly painted and ready to go:

If you don't make it soon then perhaps this is what you will see when you finally see the error of your ways:

As an aside Java's main line railways have suffered some well publicised accidents owing to derailments in the last year. The line from Surabaya to Bangil (and on east to Jember /Banyuwangi and south to Malang) has been subject to short-notice delays and even closure owing to the 'mud volcano' adjacent to the track near Sidoarjo. Bear this in mind if you are considering using the trains as part of your planned visit.

Pakis Baru's roster of historic steam locomotives has been put up for sale. Prospective purchasers will need a big cheque book - click here for more information (4th September 2004). Graham Lee bought Trangkil 4, (which is now effectively a rich man's toy rather than the historic item it should be) and Pakis 1 and 5 in 2004. He has since bought Sragi 1 and 14 (6th June 2005), Ceper 5 and Jatibarang 9. All are now in the UK.

If you are mad enough to know a little of what I get up to away from my tour group, then I added a page of pictures (27th September 2002). I have also added a feature on a day out on the Cepu Forest Railway (21st August 2002) where you don't have to use the tourist coaches and can have a 'real' train. For a very welcome alternative view please read Jan Willem van Dorp's account of Java 2001 (added 19th November 2001) - a lot of thought provoking stuff here.

Most visitors here seem to have some appreciation of traditional Javanese manners. Others (Harald Nave, Alfred Luft, Dietmar Kramer, some other Germans and several Japanese) clearly have a lot to learn. (8th August 2001).

There are very few steam powered rack railways still operating outside Europe. The Ambarawa Railway Museum in Central Java has operated charter trains for more than 25 years, over the line south-west to Bedono. 2002 saw the centenary of two of the operating locomotives (B2502/3). I have now established an unofficial web site for the railway and the museum. The future here looks brighter than it has for a long time with the provincial government supporting the reinstatement of the line in the opposite direction to Tuntang along the lake Rawa Pening which was re-opened for light traffic on 4th March 2002. We have established an informal body, the 'Friends of Ambarawa Railway Museum'. Click here for more information. (Ambarawa information updated 29th October 2002.) The Friends have helped preserve C1218 (below) by moving it from Cepu to Ambarawa in 2002 and by August 2006 it was back in working order, seen here working a special train for the LCGB party.