Mallets in the Mountains

After Madiun, Cibatu was the most famous steam location in Java. The original line from Bandung first ran on to Garut and Cikajang before it was extended to Tasikmalaya and Banjar. I suspect that in the early years, the 'branch' was the preserve of the CC10 2-6-6-0T Mallet and that the CC50 2-6-6-0 tender Mallets were drafted in later.

In the 1970s Cibatu shed was faced with a daily struggle to get sufficient of its Mallets on to the main line. The DD52 2-8-8-0, as we have seen, were not allowed to work to Garut and beyond and when more CC50s became available from elsewhere on the island, they were set aside. Similarly, the CC10s were in a very poor condition as the leaking steam in these pictures shows. In the final years, the Garut branch was the preserve of the CC50s and dozens of enthusiasts flocked to the area. The 'ultimate' timetable showed four return workings a day to Garut with two of them continuing to Cikajang, although it was rare for this to be achieved for any continuous period of time.

The luckiest visitors were those who could afford to charter a taxi because the line was surrounded by mountains and there were large numbers of bridges which had to be crossed. Freight traffic consisted mainly of oil and petrol tankers to the Pertamina depot at Garut. Eventually, the Cikajang extension was 'suspended', in any case the buses had removed most of the passengers and there was little freight. The truncated service struggled on until 1984 by which time Pertamina had lost patience with the unreliable operation of the trains and started to use road tankers. There was no point in continuing and it was all over. The hulks lasted in the depot until the early 1990s, an impressive reminder of a glorious past.