Kretek Country

East Java has always been my favourite province and I seem to have spent more time here by far over the years than elsewhere on the island. Apart from Surabaya, most of the towns in East Java have hardly changed in nature over the years, retaining their small town appeal as they have grown. Kediri is famous above all as the home of 'Gudang Garam' the manufacturer of Kreteks, Indonesia's clove and tobacco cigarettes which give the whole country a distinctive aroma.

Most branch lines used only a single class of locomotive, but this had several, a left over from the days when there were several roadside tramways out of Pare with varying requirements for motive power. Kediri needed a shunting locomotive principally for the oil depot, but also for tripping to the sugar mill at Pesantren. There was no shed, and it made sense to run a train out each morning and back in the late afternoon, there were plenty of school children who needed to make the journey and it was well patronised. When custom fell, the locomotive was kept at Kediri, with the journey back to Pare being made only weekly. Soon, Pare shed closed and Kertosono was used as base.

I have many fond memories of the line. For the most part it was full of uncertainties. What would the locomotive be each day? Would it finish shunting before the light failed? Would I find a bus back from Pare in the evening? After a while, I found things sorted themselves out, the shed staff would give me the locomotive I wanted, the staff would find an excuse to go home to Pare on time and every year there were more of the buses which would eventually kill the little train.

I first developed my taste for sugar steam in this area, as I would wait for the afternoon train at Pesantren sugar mill watching the frenetic activity there. But that is another story which has been told already....