The Last Urban Steam Tram

Most enthusiasts will have seen film taken at the turn of the century showing steam trams bustling about European city streets surrounded by horse buses and early motor cars. Their reign was brief as electric trams rapidly displaced them. In colonial days, Jakarta had tiny fireless steam trams and in Surabaya conventional tram locomotives, generally smaller than those used on the rural roadside tramways, were the motive power. Both systems were largely electrified but in Surabaya, the line from the port at Tanjung Perak (Ujung), through the city to Wonokromo and out into the country remained steam powered. After independence, the Surabaya Steam Tram outlasted its modern cousins.

The first visitors found the line open from Ujung through Wonokromo and on to Karang Pilang, although the final section to the port was abandoned in the early 1970s. The line from Wonokromo to the city centre was double track and although there was rarely more than one engine in steam let alone out on the line, both were used right up till the end.

Wonokromo was also the site of the inter-city bus station and there were always many people milling about apart from the squatters in the railway yards. The major use of the tram seemed to be to carry empty bottles which were worth more than the drink they had contained and these were always piled high in the carriages until they were unloaded near Kota station. Thereafter the tram dived into the narrow backstreets of Chinatown to do battle with the traffic. I was lucky enough to travel on the tram on 3 different visits before it finished in late 1977 or early 1978.

I make no apology for devoting a whole section to this amazing relic of the 19th century, when you have seen the pictures I am sure you will agree with me!