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Indonesia 1977, Part 1 The Mountains of West Java |
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Derek Huntriss had what he describes as 'his best ever trip' to Indonesia in
1977. You may like to compare what he saw with what I
saw a year earlier in Java although he had less time available and also
went to West and Norrth Sumatra. He and companion John Hunt very loosely attached to the
Dorridge Travel Group which t hey used for cheap flights, the special train
at Ambarawa and also to chase the train between Kediri and Pare. As you will
see, he took every opportunity to do a bit of 'riding on the loco'.. I
believe these pages will be of special interest to Indonesian enthusiasts
who will be very grateful to Derek for making these pictures available. If you are one of them,
please respect his copyright and thereby ensure that further such pages will
appear from time to time. The "I" in the captions refers to
webmaster RD who has actually written most of the captions after reference
to Derek - a real role reversal as Derek has often done the same job for a
number of books he has helped produce.
See also the other parts:
Cibatu during this period was justly famous for having an allocation consisting entirely of Mallets. although by 1977, the CC10s and DD52s were history and only the CC50s remained. All the pictures below were taken between 25th and 27th July 1977. CC5009 is on the shed turntable:
Derek concentrated his efforts on the daily out and back working to Bandung because it traversed some wonderful scenery with large viaducts. CC5003 attacks the steep grade leaving for the ridge which has to be crossed before descending to the plains around Bandung:
Indonesian locomen were famously hospitable, the best way to appreciate the scenery was to ride on the tender although the oily exhaust would have been unpleasant at times: CC5003 crosses 'Power Parade viaduct' heading west in the morning. The lucky passengers on the train got to cross it twice as the kindly crew dropped the photographers and then went back to run across again.:
CC5003 thunders across a level crossing, in those days that was probably a main road in the area:
This is the return working on Power Parade viaduct in the late afternoon and the photographer's skills cannot hide the fact that the locomotive is longer than the load! By now any passengers who had been on the outward journey in the morning must have been thoroughly fed up with the toing and froing for the benefit of the visitors!
On the other hand, trains on the Garut branch were more substantial. CC5003 awaits its call for duty outside the shed while trains for Garut (left) and Bandung (centre) brew up in the station:
CC5024 is in charge of this Garut train. There were 4 trains a day each way at this time, two of which continued to Cikajang:
There was no alternative competing road transport between Cibatu and Garut, there was always a good crowd getting on and off the trains at intermediate stops:
This is the same train at Garut, even if it were continuing up the line, there would be a break here to do some shunting, particularly for the oil tankers for the Pertamina depot which were the main freight traffic:
On returning to Bandung in the afternoon from their first trip to Cibatu on 25th July 1977, Derek and John found the group which had spent the day relaxing about to board their bus for Purwakarta. Here they found CC5019 in a very fetching non-standard green livery.:
Click here for Part 2 - Central Javan Plains. |
