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Gempol Sugar Mill |
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Gempol was just a short bus ride out from Cirebon, near where the roads to Bandung and Jakarta separated. Ultimately this was its undoing because even in the late 1970s it was losing its cane fields to housing. Already much cane was delivered by road and the way it was handled made for attractive photography as the loaded loris were pulled some distance out before being reversed back on an embankment with Gunung Cireme as backdrop. This was grossly inefficient so a way was made to allow direct access from the road delivery yard to the mill sometime after the 1984 season which opened up a new but more limited set of photographic possibilities. However, the mill closed at the end of the 1994 season and its cane was diverted to Sindanglaut. Some of the steam fleet were redeployed to Tersana Baru and Sindanglaut but strangely this did not include a single one of the 'modern' piston valve OK 0-8-0T. Roughly, Part 1 covers visits up to 1984 and Part 2 from 1986 to closure. |
