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Pakis Baru Sugar Mill |
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Despite considerable investment, the mill found it impossible to attract sufficient cane to operate economically and it first closed after the 1999 season. When I first visited the mill just south of Tayu, it was said to be owned by an 'Army Cooperative'. I am not sure if that was PT Bapipundip who owned it at the time of closure. It was subsequently sold to PT Laju Perdana Indah and reopened but the railway has never worked again. In my time, most of the cane came by road to a yard at the north end of the mill where it would be loaded into loris. It would be worked along the east side of the mill next to the Pati - Tayu road, then took a slight right turn before being finally reversed into the mill. Originally empty loris did the journey in reverse but eventually they were returned more directly using a short cut between the shed and the mill. Steam was also used to deliver some empty loris to the fields and they were returned using the mills two small diesels. Steam also worked the mill's mud trains.
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