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Trangkil Sugar Mill |
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Trangkil was between Pati and Tayu in the northern part of Central Java, east of Semarang. It was an exemplary operation, exhibiting levels of operating efficiency which all the other mills in Java could only dream of. Right up to the time that the field lines closed, empties went out in the morning and the locomotives returned for a midday break. The second shift would take the locomotives out around 13.00 and be back long before sunset. If there was sufficient traffic on offer, they would go out a second time and often that return journey would be at least partly in the daylight. As everywhere, there was a shift from growing sugar in traditional areas to more marginal ones and that cane had to be trucked in, a trend that increased when the mill started to get cane from the Pakis Baru catchment area. Eventually the local Bupati who probably had interests in road haulage demanded the mill pay a levy for using the tracks next to the main road even though there was no precedent for it. Rather than enter into a costly legal battle, the mill simply lifted the tracks. Almost certainly that would have happened within a few years anyway as 1 had already been placed in store. Hence Trangkil was one of the elite few mills where daylight trains were the rule, the others being Olean, Gondang and Kadhipaten. Ross Sadler would add Kalibagor to the list. |
