West Sumatra, August 1985.
By the time I made this visit I had a copy of Colin Garratt's book "Iron Dinosaurs" and a copy of Dusty Durrant's book "PNKA Power Parade". I was holidaying with relatives in Singapore and decided to try and visit Java again and perhaps Sumatra as well. Because of the limited time I would have to fly but I also had limited funds. I managed to get a cheap ticket and bookings for a flight to Padang in Sumatra, Padang to Palembang 2 days later, and Jakarta to Singapore 4 days after that. I proposed to travel by train from Palembang to Jakarta. I arrived at Padang in mid afternoon, found a hotel room and then made my way to the station. There were several diesels in the shed and coaches in the station but no sign of steam. The adjacent works was closing for the night and I met the manager. He said I could visit the works the next morning at 7 am, but not take photographs. I was back at the station by dawn. The coaches had gone but I went to the works and waited for the manager who arrived shortly afterwards. In the first workshop I saw five diesels, four of which were apparently waiting to go to Yogyakarta for overhaul. The fifth was a new rack locomotive. We then went through to another workshop which contained several steam locomotives. E1060 and C3325 were both serviceable, C3318 and C3322 were complete, F1015 was undergoing overhaul prior to "export to Canada in 1986" (EXPO 86?). Several E10s were in bits - a boiler had E1062 on it but it could have been E1052, there were cabs from E1005, E1010 and E1017 and cylinder blocks of at least seven E101s. There was a cab numbered C3303 or C3323. I asked about more steam locomotives and was told they were all at Padang Panjang and I was given a permit to photograph them. Apparently several were supposedly serviceable and F1013 was working.from there also. I had missed the passenger train so I took a bus there. I saw no working steam - the photographs tell the rest of the story.

Links to other pages on this site.
Yogyakarta 1976    Madiun and Surakarta 1976    Ambarawa and north coast 1976    Jakarta 1977    Cirebon 1977
South Sumatra 1985    Java 1985    Java 1987

As I was leaving Padang Panjang more coal trains started to arrive from Batutabal, all diesel hauled. I had been told that there were more stean locomotives at Solok so I took a bus there. For much of the way the road and railway follow the shore of Lake Singkarek but the only train I saw was a light engine at a level crossing. At Solok it soon became obvious that I was a few weeks too late as all the steam locomotives had been cut up. A photograph in the booking hall showed 2 F10s being cut up. I returned to Padang in the dark by bus and the next morning took a few photographs of trains passing the airport whilst waiting for my flight to Palembang.

Links to other pages on this site.
Yogyakarta 1976    Madiun and Surakarta 1976    Ambarawa and north coast 1976    Jakarta 1977    Cirebon 1977
South Sumatra 1985    Java 1985    Java 1987
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