Steam and Rail in Indonesia

by Jack Rozendaal

Price £9.95

72 pages 215 x 275 mm, full colour laminated card cover 120 b/w photos, sketches and technical drawings, 14 colour photos, 7 maps, 3 track layout diagrams.

ISBN 1-900340-11-9

Author Jack Rozendaal grew up in the Dutch East Indies during the 1920s and 1930s with a fascination for the railways of the country and a talent for technical drawing. He observed the scene in Java meticulously and has described the locomotives as he knew them in that era. The main lines are examined, along with various classes of 3'6" gauge locomotives, especially the Mallet types developed for the mountainous areas of the country. Indonesia's two rack lines are covered, that on Sumatra leading to the coalfields that once supplied the railways, and on Java the Ambarawa rack section, now preserved. The steam tramways described were common in Java and very familiar, as in his home town of Solo they were a part of everyday life for many years.

Today the State Railways are of 3'6" gauge but until the 1940s there was also a 4'8½" gauge network. The author has been able to describe his experiences this railway and to give first-hand accounts of ancient Beyer Peacock locomotives that latterly have only been seen as relics abandoned to the jungle. Other Dutch, Swiss, German, and British locomotives feature, now long gone as they were transported to Manchuria during the Japanese occupation.

6A post-war period working for the engineering firm of Werkspoor in Amsterdam was followed by a return to Indonesia, this time based on the island of Sumatra. Here in the 1950s the author worked as an engineer on various sisal and palm oil plantations, thus allowing first hand experience of narrow gauge plantation railways, including the sugar cane lines visited by steam enthusiasts today.

In addition to Jack Rozendaal's own drawings and a selection of photos obtained from railwaymen many years ago, this book also features photographs from the collections of Keith Chester, Ian G.T. Duncan, the late 'Dusty' Durrant, and D. Trevor Rowe, and period postcard views from Christopher Walker. Jim Grant has provided a colour section showing the collection of preserved locomotives at Ambarawa.