| Ah, Indonesia |
| Episode 08 Geared Rail and Buildings in West Sumatra |
| Om Doyok checked a geared rail of railway
on the way to Bukittingi for farewell
party
on March 22, 2002. This railway was constructed more than 100 years ago and still now they use this system to send coals from the coal mine at Sawahlunto to Teluk Bayur in Padang City. |
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 <Aind8-01> Rail and center rack. A gentleman is the boss of Om Doyok. |
 <Aind8-02> Details of Rack. Rack plates are worn out at the left flanks due to contact of gear wheels of locomotives |
| The system was as shown sketch below. They
call this system as Riggenbach type which
has been applied only a several places in
the world. DO NOT USE SKETCH BELOW for official reports, since the shown dimensions are "approximate" ones. |
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On my way back from the farewell party, I found a strange shaped wooden building between Padang Panjang and Singkarak. This three stories building was constructed about 140 years ago for dwelling youth and still now they use the hostel for youth. Minang people in West Sumatra has a tradition that boys every nights stay together with their friends in a village for learning subjects especially Islamic religion after supper. Girls also learn Islaminology in this building but they go home and stay with their parents. |
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 <Aind8-03> Front View |
 <Aind8-04> Side View |
| Did you realize that the fence on the ground
floor deflects as well as the board
of boats? Building in Minang style looks like a part of structure of the wooden boat. Does this mosque adjacent to the wooden school above look like an OCTOPUS? |
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TACTICAL PILOTAGE CHART TPC M-10A shows the abundant rail roads. I show the abundant lines on the map below. |
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| Now Perum KA (National Railway Company) suspended
transportation services sections shown
below: between Pang Panjang and Paykumbuh between Sawah Lunto and Riau region、 between Pariaman and Lebuk Alung The line between Sawahlunto and Riau region was constructed under Japanese military occupation through tropical forests and swamp area which seems to accompany many victims. It is strange that the local government refresh rail between Sawahlunto and Sijunjung since 2000 but no train was observed. Click the above map to get a map of West Sumatra with higher resolution. |
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| Addition on February 03, 2007 | |
| The following chart was copied from an article
in Majalah KA Edisi 06/Januari 2007
about
railway in West Sumatra. I was astonished to find this railway magazine is for railway manias among Indonesians whom I have never expected to be maniac about anything. |
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 Doublet shows sections of the geared rail, since the maximum inclination is between 5 to 8 %. |
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| This magazine introduced: Railway construction started from Sawahlunto by Soematra Staatsspoorwegen (SSS) in 1887. Distance was 155.5km between Sawahlunto and Emma Haven (Teluk Bayur at present). This railway was known as the "slave rail", since the workers were chained at their ankles. This line was opened on January 01, 1894 and has been applied to transportation of coal from Ombilin and Sawahlunto coal mines. The section between Padang Panjang and Payakumbuh through Bukittinggi of 86 km long was opened in period of 1896 and 1906. The highest point of this line is at 1,155m ASL at a pass between Mt. Singgalan and Mr. Merapi. Elevation of Padang station is 5 m ASL. Coastal line between Lebuk Alung and Sungai Limau through Pariaman was constructed for passenger services. Pariaman was an important sea port until Teluk Bayur port was in service. |
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| During Japanese occupation, this system was
called "Sumatora Seibu Tetsudou"
(Western Sumatra Railway) under control
railway
bureau in Singapore. Japanese imperial army constructed a new line between Muaro Kalaban and Pekanbaru of 220km long by workers day and night for transporting coal to Strait of Malacca. This project is known as the Wartime Japanese Railway which yieled victims of thousands of Indonesian workers. Unfortunately this line has not used for its purpose since this project was completed just before August 1945. |
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| Railway service between Padang Panjang and
Payakumbuh was suspended in 1970th. Cement factory of Indarung Cement started its operation in 1979 and the railway was used for transportation coals and clinkers between Bukit Putus - Indarung - Teluk Bayur. |
| Coal transportation from Sawahlunto ended in 2000th due to developing road transportation by trucks and coal production reduced in these coal mines. |
| Addition on September 22, 2009 | |
| I have just witnessed "Abt system which was devised by Roman Abt, a Swiss locomotive engineer in Usui pass in Japan on September 21, 2009. | |
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The system was introduced to this railway
at construction stage in 1892, since
inclination of this line was 6.67%. Initially they provided steam locomotives to this line, and it was electrified in 1912. |
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An old tunnel. This tunnel has been abandoned,
since another new tunnel was applied to the
electric trains in 1966. The section between Yokohama and stations was abandoned in 1997, since started to carry passengers in this section. |
