The Last Steam Locomotives of Pangkah Sugar Mill

This video was recorded by my friend (and mentor in railfanning), Paul Collin, during our visit at Pangkah sugar mill in 2014 Java Steam & Sugar tour.
Located to the southwest of Tegal in Central Java, Indonesia, this historic mill was a favorite destination among steam locomotive enthusiast as it was one of very few last places in the world to see steam locomotives at regular work.
At the time of our visit, there were 4 steam locomotives at work. The majority of them were Arnold Jung/Jungenthal 0-6-2 locomotives which were built in 1915 and 1920. Three of them can be seen in the video. They’re helped by a lone Orenstein & Koppel built locomotive which feature unique 0-8-0 Klien Lindner axle. In addition of those steam locomotives, Pangkah sugar mill also employ one Moës diesel locomotive to assist their workings.
The nature of railway operations at Pangkah sugar mill during our visit was purely for shunting. In the morning, they would normally haul empty wagons into the road yard on the northern part of mill complex where the trucks will transfer their loads into the railway wagons. Once sufficient number of loaded wagons are achieved by midday, the steam locomotives will return back to collect the wagons and hauling them back into the mill in a trip that is more than 1 kilometer which provide an excellent attraction to visiting railway heritage enthusiasts.
This pattern of railway operation is actually a recent thing, up until early 1990s the sugarcane was brought from the field by these train instead of truck. Pangkah sugar mill had a vast field lines network that encompass the areas to the east and north of the mill. A trip to the outlying field lines could take almost whole day to complete where the furthest field trip was 25 km one way. At the height of their railway operation, Pangkah sugar mill had 10 steam locomotives for such demanding tasks (including a rare DeCouillet locomotive). Rumor has it that its field lines network was interconnected with Jatibarang sugar mill on the west of Tegal, owing to the fact that both share similar 600mm gauge. The field lines were also connected with Cacaban dam construction line, about 10 km to the southwest of the mill, although this line was dismantled when the dam construction completed in 1952 (after decades of construction which was started during Colonial era in 1914).
However, competition with trucks plus depletion of sugarcane fields around the mill (which either due to Tegal’s urban expansion and conversion to other crops) in 1980s meant the number of field workings dwindled. Rob Dickinson informed me that the last recorded field workings was in 1991, and it too was just a single steam hauled field train. Since then a new road yard was built to the north of the mill to accommodate transfer and haulage of sugarcane from trucks to the train. Parts of the field lines saw intermittent chartered operation up until 2008 or 2009 when the field lines to east are too damaged to be used.
Sadly, and much to my eternal regret, my first visit to Pangkah was also the last time I saw the steam locomotives working. I wasn’t too interested to record its workings as I was too focused to search for steam field workings (which was available in the nearby Sumberharjo mill in Pemalang), and didn’t paid too much attention of those in Pangkah. I only manage to record a few which can be seen here:    • The Last Regular Steam Locomotive Works at...   . Worse still, I even slept during last few hours of our visit, while Paul and others busy recording, as I ran out of space in my camera’s memory card.
By following year, after report of major financial losses of its parent company (PTPN IX), Pangkah sugar mill and all other sugar mills in Central Java who operated their steam locomotives had to stop operating their steam locomotives. Even the field lines in Sumberharjo is also closed, ending all field workings in Central Java.
These days, the motive power used in Pangkah is just the Moës diesel locomotive, supplanted by tractors. The steam locomotives are only used for chartered basis.
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