The Ambarawa Railway Museum (, officially named Indonesian Railway Museum by the Indonesian Railway Company) is a museum located in Ambarawa in Central Java, Indonesia. The museum preserves around 21 steam locomotives and focuses on tourism train tours hauled by 3 operational steam engines (both are rack locomotives and a 4-4-0 two-cylinder compound steam engine) and a hydraulic diesel engine, using the remains of the closing of the railway line.

Museum building and location

Ambarawa was a city that was used for military purposes during the Dutch colonial administration and not far from this station, there's Fort Willem I, known as Benteng Pendem by locals. This station was named Willem I because it was built in honor of the services of the King of the Netherlands William I. The colonial government of the Dutch East Indies under the command of Governor-General L. A. J. Baron Sloet van de Beele ordered the construction of a new railway station to facilitate the mobilization of Royal Netherlands East Indies Army (KNIL) troops from and to Semarang. On 21 May 1873, the Ambarawa railway station was built on a 127,500 m² land. It was finished at the same time as the Kedungjati–Bringin–Tuntang–Ambarawa line by Nederlandsch-Indische Spoorweg Maatschappij (NIS).

The station building consists of two main buildings for waiting room and the station master room.

The Willem I railway station was originally a transshipment point between the gauge branch from Kedungjati to the northeast and the gauge line onward towards Yogyakarta via Magelang to the south. It is still possible to see that the two sides of the station were built to accommodate different-sized trains.

On 8 April 1976, the Ambarawa railway station was officially converted into the Ambarawa Railway Museum by the governor of Central Java Province at that time Supardjo Rustam. The museum preserves the steam locomotives, which were then coming to the end of their useful lives when the gauge railways of the Indonesian State Railway (the Perusahaan Negara Kereta Api, PNKA) was closed. These are parked in the open air next to the original station.

In 2010, the building of Ambarawa Railway Museum was made a heritage building.Under Peraturan Menteri Kebudayaan dan Pariwisata Nomor PM.57/PW.007/MKP/2010

Railway line

The construction line between Ambarawa–Samarang (or called Semarang today) was a package with Samarang NIS––– line. In 1869, after Gundih, the NIS continued the line to and ended at Ambarawa. Finally, Samarang–Vorstenlanden (now Surakarta and Jogjakarta) and to Ambarawa lines were completed on 21 May 1873. After that, the NIS continued to build rack line to Secang with the line passing through the steep contours and difficult topography in the mountainous area. This line connected the Dutch East Indies military stronghold in Magelang city with Fort Willem I in Ambarawa, and it was finished on 1 February 1905. The gauge line towards Djocja Toegoe () (runs roughly south-west from Ambarawa) was of particular interest because it contained sections of rack railway between Jambu and Secang which have 6.5% gradient, the only such operation in Java. This line beyond closed in the early 1970s after it was damaged in an earthquake, but had already lost most of its passenger traffic to buses on the parallel road. The line from (runs east initially from Ambarawa) survived into the middle 1970s but saw very little traffic near the end, not least because it was far quicker to travel more directly by road to Semarang. The presence of the rack line meant that there was probably never much through traffic from Semarang to Yogyakarta.

Services The museum is open daily from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. in a week. Currently, there are 3 kinds of heritage tourism trains running, the excursion trains run on Ambarawa–– (mountainous rack line) pulled by B25 02 or B25 03 and Ambarawa– (flat line) pulled by B51 12. While, the vintage train pulled by hydraulic-diesel D301 24 also on Ambarawa-Tuntang line, could be rented. The excursion trains are rented and can be booked around 2–3 weeks before departure, with an exceptional vintage train runs regularly (pulled by hydraulic-diesel D301 24) with the ticket price listed. Admission to the museum is divided into 3 categories :

1. For kids (3–12 years old) and students : Rp 10.000,00 (US$0.67)

2. Adults (local) and scholars : Rp 20.000 (US$1.34)

3. Foreigners : Rp 30.000 (US$2.01)

Collection The museum has a collection of 26 steam locomotives from several railway companies of the former Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) which were acquired by Djawatan Kereta Api (DKA) or Department of Railways of the Republic of Indonesia. Currently four locomotives are operational. Other collections of the museum include old telephones, Morse telegraph equipment, old bells and signals equipment, and some antique furniture.

Operational Some of the operational steam locomotives are the two German-built, Esslingen B25 classes 0-4-2RT B25 02 and B25 03 (ex-NIS 232 and 233), which are from the original fleet of 5 supplied to the line more than 100 years ago (a third locomotive, the B25 01 (ex-NIS 231) is preserved as static display at a park in the town nearby). The 0-10-0RT E10 class, PNKA E10 60, which was originally locale to West Sumatra in the 1960s for coal transports, was brought to Java for repair and later returned again as excursion train at Sawahlunto, and a Mogul Hartmann 2-6-0T C1218 (ex-SS 457) which was restored to working order in 2006, but transferred to Solo to working as excursion train as the request of Surakarta city government, named Sepur Kluthuk Jaladara. The museum also have a small diesel switcher D300 class 0-8-0D D300 23, previously based at Cepu, an old UH-295 crane from Semarang, and the restored Hanomag 4-4-0 two-cylinder compound DKA B51 12 (ex-SS Class 612) worked for excursion train on Ambarawa–Tuntang line.

Class Unitnumber Image Axles Builder Builder no. Year built Remarks B25 02 0-4-2RT Maschinenfabrik Esslingen 3243 1902 Withdrawn from service in 2020. 03 3244 B51 12 4-4-0 Hanomag 3866 1902 D300 23 0-8-0DH Krupp 3719 1958 Withdrawn from service in 2018. D301 24 4171 1962

Static display Reference Disclaimer: Photos shown below may not represent the current condition or layout. Class Unitnumber Image Axles Builder Builder no. Year built Remarks B20 14 0-4-0Tr Beyer, Peacock and Company 4634 1905 B22 20 0-4-2T Sächsische Maschinenfabrik 2568 1900 B27 11 0-4-2T Sächsische Maschinenfabrik 3757 1914 B52 10 0-4-0 Sächsische Maschinenfabrik 3484 1911 C11 40 2-6-0T Sächsische Maschinenfabrik 1759 1891 C12 40 2-6-0T Sächsische Maschinenfabrik 2736 1902 C15 07 0-6-0T Werkspoor 17 1900 C16 03 0-6-0T Sächsische Maschinenfabrik 2718 1901 C17 04 0-6-0T Sächsische Maschinenfabrik 2773 1902 C18 01 0-6-0T Sächsische Maschinenfabrik 3160 1908 C20 01 0-6-2T Sächsische Maschinenfabrik 2792 1902 C24 07 2-6-2T Werkspoor 216 1908 C27 28 4-6-4T Werkspoor 472 1920 C28 21 4-6-4T Henschel & Son 18175 1921 C51 01 4-6-0 Beyer, Peacock and Company 5593 1912 C54 17 4-6-0 Beyer, Peacock and Company 6122 1922 D10 07 0-8-0T Sächsische Maschinenfabrik 3804 1914 D51 06 2-8-2 Sächsische Maschinenfabrik 4135 1920 F10 02 2-12-2T Hanomag 6814 1913 BB10 12 0-4-4-2T Sächsische Maschinenfabrik 3902 1906 CC50 29 2-6-6-0 Swiss Locomotive and Machine Works 3253 1928 BB200 08 A1A-A1A EMD 22434 1957 Stored at station. CC200 15 Co-2-Co GE–ALCO 31918 1953 DD55 12 B-B Fuji Heavy Industries n/a 1974 Stored at station.

Gallery

See also List of museums and cultural institutions in Indonesia Bondowoso Rail and Train Museum

References

Literature

External links

Travel in Indonesia International Steam | Ambarawa Railway Museum YouTube| Ambarawa Railway Museum