Cepu Forest Railway

The Cepu Forest Railway (officially branded as Loco Tour Cepu) is a 1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in) narrow gauge light logging railway that runs through teak plantations to the northwest of the town of Cepu, in Cepu district, on the boundary between Central and East Java provinces, on the island of Java in Indonesia. It is owned by Perhutani, a state-owned forestry company of Indonesia. Steam traction is still dominant.

Along with Olean Sugar Mill in Situbondo, East Java (a candidate World Heritage Site^[1]), Tasik Madu sugar mill and the rack railway at Ambarawa (both also in Central Java), the Cepu Forest Railway is one of the four main centres of steam railway heritage remaining in Java. In fact, with four operable steam locomotives, built by Berliner Maschinenbau and Du Croo & Brauns,^[2] the Cepu depot has the largest concentration of active preserved steam locomotives in Indonesia. It is therefore of major heritage importance and due to its globally significant status as an active and complete steam locomotive-powered logging railway it might also be considered a candidate World Heritage Site.

The railway was originally constructed circa 1915 and was fully operational until the late 1990s, with over 300 kilometres (190 mi) of track in the Perhutani forests. Since 1998 much of the track has been lifted, but occasional logging trains continued to operate until 2002.

Since 2002 only chartered logging trains and a tourist train have been run (Loko Tour). The railway is popular with foreign tourists, especially from Europe, the United States and Japan. The main remaining line is of a distance of around 30 kilometres (19 mi) to an arboretum where there are spectacular 150-year-old teak trees along with a visitor centre where tourist train passengers are often entertained by local cultural shows.

In 2006 a bridge just outside Cepu was damaged by flooding. In late 2007 this was repaired, and tourist trains were restored to the arboretum in December 2007. Since then there have been numerous tours and chartered logging trains. There were also reportedly 'real' logging trains run early in 2010 when otherwise inaccessible trees brought down by storm damage were removed using steam trains.

Tours and charter trains are marketed and run by PT Palawi, a subsidiary of Perhutani, in Jakarta.^[3]

Reference^[4][5]

Class	Unit number	Image	Axles (Whyte)	Builder	Builder no.	Year built	Remarks
BMAG locomotives	Madjoe (M)		0-10-0T	Berliner Maschinenbau	8834	1926	Preserved at Manggala Wanabakti Museum, Central Jakarta
	Augustus (A)				9408	1928	Non-operational as 2018[6]
	Bahagia (B)				9409		Non-operational[7]
	Tudjubelas (T)				9410		Non-operational as 2018[6]
D&B locomotives	n/a		0-6-0T	Du Croo & Brauns	388, 389, 390	1950	At least 2 units were preserved at the facility[8]
C25	02		0-6-0Tr	Hanomag	6800	1913	Transferred from PJKA, derelict by 1987,[9] presumably scrapped
C26	07		0-6-0T	Henschel	18631	1921	Transferred from PJKA, derelict by 1987,[9] presumably scrapped
C29	02		0-6-0T	Hanomag	9790	1922	Transferred from PJKA, preserved as monument at Taman Seribu Lampu, Cepu[10]

Class	Unit number	Image	Builder	Builder no.	Year built	Remarks
Ruston LHT	n/a		Ruston & Hornsby	441931,[11] n/a	1970s	1 unit operational, 1 unit derelict[12]

Sujayanto, G. (2001). "It's a Nice Day bersama Loko Tua". Intisari. September 2001: 34–35.

7°8′16.2″S 111°36′21.32″E / 7.137833°S 111.6059222°E / -7.137833; 111.6059222