RAILWAYS of INDONESIA

. It is known that the Netherlands East Indies Railway Company, who’s new Administration Building in Semarang was put into operation in the beginning of July of 1907, some images of which are hereby presented, has built the first railway in Java. The first or trunk line was built to connect the booming Vorstenlanden of Surakarta (Solo) and Yogyakarta (Yogya) with Semarang, their natural sea port. That is how Semarang became and remains the Netherlands Indies seat of the 's-Gravenhage based company and of which the whole of the Indies owes so much, as it gave the impetus to the improvement of the traffic system in the East Indies. The main Semarang-Vorstenlanden line with the Kedoeng Djattie-William I branch line, now extending 206 kilometers, was, as far as its last section Solo Yogya is concerned, opened for public traffic on 10 June 1872  , and its branch line on 21 May 1873.  This line is located in Central Java. In addition, almost simultaneo...

On 29 October 2010 a special train was run from Semarang Tawang Station to Tanggung Station. This 25 kilometer trip along Indonesia's first railway line commemorates the 143th anniversary of railways in Indonesia. Departure from Tawang Station, Semarang. at 07:00 AM Arrival at Tanggung Station, 1 hour 30 minutes later The special train was made up of two coaches (converted GW cement trucks) and a YR truck, hauled by a Krupp D301 diesel engine disguised as NIS 01. NIS, of course, stands for Nederlandsch-Indische Spoorweg Maatschappij (NISM), the first railway company in Indonesia that had build the Semarang-Tanggung line. For this trip guests were asked to dress in 'period' costumes. This train will later serve as a tourist train running along the scenic Ambarawa-Tuntang line.