RAILWAYS of INDONESIA

What secret is hidden behind the tarpaulin at PTKA's office in Semarang? It's C1412! Workers applying a fresh coat of paint Offering of flowers and cigarettes for the guardian spirit of C1412 I was not aware that C1412 had been moved to the PTKA office in Semarang until Mr Albert Pelupessy , a visitor to this blog sent me a message on 18 November 2008. By that time C1412 was already a week in Semarang. Mr Pelupessy is the contractor appointed by PTKA to move and restore C1214. He is also a steam enthusiast. I met him, quite by accident, when I visited the PTKA office - where he was supervising the restoration work - on the afternoon of November 19, 2008. C1412 in Ambarawa (2008) (photo: Nick Bryant) C1412 in Ambarawa (2001) C1412 was Serajoedal Stoomtram Maatschappij ( SDS ) engine number 12. Between 1895 and 1910 SDS ordered fourteen of these 0-6-0 tank engines from Beyer Peacock, Manchester . C1412 itself entered into service in 1909. These engines were main...

It was to be the greatest exposition ever held in the Netherlands East Indies, an unabashed celebration of colonial supremacy. And the venue was Semarang. As the colonial administrators drew up their plans for the exposition celebrating the centennial of Dutch independence, they hoped the Koloniale Tentoonstelling would draw many visitors and an influx of revenue to the city. New hotels and pensions were opened; car rental companies were set up. The city was galvanized into activity for the grand event. Unfortunately, by the time the exposition opened on August 20, 1914, rumblings of war in Europe, triggered by the assassination of Austria's Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo, cast a dark shadow on the event. Due to the tense political situation the patron of the exposition, governor general Idenburg, was unable to attend the opening ceremony. And even though Japan, China, Australia, India, French Indochina and the United States were represented by their respective pavilions, all...