Cepu forest railway

The Cepu Forest Railway is a light logging railway of 1067mm gauge that runs through teak plantations to the northwest of the town of Cepu on the boundary between Central and East Java provinces,on the island of Java in Indonesia. Steam traction is still dominant.

Along with Olean sugar mill in Situbondo, East Java (a candidate World Heritage Site [http://www.internationalsteam.co.uk/mills/olean.htm] ) ) and the rack railway at Ambarawa in central Java, the Cepu Forest Railway is one of the three main centres of steam railway heritage remaining in Java.

The railway was originally constructed in "circa" 1915 and was fully operational until the late 1990s, with over km to mi|300|wiki=yes 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 km to mi|30 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 it is planned to restore tourist trains to the arboretum in December 2007.

References