Those who had visited the Railway Museum (Het Spoorwegmuseum) in Utrecht at least remembered the locomotive featured in this video:
(video by Paulus Soni Gumilang, one of senior rail fan in Indonesia)
The SS1600 series Mallet steam locomotive, known as CC50 series in its post-independence days, was the last type of mallet locomotive introduced by Staatsspoorwegen (SS) in late 1920s for hauling trains on mountainous main lines of SS in Java island (particularly the Priangan region, which covers the southern part of current West Java Province). While the base design for this locomotive was based on earlier SS1250 series (post-independence number: DD52 series), but the reduction of total weight allows SS1600 series locomotives to be employed on wider range of operation area, since the already in-use SS1200 series (post-independence number: DD50 and DD51 series) and SS1250 series locomotives were declared to be "too heavy" for use on lines with strict weight restrictions.
Builder photo of SS1600 locomotive manufactured by Schweizerische Lokomotiv und Macschinenfabrik (SLM), photo from Wikimedia Commons.
SS1600 series locomotives also featured major improvements like standardized components (allowing exchange of components with other type of locomotives) and revamped technical design, where most of them were based off the modification work of both SS1200 and SS1250 locomotives done by SS in mid-1920s to solve serious problems experienced by SS1200 and SS1250 locomotives like backpressure, metal fractures on locomotive frame, and very high fuel consumption. As expected by SS, these technical improvements brought a significant improvement on train traffic, as SS1600 locomotives could handle trains (both passenger and freight) with long consist through mountainous region without any major problems. Because these locomotives were mainly deployed on mountainous region, they were later nicknamed as
"De Bergkoningin" by Dutch people (literally means "The Queen of Mountains"), also known among Indonesians as
"Sri Gunung". Some of SS1600 locomotives were later reallocated to other parts of Java island for deployment on mountainous lines (e.g. the main line from Prupuk to Purwokerto), as steep gradient is a major problem for railway lines that connects northern part and southern part of Java island (along with lines that connects towns and cities located on the mountain range like Malang, Garut, etc).
During the Second World War, the Imperial Japanese Army enforced renumbering to all of locomotives of former Dutch Indies companies into the Japanese style, and the SS1600 locomotives were no exception. They were renumbered to CC50 series, and all of them went into hands of Indonesian Railways on September 28th, 1945. While CC50 locomotives were technically more flexible than the earlier DD51 and DD52 (the early 8 units of SS1200 locomotives that got DD50 series number were slowly dismantled from late 1930s to provide spare parts for DD51 locomotives, though in 1955 Indonesian Railways still had 2 DD50s stored in non-operable condition), all of CC50 locomotives were deployed in regular duties for hauling both passenger and freight trains in mountainous region up to its demise in 1980s.
From 30 locomotives inherited by Indonesian Railways in 1945, most of them were still in regular operation. According to the book "PNKA Power Parade" written by A.E. Durrant, the CC50 locomotives were allocated to the following locomotive depots in 1971:
- Cibatu - 2
- Purwakarta - 1
- Banjar - 4
- Sidotopo - 3
- Ambarawa - 3
- Purwokerto - 10
- Madiun - 2
The following photo shows CC5004 (former SS1604) departs from Sidotopo freight yard in Surabaya with long consist of heavy freight train:
Original photo from "The Mallet Locomotive" by A.E. Durrant, uploaded to Facebook by Faishal Ammar.
One of the member of the class, CC5002 (former SS1602), was known among many rail fans in Indonesia as the locomotive that destroyed at Bendul station (current name: Sukatani station) in Purwakarta Regency on April 11th, 1968, after its boiler exploded when the locomotive stops at the station for some rest. The main cause of boiler explosion was presumed to be the failure of its safety valve, although another assumption said that "clogged boiler pipe" was the real cause of boiler explosion. 6 casualties from this accident were recorded, with the engineer and two firemen (one of the fireman was still in training period) in charge for operating CC5002, along with one of the station employee and two other people near the accident site were killed by the explosion (even the sound from the explosion was heard as far as 50km away from the accident site). As the tender of CC5002 was not destroyed by the explosion, it was later salvaged and stored as surplus unit, in case if another locomotive had its own tender temporarily disconnected for maintenance (CC5001 was reported using the tender of CC5002 in some period after 1968).
Here is one of the photo of CC5002 taken some hours after the explosion:
Collection of Egief Dudy Hidayat, uploaded to Roda Sayap site by Faishal Ammar.
More information about the accident that destroyed the CC5002 is available
here.
As steam locomotives began to be phased out from most of main line duties in late 1960s, CC50 locomotives were also slowly displaced by more modern diesel locomotives, though some of them were reallocated into Cibatu depot for hauling trains on both the mountainous section of South Java Main Line between Bandung and Tasikmalaya, as well as the Cikajang Line (in late 1970s, deteriorating track infrastructure and steep gradient were the main reasons for not using diesels on that line, since the diesel hydraulic ones were too light for mountainous line, and diesel electric locomotives were too heavy for lightly laid branch lines). Since many of Mallet locomotives of Java were gathered at Cibatu depot as primary fleet for trains over the Eastern Priangan region, this depot became very well-known among many steamer fans around the world as the last base for large Mallets in Indonesia. Ironically, the deployment of CC50 locomotives at Cikajang Line was for replacing the older CC10 Mallet tanks (CC50s were actually intended for main line duty, compared to CC10s that were designed for branch line traffic; deterioration of CC10's performance was the main reason why CC50s were the mainstay of Cikajang Line in the late years of that line up to 1983).
CC5012 at Cibatu depot, probably in 1970s. Original photo by W and H Brutzer, uploaded to Facebook by Faishal Ammar.
The year 1981 saw arrival of CC5022 (former SS1622) at its birthplace in Netherlands, since this locomotive was shipped back to Netherlands as a gift from Indonesian Railways. Unfortunately, further dieselization that already went into effect from late 1970s caused more CC50 locomotives to be retired (the CC5022 that was shipped back to Netherlands received its last overhaul in 1976, and it was already retired from regular duty in 1978), as the more fuel-efficient diesel locomotives like CC201 series (GE U18C) began to took over the role for hauling main line trains from steam locomotives.
Alas, year 1982 was the year where heyday of remaining CC50 locomotives were completely put into an end; large amount of volcanic ashes released from the eruption of Mount Galunggung in 1982 contaminates water for feeding steam locomotives at Cibatu depot. Many locomotives of Cibatu depot suffered malfunction due to the massive volcanic ash contamination, and even CC50s were no exception. As the result, these large Mallets were retired from regular service in very worn-out condition, ending their almost-60 year career in Java division of Indonesian Railways. As the result, the Cikajang Line that connects Cibatu station with Cikajang station through Garut city where those "heavy monsters" once worked regularly in 1970s was completely closed and abandoned in 1983.
Beside the CC5022, other 2 locomotives were also preserved in static yet complete condition: CC5001 (SS1601) is now part of the collection of Transportation Museum of Taman Mini Indonesia Indah in Jakarta, while CC5029 (SS1629) is under auspices of Ambarawa Railway Museum in Ambarawa, Central Java. One locomotive is plinthed inside the area of Cibatu locomotive depot, but unfortunately as a cut-up model (although the locomotive carried the numberplate of CC5030, but it is not clear whether it is really the cut-up model of CC5030 or not).
Cheers,
Arya.