2012 Java Tours

Field train at Asembagus on the line the the south

Java 2012? I expect Bernd Seiler will offer a full-island tour of all the steam mills and other attractions (similar to 2011). I will post a link when it is available. I hope to offer an East Java mills tour as a post-tour extension to Bernd's tour.
The focus would be on mills with interesting diesels and diesel field trains as well as some steam in the area east of Surabaya.

Following on from a highly successful 2010 tour (see the blog), people have been asking when the next tour will run. Good question. Rob Dickinson has said that he doesn't plan to run another tour. Although I am quite happy to run another one it look unlikely that TC our normal local contact will be available to help out as he is increasingly busy with his day job and I would not trust anyone else to make the local arrangements for a full-island tour. Running tours in Java with chartered buses, mill permissions and special trains is not easy and you need a good team including a local contact who knows what he or she is doing. For that reason, I have been considering the other options available.

The only person I know who offers a similar steam loco tour of the Java sugar mills is Bernd Seiler of Farrail Tours. His program for 2011 is very similar to the one that I would propose for 2012. If there are differences in the philosophy behind Rob and my tours and Bernd's tours, they are mainly about how much you should take a mill as you find it and how much you should try to recreate the past. Bernd tends towards recreating the past and many tour participants will appreciate that. Rob and I (who saw so many steam-hauled field trains at so many mills in the past) would normally go for accepting things as they are on the day.

I've been in touch with Bernd about Java 2012. I anticipate that I will be there on the 2012 Farrail tour and hope (with Bernd's agreement) to offer a post-tour extension to see sugar mill diesel action at some of the following mills (all but the last 3 with field work): Prajakan, Panji, Wringinanom, Gending, Wonolagan, Kedawung, Jatiroto, Krebet Baru, Gempolkrep, Mojopanggung and Rejoagung.

If you are interested in Java 2012 and or the post-tour extension, please let me know.

John
updated 2 August 2011

5 locos line up at Pangkah (3 in use)