2-4-0 Steam Locomotives in Indonesia

Class B13 (Locobase 4712)

[] for data; and "Lokomotif B13" in Wikipedia at [], last accessed 9 August 2026. Works numbers 1855-1864 in 1885.

See Indra Krishnamurti at [] for building dates and numbers both of predecessor railways and the Indonesian State Railways.

The SS opened the 176-km (109 miles) railway line connecting Yogyakarta, Maos, and Cilacap on Java in 1887. Trains of produce from Purwoejo and Yogyarkarta traveled on the line to Cilacap port for exports to Europe. Other trains served the military along the line down to the fort at the port.

The eleven six-wheel tank locomotives from Hanomag pulled all kinds of trains including passenger traffic. Having proved well-suited to the task and durable, the class received new boilers in 1929.

Class B50 (Locobase 4719)

Data from Indra Krishnamurti at [] (later [], last accessed 4 December 2022) for building dates and numbers both of predecessor railways and the Indonesian State Railways. See also "Lokomotif B50" in Wikipedia at [] (translated by Google), last accessed 15 August 2026. (Thanks to Jon B for his 29 November 2022 email reporting a different outcome for the class from that reported by Ziel and Eagleson--see below). Works numbers were 2857-2862, 2873-2878 in 1880; 2918-2923, 2934-2937 in 1881; 2957-2962, 3012-3015, 3088-3089 in 1882; 3104-3019 in 1883, 3194-3199 in 1884, 3144-3148 in 1884, 3705-3709 in 1891, 4069, 4108-4112, 4136-4137 in 1895. (Works numbers from B Rumary's Sharp, Stewart production list supplied in August 2022 by Allen Stanley from his extensive Rail Data Exchange collection.)

Among the first Indonesian locomotives to be imported, 53 of these little 2-4-0s arrived in small bunches over a five-year period; fourteen more came in the 1890s. Photographs show a very upright profile with a tall steam drum behind a shorter sand drum. Their relatively tall drivers permitted stable riding at maximum speeds of 60 kph (37.5 mph). They burned either coal or teak wood.

The SS ran them on the first lines they opened in 1878 from Surabaya in East Java to run for 63 km (39 miles) to the south to Sidoarj and Pauruan on the coast. At Sidoarj in 1882 a second line headed west toward Tarik, Kertosono, and Madiun, which lay 167 km (104 miles) away. From here, the line continued 98 km (61 miles) still further west into Central Java at Solo Balapan in 1884. A due south line from Madiun to Ponorogo about 40 km (25 miles) was completed in 1907 and another 26 km (16 miles) to Slahung in 1922.

Wikipedia reports: "This line was considered vital as it traversed fertile regions that would later become the backbone of the sugar industry. In addition to sugarcane plantations and sugar mills, the line also served areas growing tea, coffee, tobacco, and other crops."

Ziel and Eagleson (1973) noted with some amazement that "all of the B50 class ...were believed to be still operating nearly a century later." Jon B reported in 2022, however, "There were sixty-odd of them built, but all but 17 were gone by Indonesian independence. The survivors, the last of which worked into the 1980s, were B5001-14 (Java) and B5051-53 (South Sumatra)."

Taman Mini Indonesia Indah's Transportation Museum displays the only surviving engine of the orginal fourteen B5004