I'm temporally shelving the topic of Japanese trains and showing Indonesian railway pictures today. I have received news from an Indonesian rail-fan. Indonesia recently celebrated the 100th anniversary of its electric railways. My thanks go to Faris Fadhli, who kindly sent me the recent picture.
To start, let me quickly review the history of Indonesian railways. Indonesia’s first railway was opened in 1867 by a Dutch railway company. 58 years later, the first electric railway was completed in Jakarta in 1925. This year marks the 100th anniversary. I was stationed in Jakarta from 2007 to 2011 as an exploration geologist of a petroleum and natural gas company. There was no greater happiness than enjoying the railways with local rail-fans on weekends back then.
Enough with the preamble. On April 22nd, the 100th anniversary celebration was held in Jakarta and many special trains were operated. One of historical rollingstock was the electric locomotive (hereafter EL) Unit 3201 of the Class ESS 3200 (see the top photo). The ESS 3200 is a '(1B)(B1)' (UIC notation) type EL for 1,500V direct current tracks. It’s called “Bonbon” by local people. A total of 6 units were built by Werkspoor from 1925 to 1927, but only Unit 3201 is preserved.
I still remember when I came across Unit 3201 in April 2009 (see the photo below). It was just after the reopening of Tanjung Priok station. I was fascinated this elegant EL. It had a white-colored body and went well with the same-colored shining platform. Congratulations on the 100th birthday of Indonesian electric railways and Bonbon!
