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Not Delhi in India, but the Deli Railway in north Sumatra. In early 1974 I spent a weekend in Medan, where the formerly private Deli Railway, nationalised in 1957, was headquartered, on 1067mm - 3'6'' - gauge, same as the main railways of Java and Sumatra. German built diesels worked passenger services, but steam still lingered on. The Deli Railway's locos were mostly different to those elsewhere in Indonesia, though a few had been transferred from Java in post war years. Medan, Tebing Tinggi and Kisaran were the sheds on the system with a loco allocation.
Might as well start with loco No.1, which was shunter at Medan on 31 January 1974. It is a Hohenzollern 0-4-4T built in 1904.
A much larger loco was this 2-8-4T, one of four coming from Werkspoor, the Dutch manufacturer, in 1916 and numbered 45 to 48. I think this location is the Pulau Brayan Works at Medan. The loco below, C54 05, at the same place, is one of eight 4-6-0s brought over from Java in 1963. This one is C54 05, a Hartmann of 1922 product. Some of the class were built by Beyer,Peacock, and one of those ended up on the Deli Railway.
After visiting Medan shed and Works the previous day, I took the express train to Kisaran on Sunday 1 February 1974. The journey was 153 kilometres, leaving at 07.30 and arriving at 10.47. The return left Kisaran at 14.54 and got back to Medan at 18.15, all being on time. The fare for the 306km round trip was about 60 pence, including free coffee and biscuits both ways! Motive power was a Henschel Bo-Bo diesel dating from 1970. There was another express doing a round trip from Kisaran and several mixed trains, usually long freights with one or two primitive carriages at the rear, all diesel-hauled.
As far as I can deduce from my sketchy notes, there were 31 steam locos on the railway of which 24 were available for work. The most numerous were Werkspoor and Hartmann built 2-6-4T. Other classes in use were some quite chunky 2-4-2T, a couple of 0-4-4T and 0-6-0T, at least one 0-6-4T and a 2-8-4T. Loco types not in use included C54 4-6-0s which originally worked in Java. Diesels had taken over their duties in 1970.
About 80kms from Medan was Tebing Tinggi with a loco depot which had five engines, four were 2-6-4T of which three were in steam. Further on, halfway between Tebing Tinggi and Kisaran was Perlamaan, where I noted a 2-4-2T in steam to shunt interchange traffic with adjacent 700mm (or 750mm) gauge palm oil railways - of which more below.
Kisaran shed, visited during my time there, had an allocation of nine working steam - one 0-4-4T, one 0-6-4T and seven 2-6-4T.
There were extensive palm oil plantations around Perlamaan, served by narrow gauge railways, which exchanged traffic with the Deli Railway. This high-boilered 2-4-2T, possibly No.60, was in steam at Perlamaan for this duty.
At my journey's end, Kisaran, I visited the loco shed. No.40 is one of the twenty-three 2-6-4T which graced the Deli Railway over the years; this one came from Werkspoor in 1915. Below, it has shifted to make way for the diesel that brought in my train and took me back to Medan.
Two 2-6-4T at Kisaran, No. 40 and No.50. Note the 'PJKA' plate on No.40's tank. This was pretty new, as the state railway's initials had been 'PNKA' until fairly recently.
There wasn't much activity during my visit, but 0-4-4T No.28, sister of No.1 seen at Medan, was kept busy shunting. Below shows a couple of the 'primitive' carriages used to convey passengers on the mixed trains.
Staff pose for a picture at one of the railway offices, think it is Kisaran. Notice the diesel picture at the top and the young lad peering through the window. Wandering enthusiasts usually managed to attract a crowd of locals who were curious about what they were doing.
See http://searail.malayanrailways.com/PJKA/Deli/DSM.htm for more about the Deli Railway.
I harboured ambitions to look at the Atjeh Tramway, a 500km long 750mm system, which connected with the Deli Railway not too far from Medan, and had received new Japanese built 2-6-0s and 0-4-4-2T Mallet locos as recently as 1962, but I learnt it was not in operation, so with the very limited time at my disposal, I concentrated on the Deli system.
Finally, a glimpse of one of the palm oil railways, PNP V11 Gunnung Bayu, at Perlamaan. Not a very good picture,snatched from a window as my train passed the scene. The loco is one of the 0-6-0 built by Ducroo & Brauns. The 1067mm gauge tank cars are on 700mm transporter wagons.
Sadly I was unable to spend time here, but Frank Stenvall of 'Railway Scene' magazine visited in April 1974 and wrote an interesting account of his finds - 11 steam and one diesel, a Ruston & Hornsby. Additionally, he saw two Mallet 0-4-4-0T, on loan from a nearby palm oil railway.
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