Indonesian Railway Preservation Society

IRPS

Filed under: IRPS — admin @ 13:42

Who We Are

Over the Cisomang ravine, 1950s
Reproduced from De ‘Bergkoningin’ en de Spoorwegen in Nederlands-Indië 1862-1949

“Thou shalt not forget history” said our leader and first president, Sukarno. In regard to his words, we are very concerned of the fates of many old locomotives, because many unique locomotives (especially steam locomotives) have disappeared, such as the DD52 class and the CC10 class, never to be seen again, except in photographs or films made by railway fans.

The formation of IRPS was started by a group of people who concerned about Indonesian Railway and normally converged at keretapi mailing list . When one of them spotted one CC200 at Cirebon in February 2001, the discussion about this historical locomotive heated up. The CC200 locomotive is the first type diesel locomotive to be ordered by Indonesian State Railway (DKA/ Djawatan Kereta Api) from General Electric, USA back in 1953 and 1954. This railfans community then started to trace the whereabouts of the locomotives at Cirebon Locomotive Depot, and found 3 remaining CC200 locomotives. Those are CC200 08, CC200 09 and CC200 15. These three locomotives were in derelict condition, and were fortunate enough that they were not yet scrapped by authority. However, the CC200 15 is in best condition, compared with its sisters. For these railfans, the CC200 locomotive is like an interesting and spectacular ancient relic. As a result by the above situation, in October 2001 this Indonesian railfans community started to form a working group called “FRIENDS OF CC200″. And since no large organization could sheltering this group, then the “FRIENDS OF CC200″ was placed under IRMC (Indonesian Railway Modeler Club), so it can help Indonesian State Railway (3rd Operational Area-Cirebon) to preserve this CC200 locomotive.

In May 2002, the IRMC submitted a proposal to preserve CC200 locomotives to Indonesian State Railway. Aside of proposal, this working group also collected 500 signatures from people at Jakarta, Bandung, and Cirebon to support the effort of CC200 15 preservation program. In June 2002, the proposal to approve the CC200 locomotive was approved by the General Manager of Indonesian State Railway, Omar Berto. Then, in order to help the “FRIENDS OF CC200″ to be more focused in their tasks, it was decided in 25 June 2002 to form Indonesian Railway Preservation Society (IRPS) as the mother organization for “FRIENDS OF CC200″. The “FRIENDS OF CC200″ was then moved from IRMC to IRPS. Since then, 25th June is now celebrated as the birthday of Indonesian Railway Preservation Society.

In October 2002, the CC200 15 refurbishment program was finally completed, and the locomotive was returned back to full operational condition. This locomotive was restored by cannibalizing the useable components from CC200 08 and CC200 09. It was also repainted back to its original cream and green livery, which was the livery of Djawatan Kereta Api (DKA).

In January 2003, IRPS received recognition letter from Indonesian State Railway, which was signed by the Director of Business Development, Edward BM Nababan. The letter stating that IRPS is the official partner of Indonesian State Railway, in their effort to preserve the historical assets of Indonesian railway.

In 25th August 2003, the 3rd Operational Area of Indonesian State Railway began to use CC200 15 as a locomotive for cash collection in small stations. This tradition had been started since the days of Dutch Colonial era, and the CC200 15 is used to collect deposit moneys from small stations (at Cirebon-Tanjung Rasa line). It ran once every four days. The locomotive is also used to bring employees salary to small stations every month. With the presence of this locomotive, the station masters do not have to worry to keep their money for too long in the stations.

In 28th September 2003, coincidentally with the birthday of Indonesian State Railway, IRPS celebrated the 50 Years of CC200 operation (1953-2003) by holding an Open House at Cirebon station.

After their success with the CC200 locomotive, the IRPS began to look for another potential, with the decline of BB200 locomotives at Semarang-Poncol locomotive depot.
In June 2006, IRPS started to compile proposal to preserve BB200 diesel locomotive, which is designated for 4th Operational Area of Indonesian State Railway in Semarang, and began to socializing the “Friends of BB200″ program, to prevent the BB200 locomotives from extinction. This type was ordered by Indonesian State Railway from General Motors (now Electro Motive Diesel) in USA in 1957. In September 2006, the BB200 29 refurbishment program was finally completed, and the locomotive was returned back to full operational condition. It was also repainted back to its original cream and green livery, which was the livery of Djawatan Kereta Api (DKA).

After a visit to Manggarai Works in 24th April 2006, IRPS submitted a proposal to preserve the Werkspoor Heemaf electric locomotive (number 202/WH202) to 1st Operational Area of Indonesian State Railway in August 2006. According to history books, this type of electric locomotive was ordered by Staatspoorwegen (Dutch East Indies State Railway) in 1925 from Werkspoor in Netherland and AEG in Germany, to serve the Jakarta-Bogor railway line. Eventually, due to its half-century age, these electric locomotives were considered no longer viable. And since 1976, it was gradually replaced by Electric Multiple Units. As a result, these electric locomotives were no longer used. Since then, the majority of the electric locomotives are not seen anymore, as they have been scrapped. Only the Werkspoor-Heemaf 3202 (which was later renumbered 202) remained at Manggarai Works, Jakarta. Before May 2006, the WH202 electric locomotive is in derelict condition.

As a result, IRPS worked together with Indonesian State Railway and Jakarta Provincial Government to socializing the “Sahabat Bon-Bon” (Friends of Bon-Bon) program to mass people and started fund gathering program. These programs are intended to rehabilitate this electric locomotive and turned it into monument near Jakarta Kota railway station, and became a part of old city revitalization program which is conducted by Jakarta Provincial Government. In June 2007, the WH202 electric locomotive rehabilitation program was finally completed, and the electric locomotive was repainted back to its original color.

The Indonesian Railway Preservation Society is a non-profit group, and based to hobby and affection toward the railway transportation. The members of IRPS consist of people from various age and education background. But its members are voluntary who will gladly help the Indonesian State Railway in preserving their historical assets. The members of IRPS have spread in cities in Indonesia like Jakarta, Bandung, Semarang, Yogyakarta and Surabaya.

The IRPS activity varied: from the serious ones, such as preservation program or seminar, to the relaxed programs such as photo hunting and visiting railway facilities. All news about IRPS activities can be seen at our website www.irps.or.id

Best regards,

Aditya Dwi Laksana
IRPS Chairman
Mobile Phone : +62 21 70776949
email : secretariat@irps.or.id