Ambarawa Railway Museum

Willem I station at Ambarawa opened in 1873 on the line the Dutch built to move troops from the garrison here, and when the line closed the station became a railway museum, holding a collection of steam locomotives - twenty-odd engines from the Indies networks, most of them static. What makes it more than a yard of retired machinery is the rack railway: the section from Ambarawa to Bedono climbs a gradient too steep for adhesion, and it is worked with a rack rail and surviving German-built Esslingen cog locomotives from the original fleet, among the very few operating rack steam engines left anywhere, running excursion trips on booking. A shorter diesel-hauled run goes to Tuntang along the edge of Rawa Pening. Both need arranging in advance and do not run daily.

Highlights

• A working rack railway - the cog section to Bedono with an Esslingen rack locomotive.
• An 1873 Dutch station - Willem I, kept as the museum building.
• Twenty-odd steam locomotives - the collection from the Indies networks.
• A lakeside diesel run - the shorter trip to Tuntang along Rawa Pening.

When to go

May to September; train runs must be booked. Half a day.

What to expect

The rack steam trip is expensive, charged per train rather than per seat, and must be booked well ahead; it does not run daily. Most of the collection is static and outdoors in the weather.

Nearby

Rawa Pening is beside the line; Gedong Songo and Bandungan are north-west.

Key facts