Unlike the sugar mill railways of Java covered in our 'Sweet Dreams' CD-ROM, the narrow gauge oil palm railways of North Sumatra were not seasonal. With the crop also an export earner and less labour available, the drive for modernisation was stronger. The oil palm itself needs a much wetter climate than sugar cane and so it is grown widely in the far West of Java, much of Sumatra and more recently in islands such as Kalimantan. It is now strongly established in neighbouring Malaysia.

Only in North Sumatra were extensive plantation railways built and these photographs show the declining years of steam power in these systems. By the time I first visited the area, many of the mills had gone over to diesels and in the time since then, not only has steam almost disappeared, many of the railways have been taken out of use and road transport substituted. By the time of my last visit in 1993, barely a dozen steam locomotives were at work each day and by 1998 only two or three locomotives were left active. 

The locomotives of these lines are mainly of similar origin to those in Java. Indeed since the rise of the oil palm industry in the late 1920s coincided with a slump in the fortunes of the Java sugar industry, a number of locomotives were sent here from their first homes in Java.

Sumatra is hot and sticky, often unpleasantly so. Not surprisingly with the heavy rainfall, the sky is often overcast and the tall palms make photography extremely difficult, casting long shadows whenever the light is good in the early mornings and the late afternoon. Nevertheless, now and again the clouds cleared after a tropical thunderstorm and the patient photographer was suitably rewarded. These railways have a character all of their own and it would be unfair to compare them with their more photogenic and better known counterparts in Java. Unless otherwise stated, all are of 700mm gauge.