Friends of the Rail Forum

This is one of the tiny Mallets that made up most of the fleet (about 50) of the No 7 district of the PNP at "B Lok' (we never did find "A Lok"). This was a fairly busy place with palm oil trains zipping in and empties out (but finding where they were going was another matter; it is a BIG spread). Gauge from memory was 750mm. All Mallets were either 0-4-4-0T or 0-4-4-2T. Recent reports say that all is now transported by road. Dennis

Rob wrote:First of all this picture was taken in North Sumatra, Indonesia and not in Thailand! It is an oil palm estate though.

This picture was almost certainly taken at Dolok Ilir where I saw this Orenstein & Koppel Mallet – note the patent valve gear – working a few years later. All the industrial Mallets in Java and Sumatra were 0-4-4-0T, only the state railway (PNKA at the time) had 0-4-4-2T. This loco (and most, but not all in the area) was 700mm gauge. There were a few 600mm gauge systems too.