Cirebon Area

Cirebon Area

Cirebon

Near the border of West and Central Java, on the north coast line, there is a small city of Cirebon.

This town is acted as a junction city where to the east of Cirebon, the railway line will be divided, where one line will go to Semarang on the northern coast of Java, where the other will go to the Purwokerto, where it will eventually joined the Southern railway line in Kroya.

Despite of its importance, there's only a few trains who stopped in Cirebon. And most of them arrived in Cirebon at around midnight, where the activity is usually on its peak.

Whereas, the fast overnight express trains no longer stop at Cirebon. Instead, it was the slower train or those who terminated at Cirebon who usually stop at there.

The unique side of this station, is that this station is acting as a homebase of the remaining three of the CC200 locomotives, the first diesel locomotive to enter Indonesia's state railway service.

	The first view of Cirebon station emplacement. The Cirebon station buidling is on the left. It is unusual to see a large number of trains stopped in Cirebon in the early morning. But these trains were held up in the station due to trackwork being undertaken, after a train accident on the nearby town. The train in the middle (Argo Bromo Anggrek) don't normally stopped at Cirebon.
	Another view of the station empacement. Mount Ciremai is visible in the background.
	A later morning view of the station. This time, another express train arrived in the station.
	The drivers are chatting near their trains, as they wait for their turn to depart.
	CC203 locomotive being refuelled in Cirebon. The train behind it is a Bima express train. It is one of a few express train that stopped in Cirebon.
	The Bima train is being shunted to the other line in the station, to avoid congestion, in an unusually packed station. Just for a note, this train is usually arrived at around 4 a.m. in Cirebon.
	A closer view of Bima train. The Bima train started its life in 1967 as a sleeper-only train. But in 1984, most of the sleeper cars were converted into coachs. And the remaining sleeper cars saw its last service in 1994. Indeed the present Bima train is using the former 'Argo Bromo' cars, when the actual Bima cars were retired in late 1990s, and the new 'Argo Bromo Anggrek' cars were introduced in 1997 to replace these cars on North coast line.
	This executive coach car was once a sleeper car. In fact, its former number is partially visible to the left of the door. This car was also the last sleeping car to see service with 'Bima' train. And when the sleeping berths removed, seats were installed in its place, making the car as a compartment coach car, and transferred to Senja train. When this car underwent a major overhaul at around year 2000, its compartment were removed, and the car is now virtually indistinguishable from other executive coach cars.
	A CC201 is underwent a minor overhaul in Cirebon locomotive depot. The air reservoir is visible, as well as the radiator above the reservoir.
	This CC203 is working on an unusual duty: pulling economic-class train. The CC203 was originally built for express passenger train, but due to its large number, some CC203 can be found working on economic-class (express) train.