Bangil railway station

Bangil railway station was commissioned by Staatsspoorwegen Eastern Exploitation as a state railway company in Dutch East Indies on May 16th, 1878 at the same time as the commissioning of Surabaya―Bangil―Pasuruan railway line which was among the first railway line construction. Bangil is classified as a huge station, it has a locomotive depot. After Staatsspoorwegen commissioned the Surabaya−Pasuruan line, the company continued to built a new line to Malang which was commissioned on July 20th, 1879.[2]

Map issued in 1937 showing Bangil station and line to Sumberredjo sugar mill which belonged to Staatsspoorwegen (SS) (yellow arrow) and line to Pandaan (Pandakan) which belonged to Modjokerto Steam Tram Company (red arrow). Also showed SS line to Malang (which showed a sub-district named Oroombo-wetan) and to Probolinggo.

Malang is a cold mountainous area in the south, where its geographical condition, apart from plantation area, is also a city that is suitable for weekend getaway destinations for city residents, most travelers went to Batu area. The railway line to Malang is incline passing several plantations and mountain ranges. The line begins to encounter steep incline in the area of Sengon. So, at the beginning of the operation, the Staatsspoorwegen (SS) didn't have large and powerful locomotives yet to accommodate trains passing through the mountainous route of Malang. So a locomotive depot was built to accommodate train trips from urban areas. Initially, this depot was a stopover for small steam locomotives from Fox, Walker & Co. (UK) as well as several locomotives from Sächsische Maschinenfabrik (Hartmann) just like SS300 and SS400 classes (type C11 and C12).[3] Over time, this depot became a stopover for larger and more powerful locomotives, such as the mallet locomotive SS500 classes (type CC10s), the twin express steam engines SS1100 and SS1300 series (C27 and C28) to served the express train from Surabaya to Malang named Vlugge Vijf (Swift Five) which had five trips serving passengers from Surabaya to Malang, vice versa and even ex-Preanger (West Java) Mountainous locomotives SS800 (F10) also known as "Javanic" had ever been in this depot. This station was linked by double-track railway line from Surabaya as the express route where this line could be driven by trains up to 90 km/hour in late 1930s.[4]

This station has the same facade and design as Kertosono that includes the main building, canopy and the emplacement. The main building of the station had been rebuilt, except for the platform canopy and a turntable also locomotive depot that both of them are not used today. In some records, the original main building was bombed and destroyed during 2nd Dutch Military Aggression against the Republic of Indonesia, (see Operation Kraai) in 1948. After the battle, the DKA-RI (the Department of Railways of the Republic of Indonesia) rebuilt the main building of the station at the following year.[5][6]

To the south of the station, behind an abandoned locomotive depot there was a railway line connected to Pandaan and Japanan operated by a private railway company named Modjokerto Stoomtram Maatschappij (MdjSM) or Mojokerto Steam Tram Co. as for Bangil-Japanan-Mojokerto rail line which opened on May 4th, 1919. The line itself was used for the freight route and along this line, there were Panda'an (Ardiredjo) and Japanan sugar mills. In addition, this line was a displacement railway line for MdjSM from the old line (Bangil−Panda'an) which was inaugurated on September 18th, 1899.[7] The first MdjSM line used this station from track no.1 to the east and then curved to the south, then around 1914 Staatsspoorwegen (SS) proposed a new line which used as a freight route service and this also impacted the operation of MdjSM's asset (railway line). The shift of MdjSM railway line to the south was because the line to Sumberredjo sugar mill was actually belonged to MdjSM as part of Panda'an-Bangil line based on Colonial Government's Decree No.1 on 31 of December 1895. After line to Panda'an finished and opened in 1899, the MdjSM didn't continue the construction to the north (Kaliredjo) which connected to the sugar mill and considered less profitable for their business operations and finally was taken over by State Railway Co. or Staatsspoorwegen to built it which started from track number one from this station connected to Sumberredjo sugar mill passing Bangil town square (just north from the station) around 1914-16 and finished in 1919.[8] Then, the MdjSM moved their asset (railway) to the south and finally they also built their own station (Bangil MdjSM) not far from Bangil station in the south which now become a resident house, just behind Bangil locomotive depot. The sugar mill itself was defunct around 1932/1933 followed by Pandaan and Japanan as a result of Great Depression and Sumberredjo changed to a textile factory named "Kantjil Mas" in 1934 and owned by a German businessman. During Independence War (1947-1949), Bangil-Japanan railway line was damaged so it couldn't be used so after the war the DKA (Djawatan Kereta Api) Building Service was forced to renovate this rail line around 1949-1950 so that these lines could be operated again. Finally, this line was deactivated in 1969 as a result of a mismatched with the urban planning of Mojokerto at the time.

Bangil railway station has 8 active tracks with two additional tracks to the warehouse located in southwest of the station. Track no.2 is straight-track to and from the east line (Jember–Ketapang (Banyuwangi)), while the track no.3 is straight-track to the south line (Malang – Blitar – Kertosono) and Surabaya is from the west. In addition, track no.6 and no.8 is used as siding to store fuel-tank wagons or another cars.

As of from May 2010, the station's signaling system has been replaced with an electrical signaling system based on Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) made by Len Industri, namely the 2nd generation Len Interlocking System (SIL-02).[9]

The following list of trains that are stopped at this station :

• 
  Island platform's view from third track of Bangil station. Also showed, a local train named Penataran from Blitar-Malang to Surabaya.
• 
  Bangil train station from west (Surabaya), showing its platforms, canopy, main building and some tracks.
• 
  Bangil Locomotive Depot which isn't used today
• 
  Bangil locomotive turntable that isn't used today (not far from depot)
• 
  Watertower of Bangil station which is close to ex-Bangil MdjSM (Modjokerto Steam Tram) station.
• 
  This picture shows one of the first fleet of Staatsspoorwegen Oosterlijnen's flat-track steam engine from Fox, Walker & Co. (SS No.6 Type 2-4-0T) used on Surabaya-Bangil railway line
• 
  A photo shows an SS300 class steam engine (later type C11) hauled an SS Break Vans passing bridge on Bangil-Malang railway line

• Media related to Bangil Station at Wikimedia Commons