CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
A 331 km round trip from Tanjungampalu - roughly 4 h 12 in the saddle. It goes by way of Padang Pandjang Train Station, Coal Storage and back through Padang Pandjang Train Station. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 900 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Few railways in the world have a story as odd as this one. The Ombilin line ran from the coal mines of Sawahlunto in West Sumatra down to the sea at Padang, built by the Dutch in the 1890s to carry coal that colonial industry wanted for ships and engines. To get from the highlands to the coast it had to cross the steep Anai valley, and the engineers solved it with a rack section, a toothed central rail gripped by a cog on the locomotive, the Abt system, which crawls up grades that normal wheels could not hold.
Read the complete Ombilin Railway write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Ombilin Railway is where the day begins. Next is Padang Pandjang Train Station.
Padang Panjang is a cool, rain-washed town in the highlands of West Sumatra, in the land of the Minangkabau, at the foot of two volcanoes, Marapi and Singgalang, each rising to nearly three thousand metres. The railway station here is a relic of the Dutch colonial network built in the 1890s to carry coal from the mines of Sawahlunto to the port of Padang. The line had a difficult climb to make from the coast, and part of it used a rack system, with a toothed rail between the running rails and special locomotives gripping it to haul trains up the steep slope.
Read the complete Padang Pandjang Train Station write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Padang Pandjang Train Station comes up 73 km in. Next is Coal Storage.
Coal needs a harbour, and for the Ombilin mines the harbour was at Padang, on Sumatra's west coast, about five kilometres from the site. The Dutch built a deep-water port in the bay south of the town, naming it Emmahaven after the queen consort, and the railway from Sawahlunto ended here at the quay and the storage yards. Today the port is known as Teluk Bayur, and some of the old coal-handling structures can still be seen.
Read the complete Coal Storage write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
146 km in you reach Coal Storage. Next is back through Padang Pandjang Train Station.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Padang Pandjang Train Station write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Padang Pandjang Train Station, late in the day. Next is Ombilin Railway.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Ombilin Railway write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Ombilin Railway. That is the ride.
Ombilin Railway → Padang Pandjang Train Station is 66 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Padang Pandjang Train Station → Coal Storage is 79 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Coal Storage → back through Padang Pandjang Train Station is 79 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Padang Pandjang Train Station → Ombilin Railway is 66 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.