CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. 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.
318 km from Tanjungampalu to Tanjungampalu, about 3 h 57 of riding. The stops in between: Batu Tabal Train Station, Coal Storage and back through Batu Tabal Train Station. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 900 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
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 Batu Tabal Train Station.
High in the mountains of West Sumatra, a railway line built by the Dutch in the late nineteenth century snakes between volcanoes, lakes and rice terraces. It was laid to carry coal from the mines of Sawahlunto down to the port of Padang, and the whole system, mines, company town and railway, forms the Ombilin Coal Mining Heritage of Sawahlunto, listed by UNESCO in 2019. Batu Tabal is one of the small stations along the route, near the shores of Lake Singkarak, where the line runs right along the water's edge.
Read the complete Batu Tabal Train Station write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Batu Tabal Train Station comes up about 66 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 159 km into the recorded legs you reach Coal Storage. Next is back through Batu Tabal Train Station.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Batu Tabal Train Station write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Batu Tabal 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 → Batu Tabal Train Station is 66 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Batu Tabal Train Station → Coal Storage is 93 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Coal Storage → back through Batu Tabal Train Station is 93 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Batu Tabal Train Station → Ombilin Railway is 66 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.