On April 1, 2009, in the auditorium of Indonesian State Railway company (PT Kereta Api/PT KA) headquarter in Bandung, West java, was an installation ceremony for several employees of PT KA who where at the level of subdirectorate chief due to the company’s restructuration. An interesting fact of the ceremony was the inauguration of Indonesian Railway Preservation and Heritage Center, which was under the command of Executive Vice President (EVP) Ella and two vice presidents at the level of subdirectorate chief, i.e. Vice President/VP of Building and Non-building.
At 2 PM IRPS team, i.e Untung R, Deddy Herlambang, Indra Krishnamurti, Ario Wibisono, Totok Purwo, Nurcahyo and Pura Krisnamurti, met Agus Rahardjo (Vice President/VP Building) dan Kusdaryanto (Vice President/VP Non-building). Aditya DL, as Chairman of IRPS, introduced IRPS’ organization, visions and missions, and resources that got a positive response from both VPs. Both VPs asked for full assistance from IRPS because they were still learning about preservation and heritage. The team also presented in detail about objects to be preserved and handed over books and photos—collected by IRPS members—about the objects to the VPs. The VPs were impressed by the presentation. The books and photos would be used as temporary guides in a preservation project in PT KA.
At 3.15 PM the team met Main Director of PT KA, Jonan and Director of General Expansion of PT KA, Joko Margono. Joko proposed a website about objects to be preserved and asked for schedules for next meetings. On the next meeting, both parties had to agree about definition and focuses on the preservation project so that there would be no miscommunication and misinterpretation in the future. As proposed by IRPS, the preservation objecs were categorized into five groups, i.e buildings, inactive railway lines, rolling stocks, railway equipments (such as signals, telecommunication systems, switches and water cranes) and documented knowledge and experiences. As a follow up, PT KA would select several buildings to be railway museums. The team also presented about the discovery of NIS’ Samarang Station—which would change the beginning of railway history in Indonesia; the discovery of a steam locomotive numbered C29 02 in Perhutani Cepu, Central Java; the tracking of inactive Banjar-Cijulang line, and the survey ad inventory of railway equipments on inactive lines. The discussion ended at 4:45 PM.
The team then continued the discussion in Bandung Station. Totok Purwo said that the next preservation proposal should be more detailed. The details included what object needed to be preserved, where the objects were, why the objects needed to be preserved, when the objects would be preserved, who would do the preservation projects, how the objects preserved and how much the estimated cost of the preservation was. The data then would be used to create a financial work plan for 2009. Therefore, IRPS should create 3 teams, i.e building preservation team, non-building preservation team and website team.
It should be emphasized that PT KA did not offer or promise to give payment or salary for the work done by IRPS. It was a voluntary project. IRPS had sent some proposals to PT KA so that PT KA would concern about preserving their assets. PT KA had started to fulfill their promises by establishing Indonesian Railway Preservation and Heritage Center. Now IRPS had to show its commitmens.
