Deli Railway Company
The Deli Company established itself as a tobacco plantation and then expanded into tea, rubber and timber products.
A first concession was granted in order to facilitate the distribution of tobacco from the area's highlands.
Railroad construction broke ground on 1 July 1883 in the Resident of Siak Sri Indrapura.
During the Great Depression Bernardus Hermanus Antonius van Kreel ran the company.
A central maintenance facility originated in the suburb of Poloe-Brayan in north Medan.
This led to a further upswing in traffic which was moved to a [third rail line in order to unable the difference in track gauges.
In the interwar period, won cargoes such as rubber / latex, lime, palm oil, fiber plants (hemp, sisal) and tea.
In the crisis years of 1929-31 the revenue due to fallen rates fell from the cargo by one third, with the passengers by 46% back.
At the end of the year to employees at reduced wages only 2263 people, including 86 Europeans.
That same year, 4.1 million people went by train and the revenues generated from freight transportation rose until the outbreak of war.
The book value of assets was approximately 59 million The Japanese called the united with the AT Society Kita Sumatora Tetsudo.
The building of the head office, at the corner Serdangweg and Petersburgstraat, served from April to May 1942 as a detention center for 14 Dutch employees.
The end of 1945 designated to the company under the control of independent Indonesia as 'Keereta Api Soematra Oetara.
In order to meet the needs of the freight plantations, one directed in 1947 "Delispoor-AVROS transportation services" with trucks (up 1951).
1948 had already 1½ million passengers, but usually returns submitted only short distances, in the 3rd class for the price of 3 ½ Cent.
In the interwar period it also began initially barely profitable bus lines (as feeders for natives for free) to operate (in Brastagi, 1923) One operation already from 1889 a hand-switched telephone network, its cable ran beside the tracks and that could be used by the public.
The depression led to fewer long-distance calls, so you barely 1931 recorded a net profit.
From Kisaran (Asahan district) was built in the 1920s to the south 55 km distance to the coalfield.
However grows on Sumatra no teak which was commonly used in the tropics for thresholds, so that you usually began steel for this.
Always provisions had to be made for the frequent floods in the monsoon and consequent damage to the tracks.
The route from Medan to Perbaeongan went about Serdang, which was developed in the 1890s as a center of coffee cultivation and Lubukpakam .
From this location later southwards towards Bangungpurba branching routes served rubber plantations.
The crisis of the tobacco sales in 1894 at first prevented the financing of planned extensions to Arnhemia, Bangun Purba and Rampah.
1900 efforts were made to concessions for the upgraded lines Perbaoengan-Bamban (after 1904 extended until Tebingtinggi ) Timbang Langkat- Tandjoeng, Poera-Pangkalan Brandan.
From Salesseh you extended a short branch line south to Kwala (Kuala =) for the disposal of wood.
This was the first real mountain section of the DSM, the first 8 km, the slope was 10 ‰, on the last 6 kilometers before Dolok Merangir one reached to 20 ‰.
Coastal closer the train was to Kisaran (1927 branch to the port Telukinibung ) over Tanjungbalai was begun in during the First World War.
110 km through hilly terrain of Kisaran, the section of the route from Milano to Rantau Prapat, the last new mainline was before the war.
It began in 1935 with the laying of welded rails, making it one of the first railway companies, who introduced this technology.
Passenger cars 1 and 2nd class (1920) Outside the station from Medan stands today as an exhibit a Hartmann-4T steam locomotive 2-6 ( Sächsische Maschinenfabrik ) built in Chemnitz in 1914.
