Monorails in Central Java

Monorails were used to transport timber from the forests of Central Java, Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) located in the mountains to the rivers.

[1] As a result, monorails were built by plantation operators and wood processing companies throughout the mountains of Central Java.

In 1919/1920, however, the hand-operated monorails gradually disappeared and were replaced by narrow-gauge railways with steam locomotives as forest utilization changed.

[4] The metal rail of the monorail at Babat (Lage) was laid at a height of about 3 metres on sawn-off tree stumps or on buried posts.

Even in the rainy season, when the forest roads turned into swamps, the timber transport went undisturbed at lofty heights on the sawn-off trees.