The Way of the Warrior

Day 1 : 6th September 2002

Tour Review
(by Gary Thornton)

Although Thursday was "day 1 proper" for this tour, we'd all met up at our hotel next to Budapest Keleti station the night before. A meal was shared in the restaurant on Keleti station, an ideal chance to meet and get to know each other. As well as the UK tour participants we were joined by Ferenc Joó, a Hungarian enthusiast, and several people from "MAV Nosztalgia". A fairly early start on the Thursday didn't prevent a few of us moving on to a local bar (where we managed to drink them out of dark beer!).

Breakfast was taken at 06.45 then shortly after 7am we all met up outside the hotel for a bus which took us to Budapest Józsefváros station. This particular station is only basically used for commuter traffic and is even under potential threat of closure.

Our train, consisting of a corridor first and bar car (!), arrived shortly after we did. Thinking that the stock might be brought in with another engine we had already asked Ferenc if it might be possible to have it stopped at the start of the platform so we could all get on and "claim" the shunt engine. As Ferenc said it would probably be propelled in by the first tour engine (booked to be an M44 type) no-one bothered as M44 140 propelled the stock into the station. Imagine our surprise when it was then uncoupled and shot off! A few minutes later and another M44, M44 158 arrived light engine and hooked-on....this was to be the first loco of the tour!!

Bang on time we set off....but only to the end ofthe platform where we stopped as the station "red cap" hadn't come out to give us permission to leave. Seems it was planned to try and cover a very rare freight curve which wasn't booked and he wasn't happy. Lots of shoulder shrugging before we eventually set off 10 minutes late, taking the booked route to Köbánya felsö station. Somewhere along this stretch we also heard that our next booked loco (an M47) was not going to "produce" as there were reported to be no available serviceable examples in the area. See, railtours can go pear-shaped in any country!

After reversing at Köbánya felsö we took a tight downhill curve into the now disused Köbánya-Hislaló station. Originally it had been requested to carry on to the end of this line but MAV refused on account of a busy road crossing that would have to be traversed.

Never mind, plenty of chances to get photographs of the train, even moving ones as it crossed a road/tram crossing as we departed back towards Köbánya felsö station - a few smiles as we managed to hold up a tram! For those photographing the road crossing they had the experience of joining a moving train (at about walking pace) as the crew said they wouldn't stop for them to get on!

Making our fourth reversal we headed round the corner to Budapest-Ferencváros for reversal number five and another short thrash to Köbánya-Kispest and our first planned loco change. Yes - it was a definite case of "BLS" antics around Budapest, but clearing some very useful track in the process!

As rumoured there was no M47 waiting to meet us so after a short pause we set off on our way again....now heading out of Budapest. M44 158 performed quite well as we made our way via Cegléd to Nyársapát. The latter station was not anywhere of note, but was a suitable place to reverse in order to cover the Cegléd avoiding curve towards Szolnok. We pulled into the station to be met by the awesome sight of "Sergei" M62 001 in near-original livery. Anyone with a knowledge of Hungarian or other Central/Eastern European traction will be well aware of what a beast the M62 type is.

M62 001 was our next loco too - smiles all round as this was a few steps up from the glorified shunter we'd had since the start of the day! Heads out of most, if not all, windows as we thrashed away from Nyársapát. A few photo-stops were also order of the day as we headed to Szolnok, though avoiding the station there by way of the freight yards. Another reversal in the middle of nowhere (Töröszentmiklós) enabled another rare curve to be covered.

By now we were getting quite hungry. Our lunch stop was in a small town called Tiszaföldvár. As the restaurant was a little way from the station there were two horse-drawn carts waiting to transport us! One was being pulled by a single horse (Rigó) whilst the other had two "up front" (Tündér & Pajkos). I was on the latter but the going was quite slow as Rigó was struggling a bit with about 15 people in the cart! We tried to whip our driver up into overtaking the other cart but he stayed just behind.

At the restaurant we were greeted by one of the staff with a tray of glasses of Palinka - a fruit brandy which I'd experienced before on previous visits to Hungary. For those not familiar with this drink it was interesting to watch the expressions as they tried it and discovered how strong a taste it has!

The meal was typically Hungarian and was a help-yourself soup with meat, potatoes etc. Pancakes followed. Just before we left we were all handed a carrier bag containing rolls, an apple, chocolate bar, water and a paprika. This was to be for eating later as we wouldn't be back into Budapest until quite late.

 As might be expected from a bunch of cranks, we mostly chose to swap carts for the return journey to the station. A chat with the our driver confirmed that Rigó was on his own as the other horse of the pair was temporarily "out of service" on account of having had a foal. Hmmm, need to come back again sometime to "scoop" the other horse and new arrival!!

Back at the station and M62 001 had surrendered out two carriages to M32 2055. A slow journey southwards then took place. Waiting a crossing on the single line at Kunszentmárton was interesting as the best vantage point for photographs was a very tall (water?) tower. Yep, several cranks were soon seen scaling the ladder to get the phot! Unfortunately my camera had decided to expire shortly before the lunch-break (dead batteries) and I'd left the spare set in my bag at the hotel. With many participants not to sure what to make of the paprika (looks like a yellow pepper) there were a few to be seen flying round the carriage! Shame really as they are quite nice to eat raw.

Our next stop was at Szentes where we were booked to take a visit and tour round the depot. A late arrival however made this (unfortunately) a somewhat rushed affair. M28 1004, a class 03 kind of look-alike took us the short distance to the depot. A beast of a gronk, sounding just like an un-refurbished first generation DMU as it changed gear!!

The depot manager showed us round the depot, including the small museum located in the depot grounds. A hand-powered sit-on wagon was also made available for a select few to try out on a short stretch of narrow-gauge track...no time to cover all the track though :-(

It was a shame the depot visit had to be so rushed as there was a lot of interest to see and the depot had obviously made quite a bit of effort for the occasion. We were also shown round a rather impressive DMU coach which was used by the "top brass" in a previous (communist) age.

During the visit the M28 was replaced by MDmot3036. Now this particular piece of motive power caused quite a few discussions for the rest of the day and beyond. It replaced the M32 as a way of apologising for the earlier lack of M47. Now the discussions as we headed along the normally DMU-only line to Kiskunfélegyháza was about the status of an MDmot - although numbered in the MAV DMU series it is basically a locomotive in all respects...two cabs, engine above the solebar and no passenger accommodation. They were built to haul trains (passenger in the form of DMU trailers and freight) over lines with a low axle load rating.

At Kiskunfélegyháza we swapped out loco (or DMU depending on your point of view) for our first electric loco of the tour - V46 024. A circular route took us back to Budapest, with arrival at Keleti station a tad after 10pm. Most of us simply headed for our hotel room and a shower (with temperatures in the high 20's to low 30's Celcius we were all keen to get freshened up!

In all quite a good first day's railtouring.

Route, Distances and Timing's (Booked & Actual)
(by Gary Thornton)

Train Reporting Codes:
23602 : Budapest Józsefváros - Köbánya-Hislaló
13702 : Köbánya-Hislaló - Nyársapát
13764 : Nyársapát - Töröszentmiklós
13724 : Töröszentmiklós - Szentes
13783 : Szentes - Kiskunhalas
13791 : Kiskunhalas - Budapest-Keleti

Key;
a : arrival time
d : departure time
L : loco change
r : reversal of direction
/ : passing time
A time in brackets is approximate.

All distances, in kilometres, are taken from the timing sheet given out on the train (compiled by Ferenc Joó). No attempt has been made to verify the distances given but they were noted not to agree with the MÁV distances.

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