14th October 2012 - Two more exilesSunday 14th October Another day, another tour, another “Floyd” engine – this time a former British Rail class 86 electric loco with assistance from a former Danish Railways “Nohab” diesel loco now operated by Kárpát Vasút in Hungary. The weather today was rather dull and didn’t look like it was going to improve like yesterday but at least it was dry. We were expecting the train to be top and tail with the Nohab on the rear, but it was standing in the platform formed of class 86 leading, Nohab coupled inside then the coaches with nothing on the rear, apparently down to lack of time to shunt the locos either end of the stock in the carriage sidings. There was time later on in the schedule to rectify this but at least it did provide us with the opportunity for a comparison photo to illustrate the differences between a UK and continental loading gauge loco. 450 005 and 459 021 at Budapest-Keleti Today we headed off in an easterly direction with a good fast run down the same line that we had covered on Thursday to Füzesabony where we had our first photo stop enabling us to get more photos of the disparity in size between our class 86 and the Nohab plus a bonus of an Austrian Railways “Taurus” electric loco on a freight. 1116 002 at Füzesabony Just over 20 minutes after arriving, we were on our way to the historic town of Eger but in true “crank” style not straight there as we had a trip along the Eger avoiding line first to Eger-Felnémet where there was ample time to extract the Nohab from behind the class 86 and run it round so that the train now would be top and tail for a short time. This prolonged stop also gave plenty of opportunities for photos so nobody could have any excuse not to have pictures of the two locos taken from several angles. 450 005 and 459 021 at Eger-Felnémet 459 021 then took over for the short trip to Eger station where we were to have a further fairly long stop, even this brief journey was interrupted by a photo stop with a choice of three levels on the walls of Eger castle with plenty of space for everyone. 459 021 at Egervár At Eger, many people made a bee-line for the station bar which meant it was rather busy - others went on a hunt for a supermarket but the two of us wandered outside the station and the first thing we saw was a small café which was empty and looked closed but in fact proved to be open so we had an interesting couple of minutes trying to order something to drink. This was eventually successful once a box of various types of tea was produced for us to choose from and we felt rather sorry for the proprietor that none of the 100 or so other people off the tour found their way in to boost the takings. Back at the station there was a bit of a flap on to try and get the train to depart a little earlier than on the program which proved difficult due to several participants having gone off in search of supermarkets but we did manage to leave five minutes earlier with just enough time for a photograph of the incoming service train. 432 264 at Eger It was only around 10 miles or so back to Füzesabony where the 86 (450 005, formerly 86215) left the train leaving our ex DSB Nohab in charge for the rest of the day starting with a journey of around 100 kilometres cross country to Debrecen. To be honest, the loco was a bit of a disappointment to us as we were expecting it to be a bit noisier than it was but this was offset by some excellent photo stops en route including one where we all decamped into a field for another line side shot. 459 021 near Hortobágyi-Halastó Further entertainment was provided by the opportunity to photograph two diesel hauled trains which crossed us en route and the sight of a preying mantis on the platform at one stop which provoked much amusement and interest with plenty of comments about “insects” (a derogatory “bashing” term) Poroszló The 25 minutes whilst the loco ran round at Debrecen was a decent amount of time for a quick wander round to see what was lurking there; items included another Austrian 1116 and an ex Romanian class 40 electric loco now in service with a private operator called “Train Hungary”. 91 53 0400 173-7 at Debrecen Next stop for the tour was Szolnok-Rendezö, the freight yard which meant that we by-passed the station and had another excuse to stop for more photos despite the rapidly-fading light, another “seminar” photo was also done (well we hadn’t had one so far today) before we joined the line to Hatvan for one last run-round to point us in the correct direction for Budapest. Seminar at Szolnok-Rendezo This latter reversal wasn’t really needed as we could have gone straight back after leaving Szolnok but the original plan had included traversing the Hatvan avoiding line which wasn’t possible due to time constraints. Rather than divert the train away from the area completely we did traverse an unusual route into the station due to engineering works and a bonus picture was had when M61 020 in an historic livery was seen at the head of an engineers train. There was just enough ambient light to manage a photo of this engine which is actually a MÁV preserved loco but is used occasionally on such trains. M61 020 at Hatvan The rest of the journey was in darkness so there was nothing much to see or comment on until we passed through Rákos some 7 km from Keleti and turned right…….errrr that’s the way to Nyugati station! We stopped a little further on at Rákosszentmihály which was although it wasn’t a station was a manned location with crossovers and such-like. We stopped here whilst the crew conferred with the red-cap in charge and some of our Hungarian passengers decided it was time to leave, we presume that being local they knew where the nearest tram or bus stop was to get them home. It was decided to run the loco round and go to Keleti via what we suspect was an unusual piece of track avoiding Rákos station meaning that what would have been an on-time arrival turned into one 45 minutes late - well, it wouldn’t have been a real railtour without some kind of farce!
Keywords:
Hungary,
Mercia Charters
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