31st August 2013 - The last oneSaturday 31st August 2013 The Budapest pass was needed this morning to take Metro M2 to Déli station for a train to the south side of Lake Balaton. This was not an IC train and was hauled by yet another class 480 loco which we seem to make a habit of bumping into though fortunately this one was required for haulage. The coaches were a mixture of ex DB “Halberstadt” coaches and older MÁV ones so we selected one of the former and settled down for the two and a half hour journey to Balatonfenyves. The train was very busy with plenty of people off to spend a day or two by the lake in what was shaping up to be a decent day weather-wise. 480 008 at Balatonfenyves31st August 2013. 850 07:25 Budapest-Déli to Nagykanizsa. A summer weekends only diesel hauled service was noticed en route and we tried to fathom out whether it was booked to follow our train, hoping to get a photo of it passing Balatonfenyves, but our skills in translating the numerous Hungarian footnotes in the timetable were sadly lacking and no train appeared. This meant that we had more than enough time to photograph the station and shed area of Balatonfenyvesi Gazdasági Vasút, the last narrow gauge railway in Hungary still owned and operated by MÁV, the national operator. Because of this fact, we did ask whether our global InterRails were valid but neither the station “red cap” nor the guard looked as if they had ever seen one before so we had to buy two return tickets which worked out at the extortionate price of just over £3 for both of us! Mk48 2008 at Balatonfenyves31st August 2013. DH Mk48 loco and coach outside the shed. The train comprised of a Gv type loco, a bit like a larger version of a Simplex petrol loco you might find on a similar type of line in the UK, and one coach; the whole ensemble being unbraked. The coach was quite full upon leaving Balatonfenyves mostly with tourists and day-trippers though there was one local passenger who alighted with his shopping bags at a location seemingly in the middle of nowhere – there was certainly no station at that point. The train terminated in what was little more than a field with a platform and small building on the edge of the village of Somogyszentpál and any hopes we had of getting a photo with the sun on the front of the loco and train were dashed as the loco was unhooked and on its way to run round before any of the passengers could even get off the train. GV5733 at Somogyszentpál31st August 2013. View of GV5733 on the 31855 11:45 to Balatonfenyves surrounded by a sweetcorn crop. As far as we could ascertain, everybody who went out on the train returned straight away, merely hopping off to enjoy five minutes in the sunshine before we headed back to Balatonfenyves, passing the junction to the disused lines to Táska and Csiszta but terminating on the track that ran behind the station building towards the shed this time. We quickly realised that the intention was to turn the whole train round via the triangle, the third side of which ran parallel to the main line, so were presented with a dilemma; to get off and take some photos or stay on board and get the rest of the track in. This quandary was solved when all the other passengers got off - we didn’t fancy trying to explain to the guard why we wanted to stay on so the taking photos option won. GV5733 at Balatonfenyves31st August 2013. The return journey from Somogyszentpál terminated at the rear of the station building and the loco and its coach countinued round the triangle to avoid running round in the station. There was now nearly two hours to kill before the next train away on the main line so we had a quick look round to see what was on offer and found a choice of at least three establishments serving food amongst the shops selling the sort of bric-a-brac that you would typically expect to see in a seaside resort. We chose the café right outside the station entrance with the theory that we could nip across if we became aware of any trains arriving to photograph but, despite seeing one in the timetable and hearing announcements in three languages that it was running 10 minutes late, we did not hear an arrival announcement let alone an actual train; either the beer was stronger than we thought or we were suffering from heat stroke! 431 290 at Balatonfenyves31st August 2013. The lower half of the front end of 431 290 looks more white that yellow as it arrives with 850 11:25 Budapest-Déli to Nagykanizsa. Following the very pleasant meal we caught IC205 “Agram” (the 10:00 from Zagreb) back towards Budapest but decided to get off at the important junction station of Székesfehérvár to see what was around. A short distance before arriving we overtook a class 478 on a tank train but were not quick enough to get a photo out of the window, however this omission was rectified when the train arrived at Székesfehérvár just as we were about to depart. 478 328 at Székesfehérvár31st August 2013. We would still be in Budapest a bit earlier than we really wanted to be so got off at Kelenföld to have a look round there and just about had enough time to register that the station was a bit of a dump when one of our last three MÁV class 470s appeared on a non IC train to Györ so it was a case of diving on first then consulting the timetable to see how far we could go for a convenient train back to Budapest. The answer to that question was Tatabánya where a shiny new shopping centre stood next to an older one which also doubled as a station building. The older one was definitely the poor relation now but there at least there was a kiosk open to buy a drink which was very much needed in the hot weather that had been with us all day. Our “forfeit” for bringing our MÁV 470s down to two required was a dud class 480 back to Budapest but, overall, it had been a good day.
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