6th July 2015 - Visiting some old friendsMonday 6th July 2015 It was a leisurely start this morning, not because we needed a rest after three days of rail tours but a friend had kindly arranged a visit to the Floyd depot for a small group of people who were not rushing off elsewhere. To the uninitiated, Floyd are a private rail operator in Hungary who run a small fleet of former British Rail class 56s and 86s along with some other types of loco so we would be seeing some familiar items. The seven day Budapest Card that we purchased last night was out to immediate use this morning to get to Puskás Ferenc Stadion on the Metro line 2, the nearest station to the depot entrance. We met up with the others in the group at the OMV garage which overlooked the rear of the depot giving good views of Nohab M61.010.
Once everybody had arrived we walked round to the entrance to await our guide from Floyd who arrived in his car and escorted us past security. Floyd have a small shed to the rear of the MÁV depot which wasn’t included in the visit though we did get to see and photograph 470.009, one of our last two for haulage, as it shunted to get off shed.
Inside the Floyd shed was 659.001 (56101) with its roof removed and looking as if a lot of work had been undertaken on the engine, 429.005 being renovated, M61.002, 86424, still in Network Rail yellow livery on a set of accommodation bogies and 450.002 (86250) which was having a some "upgrade" work which included a fridge and air-con. Nearby was a set of wheels from a class 86, we were informed that the intention was to return 86424 to service and that all the parts needed for this were on hand.
Outside the shed was 56117, still in “Fertis” livery from its stint in France also carrying its Hungarian number of 659.003 and 450.008 (86242) which looked serviceable though closer inspection revealed that it had come into quite heavy contact with something as the buffers were compressed and pushed back under the cab front with some resultant creasing of the area at the bottom of the cab sides. Another class 86, 450.005 (86215) was also on site having some work done at roof level and was just in the process of being pushed back under the overhead wires by the shed pilot in a shiny turquoise livery as we walked round the side of the shed.
It had been an interesting visit even though the small site meant that we had been there less than an hour so it was now time to head back to Keleti to see if there were any new locos to get – shouldn’t be a problem as we had still barely scratched the surface in Hungary. A new class V43 electric was soon found and taken for a brief spin to Rákos where we did consider hanging around to see if there was anything worth photographing. However, it proved far too hot to be standing round on an exposed platform so we went straight back to Keleti to see what else we could find. Just about the first thing we clapped eyes on was a nice set of air-conditioned coaches on the 11:25 to Praha, the fact that we didn’t need one of the dreaded IC reservations and it had a required Slovakian engine on decided things so we hopped on board for a trip across the border to Štúrovo in Slovakia.
As the train pulled into Štúrovo, we noted a diesel loco well and truly “off the road” in the yard but were unable to find a position to grab a picture in the 30 minutes or so we had there. As a consolation we did get a photo of a MÁV class 431 on a freight in the yard from the footbridge plus a private class 242 electric loco standing just to the north of the station. It was still incredibly hot so we fished out our supply of Euros and went in search of something cool in the shop on the platform and were rather “withered” to get a nice refreshing ice lolly for the extortionate sum of 20 cents each!
Expecting another ZSSK class 350 on the return train (also a Praha / Budpest EC service) we were surprised when it appeared with a new Czech railways class 380 on the front, not just a winning loco but a winning class for us as well. Another trip to Rákos was fitted in whilst the EC stock was being serviced then we got back into air-conditioned comfort with another new ZSSK class 350 on the front. This time round we only intended going as far as Vác but it was a slow journey as the train crawled along and stopped a couple of times. We overtook a “Flirt” unit on the outskirts of Budapest then stopped again whilst the two conductors got out for a quick chat with the “red cap” before crossing over to the “wrong” track and passing a freight train that looked as if it had failed just before a level crossing. By now an assisting loco had arrived and was just being attached to the front, but it was now standing ON the crossing causing road traffic chaos. The upshot of all this was that rather than having 20 minutes to look round Vác, which had been drastically rebuilt since our last visit, we barely had time to locate our intended train and dive on board. Of course having rushed through the new subway and along the platform, the train proceeded to stand there for 20 minutes waiting for a path over the single line round the failed freight train.
The local trains from Szob and Vác go into Nyugati station as opposed to the EC trains from Praha / Bratislava which go into Keleti but it was half past five now and we didn’t fancy any more moves crammed on busy trains in this heat so it was off round the corner to catch the number 73 trolleybus to Keleti station. Now that the rebuilding outside the front of the station had been finished, the number 73 handily stops on the correct side of the road for the Rosenstein restaurant which was open today, unlike yesterday – as always the food and service were excellent.
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