The Way of the Warrior

Day 2 : 7th September 2002

Tour Review
(by Gary Thornton)

After our first days thrash around southern Hungary, day two was to be another fairly long day. It started with us experiencing our fourth type of transport on the tour - a trolleybus. Previous transports being bus, train and horse of course!

Day two's train started at Budapest-Nyugati with another M44 - M44 402 however seeming to be quite a bit louder than the one we had on day one.

Shortly into our journey and we managed to have a photo-stop...at a station called Fót !!

Lunch today was another carrier-bag affair and these were handed out by our MAV Nosztalgia representative, Mrs Hedge-Trimmer. OK, that wasn't her real name, it just sounded vaguely like it and from that moment on she was referred to by our English version! Paprikas again featured.

Arrival at Vácrátót and M40 240 was waiting to take over. The design was perfect for aseminar photo so we arranged for all the tour participants to pose whilst a few photos were taken. One crank (who will remain nameless) was found posing complete with his paprika!! Someone else suggested a seminar photo with no people...just paprikas lined up. This time however I think most people ate theirs as part of their lunch.

The M40 was quite a beast - plenty of noise and clag. A couple of unscheduled photo stops were taken as the sun was shining. Quite an ordeal for those in shorts as we all piled over fences, brambles, nettles etc to get to the ideal location for the photo! With the bar car at the front along this stretch it was very convenient too and most of us were happily putting the beers away at the same time.

After skirting through Hatvan yards a bit more thrash got us to Kisterenye where we swapped the M40 for M44 068. The next couple of hours were rather boring as we traversed a DMU line which was in quite a dire condition, resulting in many kilometres of 20km/h running. Still, there were plenty of chances for those with "driving ambitions" to be able to realise their desire. Some very dodgy braking techniques were noted....seems not all the driver(s) along this stretch of line were that experienced....

Somewhere about here Mrs Hedge-Trimmer was talking with Matt Reeves about how well the tour was going. She also commented on how surprised the on-board crew were at how much beer we were managing to get through...didn't anyone warn the Hungarians of our reputation for drinking our way across countries? 

We joined the main Budapest to Miskolc mainline at Kál Kápolna and, finally, the speed increased somewhat. We turned off the mainline at Füzesabony, taking the branch to Eger. Another engine change saw us have our first M47, M47 1020 "up front".

We continued northwards to Silvászvárad where we stopped and reversed down a very dubious freight branch which "connected" with a narrow gauge railway. Here we left our train for a brief depot tour and a run over their line.

Our train, well perhaps "train" was too grand a word for it, was a single open wagon with a small diesel loco at the helm.

We were a little late leaving the depot and this held up a service train full of German tourists. No problem - as soon as we got onto the single line the other train simply set off in pursuit!! First timers to narrow gauge running in Hungary were quite taken aback by this method of operation, though it does seem to be quite commonplace.

At the end of the line we were invited to take a walk to see a nearby waterfall but most of us had other ideas. When the service train arrived we managed to convince the staff to couple their loco (an Mk48) on to the back of our coach and pull us up to the headshunt and back - another loco scooped, even if only for about six chains or so!

Back at the interchange with the big railway and we managed to get them to pose both trains side by side. An early departure meant time to kill up at the towns main station so a few photos were taken.

The run up to Putnok was quite nice with a lot of pleasant scenery. Was a good time to mellow out with a beer or two more, bellowing at passing Trabants etc...most got into the spirit and waved back too!

Arrival into Putnok gave the chance to photograph a couple of "Sergei's" as M62 178 & M62 194 were both in the station, the former was out next tour loco and the latter on a freight working. Our M47 was run onto the back of this freight to get it back to its home depot at Miskolc. A "Ganz" (M41) also appeared on a  service train so it also got photographed.

Our anticipation of a good thrash to Miskolc with M62 178 wasn't realised as the driver treated it very gently. Shame that...

Mode of transport no.5 on arrival at Miskolc - a tram to get to our hotel. The evening meal was taken at the hotel. With a very early start the next morning once again most of us retired soon after the meal was complete.

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

Train Reporting Code:
13582 : throughout

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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