Trip to Poland, Slovakia and Hungary - May 2012

General Notes

This trip was originally planned to coincide with a railtour from Kraków on the Saturday morning, but this was cancelled. However I simply re-arranged things a little.....

For other general notes, and the meanings of the abbreviations, go to the Reports index page.

Operating Company Abbreviations:

• KEV - Királyéti Erdei Vasút (former forestry railway, now preserved)
• MÁV - Magyar Államvasutak Részvénytársaság (Hungarian State Railways)
• ÖBB - Österreichische Bundesbahnen (Austrian Federal Railways)
• PKP - Polskie Koleje Państwowe (Polish State Railways)
• RM - RATP Metrolink (operator of Greater Manchester Metrolink)
• TPE - Trans Pennine Express
• TWM - Tyne & Wear Metro (operated by DB Regio)
• ŽSSK - Železničná spoločnosť Slovensko (passenger train operator in Slovakia)

Friday 18th May 2012

Overnight at Hotel Europejski, Lubicz 5, Kraków (opposite railway station)

Notes: Very pleasant way to get to Kraków, using two smaller airports for a change - and ones I'd never used previously. Handy public transport connections at both. Kraków Balice is a small platform on an old military branch line, with a short shuttle bus journey from the airport terminal - could have walked but the bus was free and ran at the appropriate times.

Saturday 19th May 2012

Overnight at Hotel Grand, Sladkovicova 1, Žilina (10 minutes walk from railway station)

Notes: With no railtour today I simply brought forward my plan, which was to cover the minor border crossing at Zwardoń, which only has two train pairs per day and must be under threat. I was the only passenger crossing the border into Slovakia here. Zwardoń to Čadca was also the last significant section of track in Slovakia that I had not travelled over.

Sunday 20th May 2012

Overnight at Hotel Ibis Budapest City (close to Blaha Lujza Ter) (2 nights)

Notes: Train timings meant that today was an easy, relaxing journey. Had a nice lunch at the bar/cafe outside Bratislava hl.st. In the evening I went to the yards at Kelenföld and Ferencváros to see if there was any interesting freight traffic around. Bus route 103 between these two is quite handy, as I found out on the next day......

Monday 21st May 2012

Overnight at Hotel Ibis Budapest City

Notes: With many thanks to Floyd staff, especially Miklós, I obtained permission to ride on one of their freight trains today, with a pair of the exported British Class 86 locomotives doing the work. The original plan was to meet the train at Ferencváros, but this was changed to Kelenföld so I had to hop on the bus again..... The freight train was from Dunaújváros (south of Budapest) to Pont-a-Mousson in France, carrying Coke for use in the steel production process. Floyd locos 1 & 4 are the former 86248 and 86218 respectively. The locos are worked quite hard, needed yellow sector currents (1000 amps per motor, or so) for long periods to accelerate the train to around 80kph. We had a good run to start with but ended up being looped twice for an hour each due to waiting a path into the yard at Hegyeshalom. The locos came off the train here, due to Austria havng an unsuitable supply system (15kV 16.7Hz) for the former 86s. Caught a railjet back to Budapest: first time in one of these, and I was not overly impressed; each time we went through a neutral section (and there are many) the lighting and air con went off, not coming on again for several minutes, by which time we were nearly at the next neutral section......

Tuesday 22nd May 2012

Notes: Left my big bag at the left luggage at Nyugati, but needed 400Ft in coins! I visited the narrow gauge, former forestry railway at Kismaros, just a few minutes' walk between the two stations there. Very nice: diesel loco up the hill, railbus back again. Had lunch at Kismaros before getting the train back to Budapest. Then did tram routes 4 & 6 before heading to the airport.

Summary

Return to Overseas Visit Reports page

Copyright © 2012, 2018, 2019 Paul Steane.

This page last updated on 02 September 2019 at 13:47.