Christmas 2017 – Germany, Austria & Hungary (inc Nohab 4M61 tours)

As has been the case for the previous two years, we were both off at Christmas again this year and so made plans to head out of the UK for it. With there being a rerun, albeit with a difference, of the MAV Nostalgia Christmas Nohab outing from Kelenfold to Tapolca, we tied our plans in with that.

We’d start in Munich, pretty much as it was the cheapest place I could find flights to, anywhere in Germany, on 23^rd December; which would allow us to visit Dachau Memorial site, which continued our 2017 theme of visiting Nazi concentration camp sites. From there we’d head into Austria, with the original plan being to visit Mauthausen Memorial, near Linz, but as we’d done it in the Summer as a last-minute thing, we had no clear plan for Austria at all; but couldn’t change our plans as our hotel in Vienna was a per-paid advance booking. Finally, we’d end up in Budapest, to cover the aforementioned MAV Nostalgia trip to Tapolca, and a trip on the Budapest Children’s Railway would no doubt feature.

Flights

Booked through British Airways

BA956 1720 Heathrow – Munich

BA869 1225 Heathrow – Budapest

Hotels

Munich – Mercure Munich City Centre – is only a 5-minute walk; out of the exit by Burger King, turn left, first right and its 100m up the road on the left. The guy checking us in clearly had a bee in his bonnet about the UK leaving the EU as he told us our passports weren’t European ones anymore, he was only joking though. Although when I’d walked in and told him my name, he looked at me as if he needed more from me and I had to tell him we had a reservation, and then tell him I’d already checked in online; which was when he found my room key and details stuck on the wall behind him. He confirmed breakfast was included in our room rate and that the minibar was free in the room; which was something he didn’t have to tell a Yorkshireman twice! They weren’t shy either, with two beers, wine, two juices and two waters, along with nuts and chocolate wafers. There was a coffee maker as well, but unfortunately, no kettle! The room itself was huge, spotless and very modern. Left on the table for us was a personalized welcome card, two apples, two packets of Haribo sweets and a bottle of water. The following day there was a chocolate Santa waiting for us! A full range of toiletries were provided, and the room was quiet, and possibly one of the darkest hotel rooms I’ve ever stayed in; when the lights are out of course.

Vienna – Mercure Grand Hotel Biedermeier – out of Mitte station, turn left and the entrance to the hotel is about 5 minutes up the road on the right. We’d had a bad experience here earlier in the Summer. My complaints to the Accor Group had fallen on deaf ears three times, so as the booking was a pre-paid reservation, we had no choice but to stay, or lose the money on the whole reservation. Having checked in online, unlike our previous arrival, we were given our papers and room card immediately; and that was that. We’d booked a privilege room, which were bigger rooms, with seating areas to relax in. The room was clean and tidy, on the back of the hotel away from the main road, included a free minibar and had excellent free WiFi. Bathrobes & slippers, along with all the toiletries you could wish for, were provided, as were tea/coffee making facilities. Randomly, there was no inclusive breakfast in the rate and it would have cost €16 each.

Budapest – Novotel Budapest Centrum – a 10-minute walk, straight up the road from Keleti station. Again, I’d checked in online and after walking in, we were soon heading to our room as a result. We’d been spoilt by our previous two hotels on the trip, but the room wasn’t a bad one, it had a little road noise as it overlooked the main road, and the bed was only about a foot off the floor; other than that, it was clean, had tea/coffee making facilities and good WiFi. Breakfast was included in the room rate and we had yet another welcome drink voucher, which we never used, thanks to my Accor membership status.

Train Tickets

Interrail Global Pass (1^st Class – 7 Days in 1 Month)

Booked online at www.Interrail.eu

Saturday 23^rd December 2017 (Travelling out to Munich)

A hectic morning lay ahead, after I left work at 0630, but I managed to get my shit in order before 1000; and even managed to cut my hair as well! I’d managed to get a certain person to do me some reservations on three trains from Doncaster to Kings Cross, where we’d make use of the outbound journey to our point of exit, on our 1^st class Global Interrail. Ironically, the 1058, 1114 & 1147 departures from Doncaster had all been “old” 91’s the previous day. Of course, on the day I wanted them to be, none were, yet the train before them and the next train after them both were! So, we were at the station to see how busy the 1047 to Kings Cross was; the answer being, not at all! We shared a 1^st class coach with just two other people, all the way to London!

The tube journey to Heathrow was painful, mainly because the lack of sleep was catching up with me and my neck hurt by the time we got there; with all the nodding I was doing on the way. Security at Heathrow was very painless indeed, and we were through within 5 minutes of getting to departures. It did seem that we’d been ushered towards the fast-track though. Having then walked all the way to Wetherspoon’s at terminal 5, I was rather disappointed to find that its recent refit wasn’t complete and while it was open, it wasn’t serving food. So, it was back upstairs to Huxley’s for a decent bangers & mash, served in a giant Yorkshire pudding; right up my street.

I was falling asleep at the gate, waiting for our plane to board, and was grateful of the seat on board when we did. I could probably have slept standing up by that point if push came to shove. With BA’s new baggage policies having taken affect earlier in the month, they were taking wheeled suitcases off people when they boarded, all to go in the hold. It was announced before boarding and only that wheeled suitcases would be put in the hold; as we had rucksacks, we had no issue boarding at all and were among the first on. For a British Airways flight, I was surprised to find a child had been allocated an emergency exit row seat, as was the attendant near us. The look on his face was a picture of pure amazement. I was even more surprised when the father only had to move elsewhere with his child for takeoff and landing; yet it was ok to sit there for the remainder of the journey. Which sort of defeated the object of the emergency exit row and having able bodied people there to get people out quick enough, if a disaster did occur. Even more to the point, the noisy little shit kept waking me up and by the time we’d reached cruising altitude the aisles were like a kindergarten. This sort of shit you’d expect on Ryanair or Wizz Air but on BA flights? It was disappointing to say the least and I expect better. It seems that even BA is now succumbing to the low-cost airline ways. Nonetheless, they deposited us at Munich airport early and we were off the plane in minutes. It was only a short walk to immigration, where we were stopped in our tracks by the huge queues. Initially, I had resigned myself to the fact that it was going to take an age, but when a guy walked through an e-gate in front of me, I soon cottoned on that there was nobody queuing at them and was through the gate only 20 minutes after the plane had landed; and having bought single tickets into Munich from a machine, we were Munich bound at 2044; which isn’t bad for a 2015 flight arrival!

As we were arriving quite late, we nipped into the food plaza at München Hbf, for a quick slice of pizza, before heading to the Mercure München City Centre, which is only a 5-minute walk; out of the exit by Burger King, turn left, first right and its 100m up the road on the left. The guy checking us in clearly had a bee in his bonnet about the UK leaving the EU as he told us our passports weren’t European ones anymore, he was only joking though. Although when I’d walked in and told him my name, he looked at me as if he needed more from me and I had to tell him we had a reservation, and then tell him I’d already checked in online; which was when he found my room key and details stuck on the wall behind him. He confirmed breakfast was included in our room rate and that the minibar was free in the room; which was something he didn’t have to tell a Yorkshireman twice! The contents of it were soon removed and stashed in my bag, so it would get refilled again the following morning. They weren’t shy either, with two beers, wine, two juices and two waters, along with nuts and chocolate wafers. There was a coffee maker as well, but unfortunately, no kettle! The room itself was huge, spotless and very modern. Left on the table for us was a personalized welcome card, two apples, two packets of Haribo sweets and a bottle of water. The following day there was a chocolate Santa waiting for us! A full range of toiletries were provided, and the room was quiet, and possibly one of the darkest hotel rooms I’ve ever stayed in; when the lights are out of course.

After a bit of fucking about, sorting our crap out, as we were in Munich for three nights, we called it a day and had our stall set out for a quick exit strategy the following morning.

Moves for Sunday 24^th December 2017 

Sunday 24^th December 2017 (A trip to Oberstdorf and then into Munich’s Christmas Market)

Breakfast was at 0630 and we were down by exactly then. The breakfast spread available was among the best I’ve seen but unfortunately the hot food all arrived just as we put our coats on to leave. There was everything anyone could wish for in the cold section, with cheese and meat to feed an army. Tea was made with fresh leaves and a strainer, and very good it was too, there were pastries, fruits, cereals and the hot food consisted of various sausages, very nice mini hash browns, bacon and various types of egg. We definitely weren’t going to starve over Christmas and I made a reservation at the restaurant for 7pm that night, on the way out, which would save us a lot of messing about later that evening, when we suspected most places would be shut to allow the locals to celebrate Christmas; as they did on Christmas Eve in most of Europe.

Not originally planned to do Oberstdorf on this trip, but when Nige Pearson posted a few weeks beforehand, that he’d had SVG 2143.021 on the Alex Oberstdorf branch trains, I took a put at it still being out and the move out and back was actually quite decent too. As someone had very kindly posted a full update of where the 218s were on the 22^nd December, I was aware of what my day might involve when we departed München Hbf with 218421/218401 on EC196 0714 München Hbf – Zurich Hbf; which had plenty of room available in 1^st class. Alongside in the high numbered bay platforms, dark-blue liveried 223001 was waiting to follow with ALX84132 0720 München Hbf – Lindau Hbf, which also had plenty of empty 1^st class compos when it arrived into Kempten, shortly after EC196 had departed. I’d not even managed to get a photo of MRCE’s 223007, which was sat with a set of stock in the south-facing bay platform and get back up the platform to get a photo of 223001 arriving, it was that short a time we had a Kempten. As we departed Kempten, the extent of the overnight frost could be seen on the front of 223007, which was that white-over that you couldn’t see in through the cab windscreen!

There was quite a covering of snow south of Kempten too, which made the journey quite pleasant and scenic as a result. An empty 1^st class compo always helps and when we rounded the corner into Immenstadt, the move paid off; with orange liveried SVG 2143.021 waiting outside the station, ready to drop onto the rear of ALX84132 and form ALX84152 0914 Immenstadt – Oberstdorf; once 223001 had departed for Lindau at 0911 with the front portion of the train. Amazingly all the pull-down windows on the Alex sets still opened, and hadn’t been locked shut for the winter, but mine was soon closed again when I discovered that 2143.021 was one of the silent members of the class.

The run to Oberstdorf was pleasant in the snow and the morning sunshine made it all the nicer. The plus 2 at Oberstdorf, onto IC2084 0941 Oberstdorf – Augsburg, made easily, but as it was dud 218494, I opted to get some photos of the 2143 running around and do 218456/218495 out on IC2012 0953 Oberstdorf – Hannover Hbf instead. If the plus 2 misses onto IC2012, IC2084 makes IC2012 at Immenstadt anyway, so it can be done forward to Kempten if need be. I’d toyed with the idea of getting off IC2084 at one of the shacks on the Oberstdorf branch, but the sun was all wrong for trains coming out of Oberstdorf, so we went through to Immenstadt; with a view to doing ALX84137 0958 Linda Hbf – München Hbf from there back to München. That plan soon went out of the window when I realised there was another pair of 218’s dropping onto IC2084; before the pair that had worked it into Immenstadt has even been unhooked. Where 218435/218499 had sprung up from, I don’t know, but they’d been on IC118 on the 22^nd, so were in the circuit somewhere. That pair had us doing IC2084 forward to Kempten, to await ALX84137’s arrival there instead.

I was surprised when multicoloured 223013 arrived into Kempten with ALX84137, but wasn’t complaining, and was complaining even less at the empty first class at the front of the train. Things took a different turn when we arrived into Buchloe and 218429 was sat there with RB57362 1103 Augsburg Hbf – Füssen. The move was a bit dodgy to Kaufbeuren, for a plus 2 onto the opposing working; on a train that was already a few minutes late. Thankfully it made though and the bonus of it was 218497, which took us back to Buchloe with RB57369 1106 Füssen – Augsburg Hbf. The move back to München Hbf was then in the capable hands of 218401/218421 returning from Lindau with EC193 0747 Basel SBB – München Hbf; and they topped off what had been a very productive morning, along with what had turned out to be a pleasant journey.

Before heading to Marienplatz, where the München Christmas Market takes place, pizza sufficed for an afternoon snack, then we used the S-Bahn to whisk us across town to Marienplatz; which run every few minutes through the city. It was wedged by the time we got there and despite some folk taking down their decorations, in readiness to pack away for the season, things were still in full flow and the Glühwein was flowing everywhere it was being sold; and bloody good stuff it was too. Every area of the market sold the stuff in different drinking vessels, all of which commemorated your visit to the market. There were glasses, cups, mugs and even a boot shaped mug; which had us walking all over the market to find the stall that was selling them. Just when we thought we’d got close, when we found people drinking from them, we then couldn’t find the source of their purchase. In the end we asked some English-speaking folk, that were drinking from the boot-shaped mugs, and they directed us to the only stall that seemed to be selling them; which they themselves had sought out when figuring out which mug they wanted their Glühwein in!

We didn’t stay for too long and were back at the hotel early in the afternoon and while Danielle took the weight off her feet, I used the time to head out and ned about for a bit. I was hoping that some of the Mühldorf hauled turns would be 218’s but they were all 245’s. A move out to München Ost did net 1116053 coming back in with EC112 1027 Klagenfurt Hbf – Frankfurt Hbf, which I didn’t realise at the time was T&T with 1016003. It wasn’t until I read Dave U’s ERG report the following morning that I found this out from the gen he’d posted; I guess it was a welcome Christmas present! While I knew he was in the München area, what I didn’t realise was that he was there at the same time as me and we were both on the same train at one stage! Although I was in 1^st class on ALX84113 1644 München Hbf – Hof Hbf, with 183500 at the helm, which might explain why we didn’t see each other? With the Kempten 218 & 245 diagrams not being available before I’d gone away for Christmas, it was pot-luck on all the Füssen trains, but I was pleased when 218425 dropped into the station to work RB57512 1551 München Hbf – Füssen, even if I dropped into 245005 coming the other way with RB57501 1406 Füssen – München Hbf and I was even more surprised when 245003 later worked RE57592 1651 München Hbf – Kempten. All in all, a good evening was had but I was ready for a rest after trudging all over München Hbf shack. Why nobody had managed to get DB to build an underpass that linked platforms 5-10 to platforms 27-34 yet is just bordering on the ridiculous; my knees were not thanking them for the lack of efficient means of getting from one side of the shack to the other.

I was that knackered that I even had a late afternoon snooze when I got back, while waiting for 7 o’clock to come around; at which point we presented ourselves at the hotel restaurant. The guy that showed us to our table explained the Christmas menu to us and emphasized that it was €69 per person without wine, or €80 per person with wine. He seemed very keen to take our order and we had to ask him to give us some time to decide, or at least read the bloody menu first. For a Christmas menu it was pretty shit, not only was it a fixed menu, with no choice whatsoever, it turned out that it was the only thing available that evening from the hotel restaurant; in which case, I was struggling to understand why the normal menu had been left out at all the tables as well. Feeling a little cheated out of our relaxing evening, we thanked the waiter for his help and explained that it might be a good idea that people are told in advance that the only meal available that night was going to involve no choice at all; then walked out.

Fully donned up, we were soon walking aimlessly towards Marienplatz, in the hope that we’d find a restaurant that was open, let alone full and with no room; which was what we’d attempted to avoid in the first place. As we approached Karlsplatz though, we spotted a Chinese restaurant over the way, which was on the 2^nd floor of some building, that had life going on inside it. The Shanghai Chinese restaurant turned out to be quite busy but at least they had space for us. Service was relaxed, and the food took its time coming. The turnover looked to be quite good though so waiting for freshly cooked food can never be a bad thing. The food was good, and the waiters were pleasant and friendly, speaking both German and English. When we walked out, we were thankful for small mercies and the Shanghai had literally saved the day, on Christmas Eve.

It wasn’t a late night and we were all set for a bit of a lay in on Christmas morning, before heading out to Dachau for the morning.

Gen for Sunday 24^th December 2017
218421/218401 EC196 0714 München Hbf – Zurich Hbf, EC193 0747 Basel SBB – München Hbf, EC192 1633 München Hbf – Basel SBB
223063 ALX79643 0555 Lindau Hbf – München Hbf
223001 ALX84132 0720 München Hbf – Lindau Hbf
2143021 ALX84152 0914 Immenstadt – Oberstdorf, ALX84157 1008 Oberstdorf – Immenstadt
223068 ALX84135 0757 Lindau Hbf – München Hbf
223013 ALX84137 0958 Lindau Hbf – München Hbf
218494 IC2084 0941 Oberstdorf – Augsburg
218456/218495 IC2012 0953 Oberstdorf – Hannover Hbf (to Immenstadt)
218499/218435 IC2012 0953 Oberstdorf – Hannover Hbf (from Immenstadt)
218429 RB57362 1103 Augsburg – Füssen
218497 RB57369 1109 Füssen – Augsburg

111219 RE4886 1458 München Hbf – Ingolstadt
245015 RB27041 1506 München Hbf – Mühldorf
245009 RB27044 1430 Mühldorf – München Hbf, RB27043 1607 München Hbf – Mühldorf
1216025 EC83 1534 München Hbf – Innsbruck
1116053/1016003 EC112 1027 Klagenfurt – Frankfurt
218425 RB57512 1551 München Hbf – Füssen
245005 RB57501 1406 Füssen – München Hbf, RE57514 1751 München Hbf – Füssen
183500 ALX84108 1140 Hof Hbf – München Hbf, ALX363 1644 München Hbf – Praha Hlavni Nadrazi
183001 ALX84125 1603 München Hbf – Hof Hbf
101136 EC219 1220 Frankfurt Hbf – Graz Hbf
1216008 EC80 1102 Verona – München Hbf (Start Innsbruck 1440)
111223 RB59158 1621 München Hbf – Nurnberg Hbf
101075 IC2262 1647 München Hbf – Karlsruhe Hbf
245003 RE57592 1651 München Hbf – Kempten
183002 ALX84106 1340 Hof Hbf – München Hbf
218419/218428 EC195 1309 Zurich Hbf – München Hbf

Moves for Sunday 24^th December 2017 

Photos for Sunday 24^th December 2017

Monday 25^th December 2017 (A Christmas Day visit to Dachau Concentration Camp)

As we were later out of bed on Christmas morning, breakfast was already in full swing when we got to the restaurant. Unlike the previous morning though, where everything hot was being brought out as we were about to leave, everything was already in situ; and a plate of Nurnberg sausages and mini hash browns was just what Christmas morning needed.

As hauled trains to Nurnberg, calling at Dachau, are only hourly, with the odd extra Ingolstadt scattered throughout the day, we chose to do the 0924 München Hbf – Nurnberg; as the 0822 would have probably resulted in us hanging about at the gates of Dachau, waiting for the site to open. While München Hbf was quite busy for 9 o’clock on a Christmas morning, our train, headed by 111188, was far from it.

To save a day on our interrail passes, we bought an MVV Group Day ticket, valid for the “entire network” area of Munich. These tickets are available for single people or groups of up to 5 people (which must remain together at all times) and can be purchased for different validity areas within the greater Munich area. The full details of the offers, prices, validity areas and much more are available on the very useful MVV website (www.mvv-muenchen.de/en). Our entire network ticket meant we were valid to Petershausen on the Nurnberg line, the stop after Dachau, and as all the MVV day tickets are valid on all modes of transport, it would have been rude not to use the bus to get from Dachau station to the memorial site; which is about 3km on foot. The bus stop for buses to Dachau Memorial is right outside the main station building; which, if coming from München Hbf by train, is down the stairs and under the underpass, to the opposite side of the station that you’ve just arrived on. Buses #726 & #744 operate frequently to the memorial site entrance and there was one waiting for us when we got there. Timetables are clearly displayed at both Dachau station and at the memorial site stop. The journey, depending on which bus you get, is between 10 & 16 minutes and you’re dropped off right by the visitors centre.

Entry to the Dachau Memorial site is free and at the visitors centre you can get maps, available in most languages, and can get audio guides. There are very clean public toilets in the visitors centre, and an excellent little book shop. From there, it’s a short walk to the main entrance to the memorial site and despite our bus from the station being full, we managed to get ahead of the group. The main entrance gate to the site has the very well known “Arbeit Macht Frei” across its top. Unfortunately, as we discovered during our walk around the site, the gate now in place is not the original gate. The original gate was stolen in November 2014 and it wasn’t until April 2015 that a replica gate could be completed to replace it. It wasn’t until December 2016 that an anonymous tip-off, to Norwegian police, resulted in the recovery of the gate, in Bergen, Norway! The gate was returned to Dachau in February 2017 and is now on display. The thieves have never been identified and caught!

When we walked into the camp grounds, there weren’t too many people about and we could walk around aimlessly, without much restriction on where we wanted to point our cameras. Dachau isn’t a complicated site like Auschwitz or Mauthausen, which we’d visited recently, with the site of the prisoner barracks dominating the site, two of which have been completely reconstructed and everything inside them is a replica of what they once housed.

The main building, dominating the site, is the Maintenance Building. This was where prisoners were forces to gather every morning to endure roll call. This often lasted for hours and inscribed on the roof of the building was “There is one path to freedom. Its milestones are: obedience, honesty, cleanliness, sobriety, diligence, orderliness, self-sacrifice, truthfulness, love of the fatherland”.

Immediately behind the Maintenance building, hidden from the rest of the site’s view, is the Bunker. This is where defiant and rebellious prisoners were sent, to isolate them from the rest of the camp’s prisoners. The cells inside the Bunker are very well preserved and it’s said that sitting was prohibited in the cells, which, along with other forms of torture dished out by the SS, led to the deaths of many of the prisoners that ended up in the Bunker. The area between the Bunker and Maintenance building, known as the Courtyard, was used by the SS for punishing, torturing, or even executing prisoners. It was all out of sight of the rest of the camp’s occupants…

At the opposite end of the camp to the Bunker & Maintenance building is the execution site and crematorium. This site is tucked away, in a corner of the site, away from the barracks and was walled off from the rest of the site during the war. Today, the whole site remains intact as a memorial to the many thousands of people who died at the camp or were executed at the hands of the Nazi’s at Dachau. In 1942/43 the Nazi’s added “Barrack X” to the execution site, to make mass murder quicker and to enable them to cope with the ever-increasing number of people they that died, or who they murdered! This “Barrack X” had a disinfection chamber for clothing, dayrooms and sanitary facilities, as well as morgues and a gas chamber; the latter being disguised as a “shower bath”! While Barrack X had clearly been designed with mass murder in mind, the gas chamber was never used to execute prisoners using poisonous gas; the crematorium area was however, used as an execution site, with prisoners either being hung or shot in the back of the neck. Even with 4 furnaces, the crematorium couldn’t cope with demand at it’s height and bodies were piled high in the crematorium as a result.

On April 29^th 1945, US soldiers liberated the Dachau Concentration Camp from the Nazi’s. Just two days before liberation, a train had arrived at Dachau, carrying prisoners from the Buchenwald camp. On board the open freight wagons were 4480 people and they’d been travelling for 21 days straight. Due to the lack of food and water, and the SS being trigger happy, only 816 people survived the transportation from Buchenwald to Dachau. Upon its arrival, the SS refused the train entry to the camp and it remained on the track, outside the main gates. Two days later, the US troops discovered it; a train full of more than 4000 bodies…

While the facts are very sobering, the walk around the Dachau site was quite pleasant, with not too many people around and as it was quite a dull day, it was quite apt. Having been to Auschwitz, Mauthausen, and now Dachau, within 8 months of each other, we were now very aware of how each camp operated in a completely different manner to the other; yet the resulting outcome was the same wherever we went, thousands upon thousands of people died, or were murdered, at the hands of a race of people that were clearly delusional in what they wanted to achieve, and the reasons why they were doing what they were! Unfortunately, it seems that the world hasn’t learnt its lessons and delusional people are still hell bent on eradicating certain factions of life on the planet. This is a fact that we will all live our lives with, probably until humanity is extinct on planet earth. I’d like to be proven wrong though…

We used the bus to get back to Dachau station and did 111177 to Petershausen on RB59096 1126 München Hbf – Nurnberg Hbf, for 111031 to München Hbf on RB59093 0937 Nurnberg Hbf – München Hbf. A slice of pizza, at what had become our regular lunch stop at München Hbf, sufficed for dinner and a nice three loco 111 move then presented itself of an afternoon. Our MVV pass was put to good use as 111022 led the way with RB59098 1323 München Hbf – Nurnberg, which we did to Dachau for a 5-minute fester for 111044 forward to Petershausen on RB59684 1329 München Hbf – Ingolstadt and then 111024 back to München Hbf on RB59095 1138 Nurnberg – München Hbf.

After a nip back to the hotel to dump some stuff, an afternoon of nedding about on my local ticket for local people ensued. I did attempt to stay confined to local train with my ticket, that wasn’t valid on IC’s, EC’s or ICE’s, etc. However, it wasn’t long before I was effing it into München Hbf on EC112 1027 Klagenfurt – Frankfurt. This time though, I did make sure I checked the locos on the front and rear of the train and was pleased with 1016010/1116106. It was a couple of hours before I resorted to using the toilets again, on EC’s between München Hbf & München Ost, and the Kempten based hauled stuff and the Mühldorf locals kept me occupied during that time. 245011, 245012 & 245013 all produced on the Mühldorf turns, with 218414 7 218415 on Füssen turns and 245001 7 245003 on Kempten turns. Coupled with T&T 101’s, 101056/101074, on RE4034 1600 München Hbf – Nurnberg and 111219 on RB59097 1338 Nurnberg – München Hbf, it was a very eventful afternoon and I even had the pleasure of spotting 103245 with a late running IC1281 1520 München Hbf – Schwarzach St Veit, which it had been waiting in the station area to work; after the stock arrived late on its previous working. Thanks to some late running, the evening EC’s revealed 1216016, 101091, 101041 & 1216005. Then it was my cue to head back to the hotel, pretty much knackered from all the rushing around München Hbf and to get my hands warm!

Of a Christmas evening, we headed to Marienplatz to see what it was like during the hours of darkness. What we discovered was an almost deserted Marienplatz, with nothing open, and a well-lit Christmas tree, which was that miss-shaped that it didn’t look that Christmassy at all; other than for the lights! Our attempts at finding somewhere to eat in the vicinity of Marienplatz failed miserably, mostly because the places we tried were closed for the Christmas period! That resulted in us getting back on the S-Bahn to Karlsplatz and trying a different place to where we’d been the previous night. As this was also closed though, we ended up at the Shanghai Chinese restaurant again, which was emptier than it had been on Christmas Eve and was quite relaxed as a result; and a very good Christmas dinner was had in the process.

Stuffed, we walked back to the hotel and having been keeping an eye on all the DB 111 turns throughout the day, I’d figured out that two of the München turns had yet to be covered and a nice late evening move presented itself, which involved two moves to Petershausen, after a double back to Dachau, to get both turns in. What presented itself, topped Christmas Day off nicely as 111027, which had been sat at Munich all afternoon, worked RB59166 2027 München Hbf – Nurnberg Hbf. This only narrowly missed the late running RE4895 2010 Ingolstadt – München Hbf, which would have netted me the last turn of the day early. However, if I’d made it, I’d have missed two other 111’s, which had swapped turns during the day. So, 111193 on RB59161 1839 Nurnberg Hbf – München Hbf was a bonus and dropped me into 111223, as I’d expected it to be having seen the diagram earlier in the day, with RB59108 2129 München Hbf – Nurnberg Hbf and when 111184 rolled up at Petershausen with RB59105 1938 Nurnberg Hbf – München Hbf, Christmas Day drew to a close and the downward spiral towards the end of the year began. On Boxing Day we’d be heading to Vienna, the long way around!

Gen for Monday 25^th December 2017

101068 RE4012 0914 München Hbf – Nurnberg
111188 RE59092 0924 München Hbf – Nurnberg
111177 RB59096 1126 München Hbf – Nurnberg
111223 RB59154 1225 München Hbf – Nurnberg
111031 RB59093 0937 Nurnberg – München Hbf, RE4882 1303 München Hbf – Ingolstadt
111193 RE48xx 1344 München Hbf – Nurnberg
111022 RB59098 1323 München Hbf – Nurnberg
111044 RB59684 1329 München Hbf – Ingolstadt
111024 RB59095 1138 Nurnberg – München Hbf
111123 RE4860 1544 München Hbf – Nurnberg
146244 RE4067 1026 Passau Hbf – München Hbf
183004 ALX358 0933 Praha Hl Nadrazi – München Hbf
101056/101074 (T&T) RE4034 1600 München Hbf – Nurnberg
1016010/1116106 EC112 1027 Klagenfurt – Frankfurt
103245 IC1281 1520 München Hbf – Schwarzach St Veit
101075 IC2262 1647 München Hbf – Karlsruhe Hbf
183500 ALX84125 1603 München Hbf – Hof Hbf
111190 RE4861 1336 Nurnberg – München Hbf
111219 RB59097 1338 Nurnberg – München Hbf, RE4890 1658 München Hbf – Ingolstadt
1216016 EC80 1102 Verona – München Hbf (Start Innsbruck 1440), EC287 1734 München Hbf – Innsbruck
101091 EC216 1145 Graz Hbf – Saarbrucken
101041 EC1217 1505 Karlsruhe – Klagenfurt
1216005 EC84 1152 Bologna Centrale – München Hbf (Start Innsbruck 1640)

218401/218421 EC194 1234 München Hbf – Zurich Hbf, EC195 1309 Zurich Hbf – München Hbf
245015 RB27031 1307 München Hbf – Mühldorf
245011 RB27041 1506 München Hbf – Mühldorf
245003 RE57585 1332 Kempten – München Hbf, RE57592 1651 München Hbf – Kempten
223063 ALX84140 1519 München Hbf – Lindau Hbf
218415 RB57512 1551 München Hbf – Füssen
218414 RB57501 1406 Füssen – München Hbf, RE57514 1751 München Hbf – Füssen
218419/218428 EC192 1633 München Hbf – Basel SBB
245001 RE57587 1535 Kempten – München Hbf
245012 RB27046 1538 Mühldorf – München Hbf, RB27049 1707 München Hbf – Mühldorf
245013 RB27048 1630 Mühldorf – München Hbf
223068 ALX84142 1719 München Hbf – Lindau Hbf

Moves for Monday 25^th December 2017

Photos for Monday 25^th December 2017

Tuesday 26^th December 2017 (Boxing Day spent travelling from Munich to Vienna via Bregenz & Innsbruck)

At breakfast, it was busier than any other morning we’d been down, and it was only 0630! It seemed that most people there, were all catching an early train to another country, and some were even filling out their Interrail Passes while scoffing their breakfast. I always leave mine until the train I’m planning on doing gets on the move, just in case there’s a last-minute change of plan. Breakfast itself was as fresh as it comes and as we had a lengthy journey ahead of us, plenty came with us for the ride, including some of the beers from the mini-bar in the room.

As Christmas Eve had seen the last EC’s, in either direction, between Munich & Zurich, cancelled, this meant that the pairs of 218’s on the circuit had conveniently been wrong-ended. This resulted in 218419/218428 being at the head of our EC196 0714 München Hbf – Zurich Hbf. The rear 1^st Class coach had quite a few reservations in one half but the panorama 1^st Class coach, next to it, had none at all and only has us and one other family in it, all the way to Lindau. It was a very peaceful journey and it was nice to head through the snow again in the Kempten/Immenstadt area; to give the day that Christmassy feel.

Before EC196 departed München Hbf, Alex’s hire loco 183500 arrived with ALX84118 0547 Regensburg – München Hbf, while Alex’s own 223068 was sat in one of the high numbered platforms, waiting to follow us with ALX84132 0720 München Hbf – Lindau Hbf. At Buchloe, 223013 was waiting to depart with ALX79643 0555 Lindau Hbf – München Hbf and at Immenstadt 223001 was preparing to depart with ALX84135 0757 Lindau Hbf – München Hbf, with SVG’s 2143021, on hire to Alex, having just propelled the Oberstdorf portion to the rear; after bringing it in from Oberstdorf as ALX84155 0822 Oberstdorf – Immenstadt.

As we neared the German/Austrian border it became foggy and on arrival at Lindau it was quite think. While SBB Cargo’s Re421, 421394, dropped onto the opposite end of the stock, I went scurrying off to the buffer stops to get some photos and by the time I legged it back, the Re421 was already attached and the shunter was about to get on his bike and ride back up the platform, to the warmth of his cabin. As the Swiss loco eased its train away from Germany, and towards Austria, DB’s 245036 arrived into Lindau with IRE4207 0701 Stuttgart Hbf – Lindau Hbf.

As we eased into Bregenz, now in Austria, OBB’s Railjet 1116238 was sat at the top end of the platform with the set for RJ867 1040 Bregenz – Flughafen Wien, which we’d planned to do all the way to Wien Hbf. As we were expecting a heavy travel day, getting on at the origin point of the train would help our cause, in getting a seat. There were hardly any people in 1^st class from Bregenz but most seats were reserved, albeit with some only reserved from Salzburg or Linz. There were a whole bunch of seats showing “last minute reservation” in the electronic display above them; which was a bit ambiguous for my liking and I wasn’t sure if that meant that someone could reserve them en-route at a ticket office, or not. So, while I plonked Danielle in a pair of seats reserved from Linz to Wien Hbf, I attempted to see if I could get a couple of reservations before the train departed. I was told by the booking office staff that it was too late though. Thankfully, the train manager was in his little office, in the 1^st class area, when I got back; he confirmed that we could take whichever seats we liked in the “last minute reservation” area, and we’d be ok there all the way to Wien. So that’s exactly what we did!

It was a nice journey through the mountains from Bregenz to Innsbruck but from Innsbruck to Salzburg, via Rosenheim in Germany, was a bit boring. The train got busier as it progressed, and the restaurant car staff pretty much stopped bothering serving 1^st class passengers at their seat, once the train was full. I’m guessing the restaurant was that busy that they didn’t get a chance to? Luckily, we’d brought our own dinner with us and that sufficed for the journey. At Salzburg Hbf, or RJ867 coupled with RJ67 1330 München Hbf – Budapest Keleti, worked by OBB’s 1116201. The two sets would split again at Wien Hbf. At this point, we’d been on the go from München Hbf 6h16m longer that the Railjet we’d just coupled to and had probably covered five times the distance that it had, since it had left München!

As we left Salzburg, we decided that we’d been on board RJ867 for long enough and 20 minutes behind us, from Linz Hbf, was D721 1626 Linz Hbf – Wien Hbf; which had been sat over the back of the station when we’d stopped at Linz. I was a little skeptical about seating availability on board D721, when we got off at St Polten to wait for it, especially after figuring out from the train formation board on the platform, that it was only formed of 2^nd class coaches. When OBB’s 1116127 arrived with the load 5 rake of Night Jet stock, it was immediately evident that our concerns had been needless, and the front coach was almost empty; so, we ended up with an empty compartment to ourselves for the journey to Wien Meidling. Where, shortly afterwards, OBB’s 1116188 came along to take us through the city suburbs to Wien Mitte, on R2352 1711 Wiener Neustadt – Breclav.

We were staying at the Mercure Grand Hotel Biedermeier, where we’d had a bad experience earlier in the Summer. My complaints to the Accor Group had fallen on deaf ears three times, so as the booking was a pre-paid reservation, we had no choice but to stay, or lose the money on the whole reservation. Having checked in online, unlike our previous arrival, we were given our papers and room card immediately; and that was that. We’d booked a privilege room, which were bigger rooms, with seating areas to relax in. The room was clean and tidy, on the back of the hotel away from the main road, included a free minibar and had excellent free WiFi. Bathrobes & slippers, along with all the toiletries you could wish for, were provided, as were tea/coffee making facilities. Randomly, there was no inclusive breakfast in the rate and it would have cost €16 each for breakfast; so, breakfast from a bakery would suffice each morning, along with tea provided by the hotel!

Not wanting to walk too far for food, after our long, pretty much 12-hour, journey from Munich, we found a decent Italian restaurant nearby to our hotel. The Restaurant Pizzeria Pergola wasn’t full when we arrived but did fill up during our time there. It was a quaint little place, with a relaxed atmosphere and the service was good. The spag-bol was excellent and the Tiramisu that followed, even better! It was a very satisfying meal but one that finished us off for the day; it wasn’t a late night, which was becoming a theme on this trip…

Gen for Tuesday 26^th December 2017

DB
218419/218428 EC196 0714 München Hbf – Zurich Hbf (to Lindau)
421394 (SBB) EC196 0714 München Hbf – Zurich Hbf (from Lindau)
183500 ALX84118 0547 Regensburg – München Hbf
223068 ALX84132 0720 München Hbf – Lindau Hbf
223013 ALX79643 0555 Lindau Hbf – München Hbf
223001 ALX84135 0757 Lindau Hbf – München Hbf
2143021 ALX84155 0822 Oberstdorf – Immenstadt
245036 IRE4207 0701 Stuttgart Hbf – Lindau Hbf

OBB
1116238 RJ867 1040 Bregenz – Flughafen Wien
1116201 RJ67 1330 München Hbf – Budapest Keleti
1116152 RJ741 1512 Salzburg Hbf – Wien Hbf
1116203 RJ62 0940 Budapest Keleti – München Hbf
1116207 RJ866 1603 Flughafen Wien – Bregenz
1116127 D721 1626 Linz Hbf – Wien Hbf

Moves for Tuesday 26^th December 2017 

Photos for Tuesday 26^th December 2017

Wednesday 27^th December 2017 (A relaxing day in Vienna with lunch in Bratislava)

Early nights always resulted in one thing, a lack of sleep the following morning and being up at the crack of dawn! This morning was no exception, and even though my alarm was set for 5am, I was up before it and creeping around the room in the pitch black, trying to get dressed quietly; before I tiptoed out of the room and hot footed it to Wien Mitte to cover the whole of the morning peak services, through the Wien Tunnels.

Thanks to the new OBB Loco Diagrams being available as soon as the timetable had changed, I was able to spend a few minutes on the Railjet the previous day, of which I had plenty, to figure out at what time things would start repeating themselves and from heading out at 5 o’clock, to calling it a day at half 8, I’d covered 28 different diagrams; and what a good morning it was too, for my, apparently, empty book! It was one of those mornings where I never stopped, and the time flew by, and it was like OBB had shipped everything I’d already had in the country away to the opposite end of it. There was no complaining from me, but my pen could barely keep up with things and my fingers could barely write by the time I’d finished, as it was a cold morning.

The highlight of the morning had to be watching people trying to carry 50-inch, plus, sized TV’s down the escalators and onto the morning peak trains. When I eventually headed back upstairs, I realised where they were all coming from, as there seemed to be quite a gathering of large TV’s, right outside the entrance to the shopping centre above Mitte station. Some people even had two, and god only knows how they were going to carry them as they were huge, including their box. As I walked into the shopping centre, I was glad that the large supermarket, just opposite the main doors was open and breakfast was sought from one of the bakeries before heading back to the hotel to deliver it. A well-deserved couple of croissants and a cuppa later, we were heading back out; and were off to Bratislava for dinner, because we could!

Having scoured the OBB 2016 diagrams I’d figured out that both the 1016 Wien Hbf – Bratislava H.S. and the 1537 Bratislava H.S. – Wien Hbf were booked pairs of 2016’s; and both were booked to be different pairs too. Upon arrival at Wien Hbf, 2016023 was just being attached to 2016031, at the rear of the push-pull set for REX2512 1016 Wien Hbf – Bratislava H.S. and the multi jumpers were already connected between the two. Unfortunately, the sets don’t have any 1^st class, so we had to slum it in 2^nd. When we got on at the front it was empty, by the time the train departed it was full and standing; apart from two seats in the bay opposite us. Some well-to-do ignorant ada managed to keep the bay to her husband and herself by spreading out all her bags and coats, and then telling some girls that the seats were occupied, when she asked.

The 70-minute journey flew by and it was quite a pleasant day as we breezed through the countryside, passing 2016039 at Marchegg with REX2515 1037 Bratislava Hl Stanica – Wien Hbf, along the way. I’d not been able to identify the other loco we’d passed near Simmering on the previous train from Bratislava. On arrival into Bratislava, a quick out and back move presented itself and ZSSK 350006 was caned in to Vinohrady on IC523 1143 Bratislava H.S. – Kosice, for 361122 back on REX1722 0823 Priedivza – Bratislava Hlavni Stanica. 193220 was in the station with the set off RJ1041 0721 Praha Hl Nadrazi – Bratislava Hl Stanica when we arrived, and when we got back, we set off towards town to find a place we’d read up about online, which would apparently offer some of the best food in Bratislava; but not the best service!

The Primo Amore Pizzeria is only a short walk from the Presidential Palace and took us a steady 15 minutes to reach from Bratislava station. From the outside the place looks like a bit of a dive, and to be honest, once through the door impressions didn’t change much. The place gives the initial impression of a local café, until you look around the corner to find other areas to sit. I was a little skeptical that food was being served initially and asked the staff for a couple of menus, to see what was on offer before we sat down, that brought the first scowl, and when we picked our stuff up to move around the corner, that brought the second. Had I been in the right frame of mind, we’d have walked out then, and I even said to the staff that it wouldn’t hurt to smile! We only stayed as I was adamant at that point, that they were going to do some work, and serve us whether they liked it or not! Attitudes didn’t improve much when we ordered our food and that didn’t change, right up to the moment we left. The food turned out to be average at best, the service was absolutely shocking, and we left vowing to never return. The one thing that we can say, is that the restaurant’s toilets are nowhere near as shocking as people’s reviews make out!

Back at the station, it would have been rude to flag all three winners sat there, so the planned move back towards Wien Hbf got dissed in favour of nedding in some ZSSK electrics and with 361104 on R709 1303 Bratislava Hl St – Zilina, 263011 on Os4617 1306 Bratislava Hl St – Nove Zamky and 263007 on Os3019 1308 Bratislava Hl St – Leopoldov, I couldn’t fail. The CG Transit App soon had my move sorted and a nice little 4-loco move had us arriving back into Bratislava, having only been as far as Raca, with 362016 on R604 0807 Kosice – Bratislava Hl St; and randomly, OBB’s 2016039 was still sat waiting to go with REX2521 1337 Bratislava Hl Stanica – Wien Hbf. Why it was a late start, I don’t know, but I was grateful for it, and we glided back towards Austria in relative comfort, on a very empty train. 2016010 was parked over the back of the station when we departed, and we passed 2016019 with 2578 1333 Wien Hbf – Marchegg and 2016033 with REX2520 1413 Wien Hbf – Bratislava Hl Stanica along the way. I was too busy fannying about to see what was on the 1313 from Wien Hbf.

Despite our late running, we dropped into Wien Hbf, just as Regiojet Vectron 193205 was dropping in with the stock to form RJ1065 1430 Wien Hbf – Praha Hl Nadrazi. There was no time to be concerned about the fact that Interrail’s aren’t valid on Regiojet, and there wasn’t a need to be concerned either, but the move did involve a unit back from Simmering but then resulted in a fresh 1116, which I’d not seen in the morning peak, producing on R2345 1509 Wien Floridsdorf – Payerbach-Reichenau; 1116093. And after dropping Danielle off at Mitte, I was Meidling bound to spin about of an afternoon.

It was an eventful afternoon, with another three different 1144’s appearing in the evening rush, which I hadn’t seen in the morning and the afternoon express departures from Wien Hbf produced 1116067 with D720 1550 Wien Hbf – Linz Hbf, 1116165 with EC159 1558 Wien Hbf – Zagreb Gl. Kol., 1116130 with D722 1650 Wien Hbf – Amstetten No and 1144223 with D459 1725 Wien Hbf – Murzzuschlag. The 2016’s I’d seen earlier, on the Wien – Bratislava line, all stuck to diagram, with 2016019 finishing off the Marchegg stopper turn and 2016010/2016033 working the other pair turn on the line, REX2525 1537 Bratislava Hlavni Stanica – Wien Hbf. During the evening’s proceedings I saw all the Wien Meidling – Deutschkreutz REX’s with 2016007/2016029 working REX7145 1600 Wein Meidling – Deutschkreutz, 2016012/2016031 working REX7149 1700 Wein Meidling – Deutschkreutz and 2016008/2016022 working REX7153 1800 Wein Meidling – Deutschkreutz. My evening finished up with normal Railjet liveried 1116230, on a CD liveried Railjet set, on RJ372 1626 Graz Hbf – Praha Hlavni Nadrazi; coming back from Wiener Neustadt. Then 1144273 through the tunnels to Mitte, by which time my red pen had all but run out, but my empty OBB book was a lot fuller than it had been 14 hours previous!

We wanted to have a look at St Stephens Cathedral, to see how it looked at Christmas, and were a little disappointed with what we found. Not a Christmas light in sight, and to be honest, it couldn’t have been less Christmassy if it tried! There wasn’t even a Christmas tree in the vicinity, not on the side we walked up to anyway, so we ambled back towards the hotel and called in at a place we’d used before, Da Capo Pizzeria. To say it was wedged was an understatement, but thankfully space was found for us and we had the pleasure of being beside an Asian couple, who spent €50 on a small bottle of wine, only for the dregs to end up being poured into the woman’s remaining pasta; which she’d been shoving around her plate for the previous 10 minutes. Her husband should have been the size of a sumo wrestler after finishing every course she had put in front of her, as well as his own, and drinking the wine and beer that they’d had too. We were content with our very good pizzas and my tiramisu finished off a good evening out; with our whole bill coming to less than the bottle of wine on the adjacent table!

Back at the hotel, we were packing again. The following day we were moving on once again, for the last time of the trip, to Budapest, and would end up back in the UK before we knew it.

Gen for Wednesday 27^th December 2017

1016014 xx37 CAT ex Mitte
1016036 xx07 CAT ex Mitte
1116244 RJ949 0708 Salzburg Hbf – Flughafen Wien
1116209 RJ49 0510 Innsbruck Hbf – Budapest Keleti
1116157 RJ530 0526 Villach Hbf – Wien Hbf
1116152 RJ548 0955 Wien Hbf – Salzburg Hbf
380020 (CD) EC101 0523 Katowice – Wien Hbf
193205 RJ1065 1430 Wien Hbf – Praha Hl Nadrazi
1116093 R2345 1509 Floridsdorf – Wiener Neustadt
1144247 REX7729 1545 Wien Hbf – Bratislava Petrzalka
1116243 RJ1265 1540 Wien Hbf – Flughafen Wien
1116205 RJ65 1130 München Hbf – Budapest Keleti
1116241 RJ536 1114 Villach Hbf – Wien Hbf
1116067 D720 1550 Wien Hbf – Linz Hbf
1116165 EC159 1558 Wien Hbf – Zagreb Gl. Kol.
1116152 RJ656 1325 Graz Hbf – Flughafen Wien
1116208 RJ563 1217 Innsbruck Hbf – Flughafen Wien
1144025 R2946 1600 Wiener Neustadt – Floridsdorf
1116130 D722 1650 Wien Hbf – Amstetten No
1116227 RJ649 1412 Salzburg Hbf – Flughafen Wien
1216235 RJ370 1426 Graz Hbf – Praha Hl Nadrazi
1116086 R9991 1715 Wien Hbf – Fertoszentmiklos
193221 RJ1035 1321 Praha Hl Nadrazi – Wien Hbf
1144223 D459 1725 Wien Hbf – Murzzuschlag
1216024 RJ132 0955 Venezia Santa Lucia – Wien Hbf
1116243/1116206 RJ760 1730 Wien Hbf – Bregenz

2016023/2016031 REX2512 1016 Wien Hbf – Bratislava Hl Stanica
2016039 REX2515 1037 Bratislava Hl Stanica – Wien Hbf, REX2516 1216 Wien Hbf – Bratislava Hl Stanica, REX2521 1337 Bratislava Hl Stanica – Wien Hbf
2016010 REX2514 1116 Wien Hbf – Bratislava Hl Stanica
2016019 2578 1333 Wien Hbf – Marchegg, 2583 1430 Marchegg – Wien Hbf, 2584 1633 Wien Hbf – Marchegg
2016033 REX2520 1413 Wien Hbf – Bratislava Hl Stanica
2016007/2016029 REX7145 1600 Wein Meidling – Deutschkreutz
2016010/2016033 REX2525 1537 Bratislava Hl Stanica – Wien Hbf
2016012/2016031 REX7149 1700 Wein Meidling – Deutschkreutz
2016024 REX2757 1735 Wien Meidling – Hartberg
2016008/2016022 REX7153 1800 Wein Meidling – Deutschkreutz

ZSSK
350006 IC523 1143 Bratislava Hl St – Kosice
193220 RJ1041 0721 Praha Hl Nadrazi – Bratislava Hl Stanica
361122 REX1722 0827 Priedivza – Bratislava Hl Stanica
361104 R709 1303 Bratislava Hl St – Zilina
263011 Os4617 1306 Bratislava Hl St – Nove Zamky
263007 Os3019 1308 Bratislava Hl St – Leopoldov
240100 Os3018 1248 Leopoldov – Bratislava Hl St
362016 R604 0807 Kosice – Bratislava Hl St

Moves for Wednesday 27^th December 2017

Photos for Wednesday 27^th December 2017

Thursday 28^th December 2017 (Heading from Vienna, Austria to Budapest, Hungary)

I’d not planned to head out to ned about of a morning but not being able to get back to sleep forced my hand. I’d figured out what might be available the previous night, just in case I decided to head out and decided, or more like talked myself into the fact, that it was worth heading out; and it did turn out to be. There were even three more different 1144’s out on the commuters, that I’d not seen at all until they turned up, and with some new 1116’s turning up on the arriving Nightjet services and departing morning expresses, it turned out to be a productive morning. As it drew to a close, while I was veging at Wien Meidling, a familiar voice from Doncaster could be heard behind me; and there appeared Neil Taylor, out with his 1144 spin list. After a brief chat, we headed our separate ways but would meet up again for the M61-fest in Budapest on the 30^th.

On my way back to the hotel, breakfast was sought from the bakery near Mitte station and there was time for a bit of relaxation before we had to bid Vienna farewell. I’d had grand plans of getting to Hungary via many weird and wonderful routes, including into Slovakia and walking over the border from Komarno, Slovakia to Komarom, Hungary, and then onwards to Budapest, or via Wiener Neustadt to Sopron and then onwards to Budapest via Gyor. In the end though, with trains starting to become wedged with people getting to where they needed to be for the New Year, common sense prevailed; and a wise plan was hatched.

OBB provided yet another fresh engine in the morning commuter stakes, with 1116032 doing the honours to Meidling with R2327 1039 Wien Floridsdorf – Payerbach-Reichenau. I’d decided to do the 1140 Railjet departure from Wien Hbf, direct to Budapest and get the most out of our 1^st class travel benefit. A brainwave had us heading to Meidling to get on there, which would give us a bit of bonus time to find a seat if the train was full and that bonus time was just what we needed as there weren’t any free seats in 1^st class from Wien Hbf. When I walked down to check the loco on the rear Railjet set at Wien Hbf, it was absolute carnage on the platform. People were queuing out of the doors in the 2^nd class, which resulted in us departing about 30’ late from Wien Hbf; after announcements had been made for all those without reservations to leave the train and wait for the next service! Security staff had been deployed on the platform to manage the situation, it was full and standing in 1^st class, so god only knows what type of wedge-out was occurring in steerage.

On departure from Wien Hbf, the flustered restaurant car staff came through 1^st class taking orders and 15 minutes later I had a very good chilly chicken delivered to my seat and Danielle had a nice panini. As soon as we entered Hungary, at Hegyeshalom, the tone on board changed as the Hungarian train crew got to grips with the train, in their usual antagonistic manner. They’re too keen for their own good, and when people are already stressed with standing up, a good bit of customer service wouldn’t go amiss. But no, by Gyor they’d managed to throw one poor guy off the train, who clearly had a ticket on his phone but according to the crew e-tickets are allowed in Austria but not accepted in Hungary. They wanted to charge him over €40 for a new ticket, which quite rightly he wasn’t too keen on. When push came to shove, after the doors had opened at Gyor, he relented and attempted to buy a ticket from the ignorant crew, who basically shunned him and very impolitely told him to get off the train. At that point I’d have been a lot less calm than he was and if he’d spent less time trying to force the point, he could have been on the train immediately behind, having spent a lot, lot, less money on a ticket to Budapest. Shortly after departure from Gyor it was the restaurant car girl’s that started to get stressed and have people’s frustration thrown their way. People standing in 1^st class pretty much demanded seats, when clearly there weren’t any and all the poor girls could do was tell them they couldn’t help as all they did was deal with the restaurant. I added to their woes when they asked me to pay my bill, but then wouldn’t accept card payments. I had no Hungarian money at this point and was about 50c short in Euro’s. When she told me I still had to pay the rest, I offered English money as an alternative, but she told me I had to pay in Euro’s; I think she got the message when I stressed the fact that she was in possession of all the Euro’s I had, and I wasn’t going to manufacture any out of thin air, nor was I going to start begging for some!

Despite the wedge-factor on board, having recovered a fair bit of time along the way, all of it was lost again as we approached Kelenfold. Initially, it wasn’t evident what was causing the delay, and the ever-helpful Hungarian crew weren’t in the mood to advertise why over the PA, even if I couldn’t understand a word they might have said. When we got on the move though, the mass of emergency services parked by the railway, alongside the front end of another Railjet set, which looked to be heading out of Budapest, gave the impression that it might well have been involved in a fatality. Having trickled by at walking pace, we were soon up to line speed again after the incident and then soon slowing down for Kelenfold. Upon arrival into Budapest Keleti, we were among the first off the train and I was straight up to the nearest ATM to get some Hungarian Florint. While withdrawing my cash, I hadn’t noticed the queue building up behind me, and when we walked away it was at least 10-deep! Had anyone cared to look, they could have saved themselves some time by using one of the many other ATM’s scattered around Budapest Keleti station.

Our hotel, the Novotel Budapest Centrum, was about a 10-minute walk, straight up the road from Keleti station. Again, I’d checked in online and after walking in, we were soon heading to our room as a result. We’d been spoilt by our previous two hotels on the trip, but the room wasn’t a bad one, it had a little road noise as it overlooked the main road, and the bed was only about a foot off the floor; other than that, it was clean, had tea/coffee making facilities and good WiFi. Breakfast was included in the room rate and we had yet another welcome drink voucher, which we never used, thanks to my Accor membership status.

Having been using the very good Vonatinfo App, while on the Railjet into Keleti, I was aware of a few winning locos coming into Nyugati. So, rather than opting to spin the new Gysev Vectron’s in out of Keleti, I decided to make my way across to Nyugati instead for the afternoon rush. I initially intended to walk to Nyugati, but as Blaha Lujza Metro/Tram stop was just around the corner, and the trams ran directly to the front of Nyugati station, I paid my HUF350 for a single ticket; but didn’t validate it and used it to get back later as well. The run up the road only took 5 minutes and I was let loose at Nyugati almost straight away.

I found 418140 in the bay platforms with R2926 1518 Budapest Nyugati – Lajosmizse and while walking down, spotted 431103 waiting to follow it out with IC616 1523 Budapest Nyugati – Zahony and 431083 waiting to follow that, with D6298 1528 Budapest Nyugati – Zahony. That was me off to a flying start, with three new departing Nyugati within 10 minutes of each other. My feet barely touch the ground for the rest of the evening and with Vonatinfo providing the gen on what was coming towards me, and the amount of new V43’s and M41’s in the sidings at Nyugati, it was like shooting fish in a barrel all afternoon. With a few 432’s appearing for me on the Monor & Cegled locals, I was surprised at how many of the 418’s, on the Lajosmizse circuit, I’d not had; with 5 out of 418110, 112, 140, 149, 187 & 211 being new. I managed 4 of the 5 new and left the last to attempt later.

As usual, Danielle had been scouting out places to eat while I’d been out and a cracking choice she came up with. A nice Italian restaurant, tucked away down a side street, about 10 minutes’ walk from the hotel. The Il Terzo Cerchio was already in full swing when we got there, and it looked like we might be out of luck. The staff sounded disappointed to only be able to offer us a table downstairs, but it was a smaller room than the upstairs and was a lot more peaceful, with less background noise. I’d been banging on to Danielle about Rigatoni Al Forno, which I’d had at a restaurant in the Ukraine earlier in the year, and bless her, she’d been through the menu while waiting for me to get back; and it was only bloody on it! That was me sorted!

The food was very good, Tiramisu obviously followed the main course, and the waiter was excellent. It was a rather nice evening out and as we left, people were queuing out of the door to wait for tables to become available; which would unfortunately be us the following two nights! As we walked back through the underpass, where the access to Blaha Lujza Metro is, there were still people slumming it in the underpass; seemingly having made up a mini home for themselves, with beds, covers, clothes and food parcels that had been left by people; but they were all drowning their sorrows on strong beer.

We had a relaxing morning to look forward to and didn’t feel the need for an alarm to get us up; but set one anyway, just in case we managed to stay asleep long enough to not make it down in time for breakfast.

Gen for Thursday 28^th December 2017

OBB
1116044 R2902 0527 Payerbach-Reichenau – Meidling
1116163/1116193 D621 0620 Amstetten No – Wien Hbf
11162xx RJ160 0730 Wien Hbf – Zurich Hbf
1116204 RJ560 0730 Wien Hbf – Innsbruck Hbf
1116219 RJ41 0742 Wien Hbf – Budapest Keleti
1116248 RJ823 0558 Wels – Flughafen Wien
1116229 RJ662 0733 Flughafen Wien – Bregenz
1144254 EC151 0758 Wien Hbf – Ljubljana
1144020 R2212 0655 Payerbach-Reichenau – Floridsdorf
1144085 R2215 0636 Retz – Wien Meidling
1116031 NJ467 2140 (P) Zurich Hbf – Wien Hbf
1116167 IC532 0825 Wien Hbf – Lienz
1116082 NJ491 2014 (P) Hamburg Altona – Wien Hbf
1144217 R2314 0746 Wiener Neustadt – Floridsdorf
1144247 R2317 0703 Bernhardsthal – Payerbach-Reichenau (to Meidling)
1144080 R2316 0811 Wiener Neustadt – Floridsdorf
1116195 NJ235 2040 (P) Milano Centrale – Wien Hbf
1116232/1116206 (detached at Wien Hbf) RJ761 0605 Salzburg Hbf – Flughafen Wien
1116032 R2327 1039 Floridsdorf – Payerbach-Reichenau
1116230 RJ73 0651 Praha Hl Nadrazi – Graz Hbf
1116208 RJ61 0724 München Hbf – Budapest Keleti
1116246 RJ861 0713 Innsbruck Hbf – Flughafen Wien
1116201 RJ66 1340 Budapest Keleti – München Hbf (involved in fatality?)

MAV
432260 2826 1503 Nyugati – Cegled
431006 6205 1003 Zahony – Nyugati
418140 2926 1518 Nyugati – Lajosmizse
431103 IC616 1523 Nyugati – Zahony
431083 6298 1528 Nyugati – Zahony
432255 2733 1507 Monor – Nyugati, 2756 1608 Nyugati – Monor
431158 IC716 1553 Nyugati – Szeged
431228 IC735 1345 Szeged – Nyugati
432243 2743 1537 Monor – Nyugati
431173 IC626 1623 Nyugati – Zahony
431094 6296 1628 Nyugati – Zahony
418187 2936 1618 Nyugati – Lajosmizse
418211 2913 1441 Lajosmizse – Nyugati
431095 IC615 1321 Nyiregyhaza – Nyugati
431132 IC703 1445 Szeged – Nyugati
431218 IC726 1653 Nyugati – Szeged
432277 2846 1703 Nyugati – Cegled
432254 2776 1708 Nyugati – Monor
432258 2763 1637 Monor – Nyugati
480023 6295 1203 Zahony – Nyugati
418149 2946 1718 Nyugati – Lajosmizse
431342 IC564 1330 Keleti – Nyugati
431218 IC736 1753 Nyugati – Szeged
431157 IC713 1545 Szeged – Nyugati
432256 2718 1808 Nyugati – Monor
480024 IC33 1410 Chop – Nyugati
418112 2933 1641 Lajosmizse – Nyugati
Moves for Thursday 28^th December 2017

Friday 29^th December 2017 (A day in Budapest, including a visit to the Children’s Railway)

Breakfast at the Novotel was interesting and was very busy by the time we got in on the act. The selection was good but the amount of people in the place had resulted in a lot of the hot stuff running out and the staff couldn’t manage to keep it topped up. Thankfully, we managed to find a table on the upper level, out of the way of the scrum on the main floor. There were a lot of very ignorant people around the place that morning and we were glad to be sat out of the way of it all and couldn’t get out quick enough.

We bought Budapest 24-hour travelcards for the day, which would allow us to use them to get to Kelenfold the following morning as well. They’re easy to get out of the ticket machines on the tram stations and cost HUF1650 per person. Our first port of call for the day would be the Budapest Children’s Railway, which is on the outskirts of town. There are two ways of getting to it, by using Tram No.4 or 6 to Szell Kalman ter and then changing to Tram No.61 to Huvosvolgy. Turning back on yourself at Huvosvolgy tram stop (the end of the line) reveals sets of steps on your right-hand side. These lead up to the Huvosvolgy station of the Budapest Children’s Railway. From Szell Kalman ter, there is also the option to use tram No.59 or 61 to Varosmajor and then take the cogwheel railway, which is shown on transport maps as tram route No.60, up to Szechenyihegy, which is at the opposite end of the Budapest Children’s Railway. To get from the cogwheel railway station to the Children’s Railway, simply turn left out of the cogwheel station and walk up the hill. The Children’s Railway is only about 200m up the hill. As most people tend to do, and as we ended up doing, its easy to head to one end or the other, do a one-way journey of the line, and then head back from the other end. If considering this, note that its uphill all the way from Huvosvolgy to Szechenyihegy.

As Huvosvolgy tram station was full when we approach, our driver stopped short of the platform, opened the doors and disappeared off to the toilet, so everyone got off. He’d stopped right at the bottom of the steps that lead up to the Children’s Railway, so did us a favour. As we walked up to the station it started to snow and it was a pretty dull day, but the sun did attempt to get through the clouds every now and again.

Huvosvolgy station was deserted when we got onto the platform and when Mk45-2005 arrived 15 minutes late with the 1003 Szechenyihegy – Huvosvolgy, that was our cue to get tickets for the return working, the 1110 Huvosvolgy – Szechenyihegy. Single tickets the length of the line are HUF700, with single tickets to intermediate stops being HUF600. So, if you want to break your journey along the route it will cost you HUF1200. The Children’s Railway official website had details confirming that this pricing structure would change from 1^st January 2018, with some fares increasing. By the time we were in possession of our tickets for the 1110 departure, which aren’t train specific and can be bought on board if need be, the Mk45 had run-round its two coaches and there were quite a few people in the front one already. The rear one was empty though, so we set up home in that instead.

The front coach of the two had a wood burning fire to provide heating but the rear one didn’t, it was still very toasty inside though. As the little train snaked through the woods towards Szepjuhaszne, the ground became whiter and whiter the higher the train climbed and by Szepjuhaszne station, there was quite a sprinkling. After Mk45-2002 arrived with the 1003 Szechenyihegy – Huvosvolgy, we continued on our way and it was nice trundling along in our mini winter wonderland. I spent most of the journey stood, with the window down taking photos; and getting dripped on as the snow melted off the carriage roof! There was still a slight covering of snow at Szechenyihegy and as I legged it over the tracks to get a photo, the sun even made an appearance; which only highlighted the dark clouds looming in the distance. As we’d had Mk45-2002 on a previous trip, there was no need to hang around for an hour to do it back down to Huvosvolgy and we walked the 200m down the hill to the Szechenyihegy cogwheel railway station.

I wasn’t sure how often the cogwheel services operated but a brainwave had me checking my phone, when I realised the timetable was on the opposite platform to where we were stood. Google had been sending me notifications throughout our trip, with live departures of transport services, whenever we got to a station, bus stop, tram stop or metro station. This time was no different, and there on my screen was the live departure information for the Szechenyihegy cogwheel station; with departures from Szechenyihegy every 20 minutes at xx:02, 22 & 42. It was a pleasant journey downhill to Varosmajor, and we nearly ended up going back up the hill; having only realised we were actually at Varosmajor when everyone else was walking away from the cars.

It was soon time for lunch and we made use of our 24-hour travelcard, using tram No.61 back from Varosmajor to Szell Kalman ter and then train No.4 to Jaszai Mari ter, where the cross-road connection to tram No.2 had us being dropped off outside the Budapest Parliament building in less than 30 minutes. The Da Mario restaurant is only a short walk away and was where we’d had Christmas dinner a couple of years ago. We had a nice table upstairs, not far from a large family. They were no bother to us, but the poor old waiter looked like he could have throttled the spokesperson for the group, who pretty much spoke to him like a piece of shit! It didn’t affect our service though and the food served was very good and in a very nice atmosphere.

After lunch we had a walk to St Stephen’s Basilica and had a scan around the Christmas market, which still had a surprising number of stalls open, with food stalls being in full swing. The official Budapest Christmas Market, in Vorosmarty Square, had a lot more going on and the amount of food on offer in the central fooderies was phenomenal. It would have been rude not to have a rum punch while we were there though and while walking back to Deak Ferenc ter Metro station we decided that returning to the area later that night might be worth it, if only to see the Christmas tree lit up outside the Parliament building.

The afternoon out on the bash that followed, should have seen me sticking to local trains only as the Budapest 24-hour travelcard isn’t valid on fast trains and IC’s. Let me just say I needed the toilet quite a few times during my journey out. Initially I headed over to Nyugati, after doing a bit of digging on the Vonatinfo App, which revealed 431167, and the one that got away from the previous day, 418110, were heading into town. The bonus being that my nag to get me out for them was 432353. I’d been keeping an eye on what was going on at Keleti as well and was aware of a few things being about that I needed, along with 3 new Gysev Vectron’s. As 418110 dropped into Nyugati with R2945 1341 Lajosmizse – Budapest Nyugati, a brainwave had me using the Metro line 3 to head straight to Nepliget and then did a tram the short distance to Ferencvaros MAV station. Only a few minutes after I arrived, MAV 432378 arrived with the late running EC344 0725 Beograd – Wien Hbf; that was my first visit to the toilet, of many! When OBB’s 1116048 dropped onto the other end at Budapest Keleti, I was a little skeptical about doing it out to Kelenfold but risked it anyway and didn’t even see a member of train crew en-route.

From arriving at Kelenfold for the first time, until I decided to call it a day there later on, the evening went at a quick pace and the Metro played its part in stringing moves together when there was nothing on offer at Keleti, ferrying me to both Deli & Kelenfold, as well as back from Kelenfold, during the course of the evening. The result wasn’t as substantial as the previous evening’s jaunt, but I did manage to cover three of the Gysev Vectron turns, which were 471001, 002 & 006. Having kept an eye on the Gysev 430 turns as well, I was very disappointed to find both 430327 & 430333 being out for the second day in a row, especially as I’d only had four of them and they were two of them!

Back in town of an evening, we soon learned the error of our ways, but not before checking out Budapest at night. A walk down Deak Ferenc utca would have sufficed for the night, which was very strikingly decorated for the festive period, but very tastefully as well. The sights and sounds in Vorosmarty Square were very pleasant as well and the amount of food on offer was probably greater than that on offer earlier in the afternoon. And despite the cold weather, people were content enough to sit outside and eat their plate of food, while supping a cold beer as well.

All the historical buildings in Budapest are always very well lit at night with both Buda Castle and the Parliament buildings well wroth a look at of a night time. Unlike our last visit at Christmas, in 2015, there was no fog blanketing the city and the full extent of the city’s sights could be seen at night. The Christmas tree outside the Parliament building had exactly the same decorations as it had two years previous and looked the part. From there were used our travelcards to head down the river to Fovam ter and walked the short distance to the Bangkok Thai Etterem, only to be turned away as it was full. That was our first disappointment for the night and after returning to the locale of our hotel, we soon discovered that turning up anywhere in Budapest after 1830-1900 of an evening, without a reservation, would result in disappointment. Having been denied at the Curry House Indian Restaurant, not far from our Novotel, then having heard the staff at the Il Terzo Cerchio telling people waiting that it would be an hour before tables would be available, we resorted to the fast food option.

Our jaunt up the road, towards Nyugati station, where there was a KFC right opposite one of the tram stops, turned out to be quite pleasant and not for the first time, KFC saved the day! Not to mention a load of money. Quite pleased with our evening out, and more than satisfied with our evening meal choice, we retired to the hotel for a good old cuppa! Needing to be at Kelenfold, for the main event of the Budapest festive calendar, by 0855, we had an early-ish start ahead of the following morning and alarms were set for 0630.

Gen for Friday 29^th December 2017

Mk45-2005 1110 Huvosvolgy – Szechenyihegy, 1203 Szechenyihegy – Huvosvolgy
Mk45-2002 1103 Szechenyihegy – Huvosvolgy

432353 2726 1438 Nyugati – Monor
431167 6205 1003 Zahony – Nyugati
418110 2945 1341 Lajosmizse – Nyugati
433201 IC815 1310 Pecs – Keleti, IC808 1745 Keleti – Pecs
433378 EC344 0725 Beograd – Wien Hbf (to Keleti)
1116048 (OBB) EC344 0725 Beograd – Wien Hbf (from Keleti)
471006 IC933 1421 Sopron – Keleti
432273 3466 1650 Keleti – Sulysap
433242 IC816 1645 Keleti – Pecs
432373 3453 1624 Sulysap – Keleti
433220 IC803 1514 Pecs – Keleti, IC818 1945 Keleti – Pecs
431014 IC856 1735 Budapest Deli – Nagykanizsa
471002 IC925 1510 Szombathely – Keleti, IC938 1910 Keleti – Sopron
433333 843 1508 Nagykanizsa – Budapest Deli, D848 1935 Budapest Deli – Nagykanizsa
431271 D908 1830 Budapest Deli – Szombathely
471001 IC943 1621 Sopron – Keleti
431077 D903 1605 Szombathely – Budapest Deli

Moves for Friday 29^th December 2017 

Photos for Friday 29^th December 2017

Saturday 30^th December 2017 (The annual MAV Nostalgia Nohab trip to Tapolca)

Being up early didn’t mean we got away with the morning breakfast saga, but it did mean there was some fresh food out, and still plenty of it left when we got there. Afterwards, we used the Metro line 3, straight to Budapest Deli and were going to do D972 0800 Budapest Deli – Tapolca, to Kelenfold for the Nohab tour, but when 431074 was discovered at the front, there wasn’t the need to risk it on our Budapest 24-hour travelcards. I had no issue doing it, but I didn’t want Danielle getting into trouble if we got gripped. Having seen a few other English cranks heading to the front of the train, I decided to ask one of the grippers to confirm if the Budapest travelcards are valid on “fast” trains. All the details on the website say that the travelcards are valid on trains in the region of validity and the map of the Budapest area has the railway lines clearly shown on it. Nowhere, can you find the actual details of which trains the tickets are actually valid on, but common sense would assume is only on the local trains, and definitely not IC/EC trains, which require a reservation as well as a fast train supplement. The gripper confirmed to me that our travelcards were not valid on fast trains, and since then I figured out from a ticket machine that they actually are, as long as you buy a fast train supplement; which costs next to nothing for short distances and would have been about HUF140 (40p) for the journey to Kelenfold. There is an option on the ticket machines, which asks if you’re travelling with a Budapest card, once in that display screen you can tell it where you want to go, and it lists the available trains that you’re valid on. Fast trains were on the list, with a cost for the supplement, but IC trains didn’t appear at all. In the end, we did the 0810 EMU from Deli to Kelenfold.

MAV Nostalgia had been very good at posting updates about the Nohab tours on their Facebook page and thankfully, I’d booked my tickets for the train I wanted to do almost as soon as they were advertised. Unlike the previous two years, this year MAV Nostalgia wanted to do something different, so in stead of running one train with all the available Nohabs they could must, 6 in 2015 & 8 in 2016, they opted to run two trains, both with 4 Nohabs on each. There are only 8 Nohabs in Hungary, 6 original MAV ones, M61-001, 006, 010, 017, 019 & 020, and 2 ex Danish ones that are owned and operated by Karpat for infrastructure work, 459021 & 459022. Having had the 6 MAV ones in 2015, I was quite pleased that both the Karpat ones had been advertised for the same train; with all 8 Nohabs having been allocated to specific trains right from the moment the trains were advertised.

The two trains were titled Panorama Fast & Vulcan Fast, with M61-001, 006, 010 & 020 being allocated to the Panorama Fast and M61-017, 019, 459021 & 459022 being allocated to the Vulcan Fast. Not only were there two trains planned, both trains would take different routes to/from Tapolca and each would return the way the other had gone out, so the Panorama was routed via the south shore of Lake Balaton on the way out and via the north shore on the return, with the Vulcan doing the opposite. Both trains were also times to depart Kelenfold simultaneously and run parallel to where the lines split. They would then meet up again at Szekesfehervar, depart there at the same time and run parallel for as long as possible and then, finally, both were time to arrive into Tapolca at the same time, running parallel into adjacent platforms! It was a complex operation but sounded so simple!

Thanks to Facebook updates, everyone knew what platform their respective train would depart from, what the stock formation was, what the loco formations would be and what time the trains would arrive into Kelenfold. I joined the growing group of people stood at the bottom end of the platform and waited for the first train to arrive into Kelenfold; which just so happened to be our Vulcan Fast. By the time the train appeared around the corner, people had been vying for their photographic position for a while and yet one woman seemed hell bent of being a complete twat and getting in the way of everyone; and actually thought she could get away with walking across the line of people, and picking her spot, not giving a shit about who she stood in front of. Let’s just say, it was a bloody good job she didn’t stand in front of me!

As the locos ran by, it was evident, even though Nohabs are very quiet locos, that 459022 wasn’t running, and it was had to tell if M61017 was as well, over its ETH generator; which was louder than it was! Locos not running had been a factor during the Christmas 2015 Nohab tour, but all 6 had eventually worked by the time we got back to Kelenfold; so, I wasn’t that concerned. Those that needed locos on both trains however, were a little more concerned as they had decisions to make, whereas I could sit in the same seat all day and let the farce unfold. As we were only 1 coach back from the locos too, it was easy enough to see which were producing a heat haze along the journey. Let’s face it, it would have been almost impossible to tell which were working just by listening to them!

I’d booked premier class on the Vulcan Fast, of which there was only 1 coach, but I’d booked early enough to get us a couple of side seats together, and we didn’t have to sit in a bay of four with anyone else then. The stock was in good condition, the seats were comfy, the heating was working a treat and the coach attendant was soon taking orders. Premier class came with an at seat service and tea/coffee were complimentary throughout the day; which we more than abused! It was a free-for-all off the end of the platform, with people milling about all over the tracks. By departure time, 0855, the second set had only just arrived, and people were still boarding when the station staff were, very keenly, trying to get our train away. As we eased out of Kelenfold, with the Panorama Fast still boarding, that was the first hurdle missed. That wasn’t an issue though as the driver simply trickled along at a low speed until the other train caught us up and then it was parallel running, with plenty of bellowing out of windows, lots of noise from the loco horns and plenty of waving from one train to the other; imagine that being two crank trains in the UK, with different classes of loco on each…

Once the trains diverged, things settled down and it was a good run to Szekesfehervar, where the Panorama Fast was already in, waiting. This time, both train did depart simultaneously, and the parallel running was for quite a way; and there were locals out at every station along the route to either video or photograph the spectacle. Ere were a raft of photographers following our train along the lake too, crawling over each other on the roads as they tried to get back in front of the train, with one guy doing a lot of videoing out of the car sunroof, as it hammered along. How there wasn’t an accident along the roads that morning, is a miracle. The interest in the trains running was phenomenal, and you have to understand that 95% of the people on the train were just normals having a day out and supporting their local Nostalgia group; if only that kind of support would occur in the UK!

It was a nice journey round the north shore of Lake Balaton and was quite a clear day until we approached Tapolca and headed inland a little. There’d been a cracking photo-stop, well actually pathing stop, at Aszofo, and as we approached Tapolca, the horns of the “other” Nohabs could be heard as they came off the line from the south shore and both trains lined up for the grand entrance into Tapolca; where there were hundreds of people waiting to watch the two trains arrive side-by-side. And all while the one that got away, poked its nose out of the building adjacent to Tapolca station; M61-004, which should have been part of the MAV Nostalgia fleet had it not derailed, and then been scrapped, only months after being assigned to the heritage fleet!

As the two trains crept down opposite sides of the island platform at Tapolca, I’d never seen anything like it. There were more people coming out to watch a few heritage diesels arrive into Tapolca, than there would be coming out to see the Flying Scotsman in the UK. Thanks to us being right t the front of the train on arrival, I was the first off and legged it to the front to get a photo, or fifty, before the hoards turned the whole of Tapolca railway station and surrounding tracks into a free for all. After which we made ourselves scarce and disappeared towards town, before the locos had even been detached from the trains.

With the amount of people descending on Tapolca, let alone the amount that were already there, the town centre was going to struggle to cope with demand, so we made our bid to find somewhere to eat, before everyone else attempted the same. Our 2015 jaunt had resulted in us using the Dream Team Café, which we found around the corner from the Tapolca Lake Caves; and with not much else being on offer until that part of town, that’s where we headed.

We entered the Dream Team Café through the side door, and not the main entrance, had we done so through the main entrance we’d have been bowled for a table. The place was busy with a big group, but just as we walked in a table was being cleared, so we swooped in; which meant those waiting out front were going to have to wait a bit longer. The menus were in English, the staff spoke good English, the food was good, and the service was good, for a place that was very busy. The only issue was that the large group had a large group of kids with them, and they were all sat on the table behind us. When they became restless, they became a pain in the arse and I eventually stopped one of them from messing about behind my chair and told him to “do one”! This got the attention of the adults and 5 minutes later they’d all gone; leaving everyone else to a peaceful venue.

Back at Tapolca station, we had about an hour before both trains would depart. It was still busy with people and all the 8 Nohabs were lined up at one of the station, in a loading dock type area, with people all over the place. The battery box was open on Karpat’s 459022 but there was no noise coming from it. It was ultimately dumped on shed at Tapolca, resulting in our Vulcan Fast returning to Kelenfold with only 3 Nohabs, M61-017, 019 & 459021. The four on the Panorama fast were all ok and had no issues during the day. It turned out that 459022 had blown a battery cell on start-up that morning. The staff had tried to get it started at Tapolca but failed; and as we departed Tapolca a battery charger had been connected on shed. Too little, too late, and a right bloody pain in the arse that it hadn’t worked, especially if you only needed that one; which a few people did!

Departure from Tapolca was parallel, as was arrival into Szekesfehervar, and departure from it. As we were at the rear of the train for the journey back to Kelenfold, it was a more sedate run but those in the restaurant cars still had plenty of energy to bellow at each other when the trains were side-by-side. All the English cranks went back on the Panorama Fast, thanks to Ferenc securing room in the restaurant car for them, which left us at the only English cranks on board the Vulcan Fast. There was plenty of tea for us though and the journey was a bit more sedate than the outwards had been. As our Vulcan Fast arrived into Kelenfold first, we’d bought 24-hour Budapest Travelcards and got some photos, before the Panorama Fast was even on the horizon; and were away on the metro back towards our hotel.

Our luck wasn’t in at the Il Terzo Cerchio, and again people were queuing to wait for tables. KFC saved the day, for the second night in a row, and we were grateful we’d got travelcards at Kelenfold as a result. Back at the hotel, it was pretty much the end of the trip. I’d checked in for our BA flight home, as we were approaching Tapolca, and we’d attempted to pack the previous night; so were all set for the journey home when we went to bed.

Gen for Saturday 30^th December 2017

Nohab Vulcan Tour – 618019, 459021, (459022), 618017

13292 0855 Kelenfold – Tapolca, 13925 1647 Tapolca – Kelenfold

459022 dead throughout on 13292 and left at Tapolca, so didn’t feature at all on 13295

Nohab Panorama Tour – 618001, 618006, 618010, 618020

13294 0855 Kelenfold – Tapolca, 13923 1647 Tapolca – Kelenfold
431074 D972 0800 Budapest Deli – Tapolca (to Szekesfehervar)
418328 R9725 1350 Tapolca – Szekesfehervar
418331 R9713 1550 Tapolca – Szekesfehervar
418313 D971 1701 Tapolca – Budapest Deli (to Szekesfehervar)

Moves for Saturday 30^th December 2017 

Photos for Saturday 30^th December 2017

Sunday 31^st December 2017 (The journey home from Budapest to Doncaster)

Breakfast was no different to any other morning at the hotel and it seemed that the pressure of trying to keep up with things was taking its toll on the staff, judging by the attitude one had while throwing teapots onto the table; all because she couldn’t barge her way through.

As luck did, or didn’t have it, depending on your take of the situation, one of the Gysev locos had been swapped and Vonatinfo showed 430329 heading to Budapest with IC909 0605 Szombathely – Budapest Deli; so off I went, and a successful short jaunt it was.

Checking out of the Novotel was simple and we were soon on a tram to Nyugati, where 480023 presented itself on IC1654 1023 Budapest Nyugati – Nyiregyhaza; so, we did that out to Ferihegy and waited 2 minutes for a 200E bus to Ferihegy Airport, which Google kindly notified me of as we arrived into Ferihegy station.

The airport arrival was busy with people heading to Budapest for their New Year and once we got through to departures, that soon began to fill up. It wasn’t a straightforward run through security and my big winter boots had to come off and be rescanned. After waiting for 5 minutes for them to come though, I asked where they were, only to be told they’d be through shortly; at the second time of asking, I was pointed to them, on the other belt, where they’d been for 5 minutes!

The flight back was a bit crap, not really due to the staff or anything, but more the fact that BA is becoming ever more like a low-cost airline. They were introducing a new in-flight menu from New Years Day but to save themselves time, but confuse everyone on board, both were in the at-seat pockets! And even then, hardly anything was available; and nothing that we wanted was, so it was a cuppa and like it! Thanks to a very stern wind at Heathrow too, our flight had to be held on the tarmac at Budapest for 40 minutes and the 100mph headwind, most of the way home, didn’t help. The fact that we were late arriving did help my cause a little though as we ended up at Kings Cross for the 1705 Kings Cross – Leeds; which finished the year off nicely. The 1^st class was almost deserted, and the staff couldn’t have been more helpful; and I’m pretty sure would have tipped the contents of the trolley into our bags, had there been room. Unfortunately, I had to work the following day, my first day shift for nearly 3 years, and with only 5 shifts left to work at GB Railfreight, my uniform would be turning green on the 15^th January and 2018 would be bringing quite a lot of change for me. I still had 3 days on our Interrail passes to worry about, before starting with Freightliner, and a trip to Germany had been booked, to get them used up, the day before we’d set off on this trip. Waste not, want not, and remember I’m from Yorkshire…..

Gen for Sunday 31^st December 2017

433315 D842 0735 Budapest Deli – Nagykanizsa
433245 IC809 0514 Pecs – Keleti
470006 EC140 0341 Zahony – Wien Hbf (from Keleti)
430329 IC909 0605 Szombathely – Budapest Deli
480020 IC1654 1023 Nyugati – Nyiregyhaza

Moves for Sunday 31^st December 2017