My railway photography trips in 2019

2019 was a busy year for me. It, for starters, marked the launch of my English language travel blog (this one), and also has seen the blog decline in the number of posts. The sad reality is that I will not be able to make posts as frequently as I wanted to - but 2019 was at the same time a beautiful year with colourful trips to various locations that may be represented in upcoming posts on this blog. Altogether, partly because of my hobby, partly because of work, I have taken railway-related photos in 15 countries in Europe, which is a lot. Each country on its own is easily an adventure of weeks for a railway traveller and I could be to this many countries without being shocked by the different sensations is that this year I have only been to countries I have visited before, most of them many times already. But in those countries, there were many new locations to discover. Let's see, what my 2019 travels looked like!

2019 started by a photo charter called Fények Fotósvonata (Charter of Lights), which was an appropriate name for the night photography trip at the Királyrét Forestry Railway, a narrow-gauge railway in Hungary.

Retro Liveries of the Locomotives of the Hungarian State Railways

Retro is a term often used in Eastern and Central Europe for things that are left behind from the end of the 20th century, or, in an increasing number of cases, have been recreated to resemble the typical looks of those things. Unlike 'old', retro doesn't imply that the thing is incapable of doing its job anymore, just identifies it as something which has a unique style to it because of the year it was made.

When talking about trains, we must differentiate between retro vehicles and historic vehicles, both can mean locomotives, carriages or multiple units and railcars. Something is historic if it is kept in a museum or is only used on special occasions. They are often privately owned or belong to an identity separate from the railway companies that serve the usual traffic in the region. Retro, on the other hand, usually means a vehicle that still has some daily work to do and is actively used to earn revenue in ways which are not connected to the tool being older than the average stock. To put it straight: they carry passengers just like any other vehicle belonging to their operator or are used for daily freight or departmental trains. But they all wear a special livery that can turn back the wheel of time for the people who remember, force some good memories to resurface and add a significant bit to the class and mood of rail travel. In the UK this kind of repainting is often called a heritage livery.

The Hungarian network is not the only one to have retro trains, but the number of such vehicles has greatly increased recently and for the second year in a row, passenger operator MÁV-START has organized special Retro Weekends for enthusiasts and the general public to enjoy, thus bringing attention to the existence of these nice vehicles.

Bzmot 343 (117 343 in the current numbering scheme) is allocated to the MÁV-START depot at Balassagyarmat and wears the livery these tiny railcars had worn until the mid-90s refurbishment and engine replacement.

Retro Weekends at Lake Balaton in Hungary

Retro locomotives become increasingly popular with Eastern European railways. A retro locomotive is not a historic vehicle: it is still in operation, even if not in everyday but departmental use, but it is painted in a livery resembling a previous era of the railway, in many cases the livery in which the locomotive had been delivered by the factory.
MÁV has only recently jumped on the bandwaggon but now taking part fiercely: this year two, so-called retro weekends are organised, during which the regular, usually more reliable and modern locomotives are swapped for some retro units on the scenic line running on the Northern side of Lake Balaton. The lake is extremely popular among Hungarians as a beach but has a strong culture and lots of vineyards, meaning that tourists soar in the summer season, making sure the trains will have an impressive length and the diesel locomotives will be forced to emit nice smoke and an easy to distinguish roar.
The first such weekend started only yesterday, with MÁV-START 408 224 (ex M40,224) hauling a fast train to the end of the railway, Tapolca, which is about ten kilometres from the shores of the lake and is situated in a basin surrounded by remnants of volcanoes, which is good for the wine and also creates a remarkable scenery. If you are interested in taking part, either by taking photos or videos of the spectacular consists or would like to travel on one of the trains, you are not late in any way: August 2nd to 4th is the next occasion. Before any details, let's see what yesterdays train looked like on photo...

Photo of the Week: False History at Lake Balaton

MÁV owns a number of locomotives that are still in regular service but are in a historic livery. This one is different: all Nohabs have been stopped and this one is used by a special institute of MÁV for moving the track measurement car. Its livery is not at all historic - the stripes on the side are made up and no Nohab actually had this coat of arms on its nose. For a few years MÁV had used this locomotive to pull one of the regular fast trains as a form of retro and advertisement but does not follow this practice anymore. The photo was taken in 2013, so its ancient wibe is nothing but Photoshopped.