Photo of the Week: Narrow-gauge Freight on the Lillafüred Forestry Railway

The D02-508 is a class Mk48 diesel-hydraulic locomotive that serves on the 76-cm-gauge Lillafüred Forest Railway (Lillafüredi Erdei Vasút). Though freight service is discontinued and only tourist excursion trains are operated on the two-line network building trains need some goods cars and therefore sometimes train enthusiasts can organize colourful photo charters with them. On this occasion the Mk48 pulled the freight and the photographers travelled in a separate train hauled by a class C50 small diesel locomotive:

Photo of the Week: Small Locomotive, Big Use

The SBB Cargo Eem 923 027-7 is a dual-mode (diesel+electric, 15 kV 16.7 Hz+25 kV 50 Hz AC) light freight locomotive manufactured by Stadler Rail (Bussnang, Switzerland). A total number of 30 were built in 2011-2012 and their duties include regional freight trains and light shunting. This example was photographed at the Bern-Lötschberg-Simplonbahn's Spiez station. The versatile little locomotives have a maximum speed of 100 km/h and a power output of 1500 kW on electric and 360 kW on diesel power.

Photo of the Week: CFF Viseu

CFF Viseu de Sus is a narrow-gauge forestry railway situated in Northern Romania, in the Carpathian Mountains. In the warm half of the year, every weekend tourist steam trains take over the valley of the Vaser river and there are some occasional winter runnings as well. On weekends the railway still serves the original purpose, transporting lumber and lumberjacks. The excursion trains visit about half the length of the railway from Viseu to Paltin. Most steam locomotives used were at Resita or Reghin in Romania as a variant of the Hungarian MÁVAG class 490 design.

• Additional photos of steam locomotive trains in Romania

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.

Photo of the Week: Neretva River Gorge with Old Train

The Neretva Gorge is one of the most spectacular views of the Balkan and a highlight of the train travel from Sarajevo to Mostar in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The twice-daily trains used to be run by ASEA-license locomotives and an assorted set of carriages but nowadays the Spanish Talgo high-speed sets are mandatory. In the summer, extra trains are provided. See more about Bosnia and Herzegovina on my website.

Photo of the Week: Narrow-gauge Interurban Tram in Slovakia

TREŽ (Trenčinská Električka Železnica) 411 902-0 is a ČKD-built, 76 cm gauge railcar that operates on the interurban tram line between Trenčianká Teplá railway station on the Bratislava-Žilina-Košice mainline and Trenčianske Teplice, a renown bath resort. The line mostly runs next to the road or on the embankment of the creek and passes by scenes of different character: village, hilly countryside, Socialist-era blocks of flats and townhouses dating back to the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. Trains only operate on selected weekend and are ran by the association TREŽ. The photo was taken during a photo charter at Trenčianske Teplice zastávka.
Learn more about the railway from my recent travelogue about narrow-gauge trams in Slovakia.

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.

Photo of the Week: On the Train to Zakopane

The PKP ED 160-009 (type Stadler FLIRT3) electric multiple unit arrives in Chabówka, Poland as an InterCity train from Zakopane to Warszawa.

The Zakopane-Kraków railway in Souther Poland offers a connection to the resort in the High Tatras. Zakopane is popular both in the summer for its beauty and the hiking possibilities and in the winter for skiing and partying. The railway gets there in a curvy and long path which is worsened by the low speed because of lack of maintenance. Still it is the most comfortable and reliable way of getting there because of the traffic jams.

• This photo is featured in my album about the Chabówka steam locomotive festival
• You can find additional photos in the freshly published travelogue on my homepage, benbe.hu

Photo of the Week: Frame of Flowers

This may look like just an ordinary flower-framed photo, but it was taken on the Budapest - Esztergom railway in Hungary which has since been completely rebuilt, and therefore this photo location at the boundary of Budapest and Urom does not exist anymore.

Photo of the Week: A Last Winter Photo from Grisons

Spring is already high in Europe but I wanted a last reminder of the beauties of winter before moving on. I am always looking forward to winter, snow and the glorious high contrast photos you can take in winter and four years ago we had enormous luck when heavy snow, a mostly clear sky and great trains in Graubünden, Switzerland, on the network of the Rhätische Bahnen (Rhetian Railways, a local, metre-gauge network in the Alps).
Visiting the RhB is always great but autumn and winter offer dramatic landscapes so a visit in those times is definitely recommended even though the days are short.
Additional photos

Photo of the Week | The Schwarzatal-Viaduct

The Semmeringbahn is the world's first mountain mainline and a highlight of the European railway network. The whole line was designed to harmonize with nature and as such can be considered the first attempt to show that rail transportation is the green way to go. The route through the 898 m high Semmering Scheiteltunnel is soon going to start serving only the tourists after the opening of the new Semmering Base Tunnel (SBT). You should visit the Semmering Railway while it still has freight trains and railjet high-speed trains through the mountain pass.

• Additional photos

Photo of the Week | The V43 at Exhibition

The V43 1110 is exhibited at the University of Óbuda, one of the most renowned districts of Budapest, Hungary and had replaced the V60,003 as a piece of exhibit by the University. The University has been named after Kálmán Kandó, developer of the 50 Hz railway electrification and the V60,003 on exhibit here had been one of the original Ganz-Kandó locomotives developed for the system. The locomotive has been moved to the Füsti - Hungarian Railway History Park and a more common class V43 locomotive has been brought in as a replacement. To date, this is the only V43 locomotive not only as an exhibit but anyway as all other surviving instances had been renumbered class 430, 431, 432 or 433.

Picture of the Week | Spring Freight near Acsa

Picture of the Week is going to be another regular form of post on this blog and I am going to start it with the best photo my website had based on its quality and the decision of the users. The MÁV-START 478 320 was seen between Acsa-Erdőkürt and Püspökhatvan in the Nógrád region of Hungary during a warm summer day hauling a gravel train after a track reconstruction. For the photo I received information from some local engineers for which I am extremely grateful.