November 2023 – RailwayWorld.net

A Hungarian narrow gauge delight

Return visits earlier in the year to travel the only state-run narrow gauge railways in Bulgaria (June 2023) and Czechia (August 2023) had given me a taste for obscure little railways in Eastern Europe, so the lure of cheap flights takes me for a first time trip to see and travel the only narrow gauge railway run by Hungarian state operator MÁV.

This is a 22km (14-mile) 760mm (Bosnian gauge) system that runs inland from a resort on Lake Balaton called Balatonfenyves, a two-hour Inter-City train ride south-west from Budapest. It comprises a 14km (9-mile) route from the narrow gauge station at Balatonfenyves to a place called Somogyszentpál and an 8km (5-mile) branch from a junction called Imremajor to Csisztafüdo, a renowned thermal spa.

New trains and old signals at Pembrey & Burry Port

197112 passes Pembrey Signal Box with 1B63 from Carmarthen (13.04) to Cardiff Central

Re-signalling work is continuing apace in Cornwall and set for completion in late February 2024, when boxes at Truro and Par will close, but the same cannot be said for a similar project in West Wales, if the picture at Pembrey & Burry Port on 7 November 2023 is anything to go by.

Paying a first return to Burry Port since my last visit in February 2023 there was plenty to see in terms of new rolling stock, but precious little evidence that the signal box and semaphores would be replaced by early 2024, as a Ferryside signaller had suggested to me when I visited there three months ago.

Edinburgh’s ghostly Gateway station

As white elephants go it may not be a match for HS2, yet almost seven years after it opened to the public in December 2016 there is no doubting that the £41 million Edinburgh Gateway station has massively failed to live up to its potential as an important new way of accessing Edinburgh Airport.

Spend a hour there on a weekday morning and it is easy to see why Edinburgh Gateway has not enjoyed the success of other Scottish openings and re-openings, such as the routes to Bathgate and Tweedbank, with very limited services calling at the station and a ludicrous £7.50 tram single fare for anyone wanting to take the 1.8-mile, 7-minute link to Edinburgh Airport.

Magical Montrose

43031/183 approach Montrose on 30 October 2023 with 1A39 from Glasgow Queen St. to Aberdeen

Among the ten remaining outposts of mechanical signalling along the scenic East Coast Main Line (ECML) between Edinburgh and Aberdeen, most picturesque of all must surely be Montrose, where a short length of single line sweeps into the town, crossing Montrose Basin on the South Esk Viaduct.

Just north of Montrose station stands Montrose North Signal Box (North British Railway, 1881) which was closed for several years before being re-opened in 2010 as part of a local re-signalling scheme that saw closure of boxes at Montrose South and Usan, southern end of the single-track section.