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.
A 600mm gauge railway that once linked Baltonfenyves with Imremajor was destroyed during World War II, but lack of local paved roads led to construction of the current route to Somogyszentpál in 1950, with passenger services beginning in 1956, which was also the year that the Csisztafürdő branch opened. Freight traffic ceased in 1990 and the Csisztafürdő branch closed in 2002, before being re-built and re-opened in 2021.
As a railway system catering as much for tourists as locals, passenger services in mid-November are somewhat limited, with just four round trips daily to Somogyszentpál and five journeys at two-hourly intervals on the route to Csisztafürdő. The final service of the day completes its journey in Balatonfenyves at 18.30, two hours earlier than the end of service in summer.
Trains on the narrow gauge during November comprise a single coach that is very effectively heated by a wood-burning stove in the centre of each carriage, as seen above, and hauled by one of the railway’s three 1960-vintage Mk48 B-B diesels, with the pair in use during my visit being Mk48-2008/2022.
That single coach seems more than enough for the modest passenger loadings outside the tourist season. I was one of only two passengers aboard the 08.35 departure for Somogyszentpál on 14 November and also had only one fellow passenger for the 09.25 return.
Numbers seemed slightly better on the Csisztafürdő route later in the day when there were no less than seven of us aboard the 11.10 from Balatonfenyves, though two of this number alighted at Imremajor. There were however no passengers aboard the 11.55 return working and I was the only passenger on the 13.55 from Csisztafürdő to Balatonfenyves.
These are pleasantly rural lines that pass huge open fields and occasional areas of woodland. Apart from the modest settlement of Imremajor the lines don’t pass any other villages, although in addition to Imremajor there are two other request stops on the Somogyszentpál route, though both seem to be in the middle of nowhere.
On the gloriously sunny afternoon of Wednesday, 15 November I decided to take a trip to one of these request stops, a place called Pálmajor that is 4kms before the terminus at Somogyszentpál and, as seen above, in open countryside on the edge of some woods. After a solitary 30 minute wait here I was once again the only passenger on the returning 15.35 departure for Balatonfenyves.
I decided to spend a couple of lunchtime hours at Csisztafürdő on the second of my two NG trips. After waiting to photograph the departing train, I took a five minute walk along a narrow and deserted street heading north and had a local beer called Borsodi in the grounds of the thermal spa (HUF900/£2.10) while watching its few mainly German guests taking to the waters.
Apart from photographing trains at the three termini, I found a great location close to a level crossing just north of the junction station at Imremajor, where there was a view of southbound trains emerging from the woods and a fine avenue of trees looking back towards the station in which to capture Balatonfenyves-bound trains.
Another fine vantage point is a ten minute walk south from Balatonfenyves station along a road that runs alongside a mad-made waterway and eventually the railway line. Here on a fine sunny day (15 November 2023) a couple of fishermen were obligingly positioned on the water’s edge as Mk-2022 passed with the 11.10 service to Csisztafürdő.
Fares on the narrow gauge railway are remarkably cheap by UK standards. Booking online via the remarkably easy to use MÁV-Start website I was able to buy round trip tickets on each branch of the system for just HUF646 (£1.48), so a day riding and photographing trains on both lines cost me less than £3.00.
Balatonfenyves is an attractive village and holiday destination at the western end of Lake Balaton, from which it derives the first half of its name, while fenyves is the Hungarian word for a pine tree. It must be a very busy place during the summer, but is pretty quiet in November, when the only places open were the Yacht Club where I was staying, the Post Office and a useful Aldi supermarket.
For a break from narrow gauge action on a fine and sunny autumn day it was a real treat to walk down the lengthy breakwater surrounding the yachting marina and appreciate the splendour and vastness of Lake Balaton, which stretches away to the east as far as the eye can see, and reflect on the curious fact that its average depth is just 11ft.
The narrow gauge station known as Balatonfenyves GV stands south of the main railway line and about 300 yards south-west of the main station. The narrow gauge railway forms a triangle, with trains arriving and setting down passengers on a south-west chord (leading to the left in the photo above), before reversing along a north side of the triangle and then drawing into one of two departure platforms in front of the station building.
During the summer season there are numerous places to stay here and loads of bars, restaurants and shops, but for its proximity to the little railway and being the only place open for business, I chose the comfortable and charming Fenyves Yacht Club – a mere 200 yards from the NG station – where B&B cost me less than £33.00 a night.
Getting to Balatonfenyves is remarkably cheap and straightforward. Having secured Wizzair flights from London to Budapest for less than £50 return (no baggage) I then bought a 90-minute ticket for the BKK bus and metro for HUF750 (£1.75) that got me via bus 200E to a metro station called Kobanya-Kisbet and from there on Metro lines 3 and 2 to Budapest-Déli.
This station, widely known as the Déli, is one of three main stations in Budapest. From here there are hourly Inter-City trains that will get you to your destination at Balatonfenyves (pictured above) in around two hours, with a single ticket for the journey of 165kms (103 miles) costing less than £7.00 when booked online.
RailwayWorld.net 
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