Színes Ötletek

I think the main line of the Lillafüred State Forest Railway (LÁEV for short) is familiar to anyone who is even slightly interested in small railways, as it is the second busiest attraction of its kind in Hungary. There is, however, a lesser known, smaller, more ill-fated sibling, the branch line 331 towards Mahóca. 

I'll be honest, this is my favourite small railway line, and I'll tell you why. While there are plenty of attractions to attract the travelling public in the form of the Palace Inn, Lake Hámori or the Lillafüred Trout Farm on the way to Lillafüred, the lesser-known branch line actually runs through the forest, through wild and beautiful places, with beautiful views in several sections to the northeast, towards Parasznya and Lake Varbo. So it really is, quite literally, a "forest railway". It's also an adorable anomaly, and one of the biggest miracles that it still exists today.

Why? Construction of the Mahóca branch line began in 1920, based on the plans of Ferenc Modrovich (1987-1947), a forest engineer and university professor. Its primary purpose, like all the forest railways in the area, was to transport freight, and as a child I saw many times from my bedroom window such trains bringing down timber from the forest. In the meantime, however, this role was increasingly taken over by road transport, and by the end of the 1980s freight transport on small railways had largely ceased, and most of the LÁEV's lines of this type, such as the Ládi or Kerekhegyi branch lines, were dismantled. What remained was the main line at Lillafüred, which had been carrying significant passenger traffic for decades, and the Mahóca line, which was then called the "bacon-frying train", which at that time still ran on 17 kilometres of track as far as the terminus at Wolf's Pit - although even then only once a week or two, and from 1993 onwards, due to the deteriorating condition of the rails, at first temporarily, and then for a long time not at all.

Soon afterwards, a significant section of the track was simply stolen, and although several attempts were made to restore the entire line, the thefts were repeated regularly, and in 2006 the forestry department itself took over the next section after Mahóca. And although traffic was interrupted for many years, LÁEV restored the remaining part of the branch line between 2008 and 2014, so trains have been running there again, albeit occasionally, for a good ten years.These rare occasions require advance registration, and although for years we were late in noticing the notice on the operator's online platform, we have been lucky twice in the last period.In fact, in the second case twice, as we had originally registered for the date a week earlier, but in the end, on the last Saturday in January, the Iceflower Express was so popular that the organisers had to announce an extra day a week later.

And I smiled as we left the city limits in the train pulled by two C-50 locomotives, and I mused that, sentimental as it may sound, there is a certain beauty and a kind of poetry in it. For, despite all the circumstances to the contrary, here is a railway line in the middle of the forest, which, by any sane reckoning, should be a distant memory.It was not originally intended for this purpose, and ultimately has nothing to offer its travellers but the mere existence of a forest railway, the beauty of nature in the middle of nowhere in the tourist sense.And the experience of existing at all.Still, to the great delight of the eagle-eyed passenger.If only for a few days a year, I hope it will stay with us for a long time.

For more information on the current timetable and events of LÁEV, click HERE and HERE.

For a historical overview, we have used the Wikipedia article on the Lillafüred State Forest Railway as a source. (We don't want to pretend to know every year by heart.)

The pictures were taken by the author of the article during the two mentioned railway trips.