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Description
With the summer heat wafting across the railyards, the InterCity from Szeged to Budapest is about to pull up to the station platform at Kecskemét, with impatient passengers having already opened the manual doors of the rearmost cars.

Back in the day, this was also a common sight in Germany, but nowadays, all trains are required to have door locking even at zero speed, making sure passengers only open the doors when they are supposed to. As we can see, this doesn't seem to be as big a concern in Hungary. Generally speaking, the railroading world there is somewhat stuck in the past in quite a few aspects. You can decide for yourself whether that's good or bad. From a railfan's point of view, it's usually good, since old rolling stock usually attracts more interest. But it's also obvious that needing two locomotives to hand off trains at dead-end stations requires more rolling stock and manpower compared to push-pull trains or units, which are pretty much standard in German long distance trains. Still, it's nice to see things done the oldschool way once in a while.

And yes, we were on a short trip to Hungary again to take care of some issues in Budapest while staying at my aunt's place in Kecskemét, my mother's birthplace. Also, if you suffer from an inflammation of the middle ear, try not to get onto a plane, m'kay? Good. In other news, while I was taking pictures here, a member of staff hustled past me, barking something about photography being forbidden. I begged his pardon, since he was already moving away from me, and he reiterated that photography without a permit is prohibited. I took out my smartphone, did one Google search, and found, on the homepage of the Hungarian State Railways, that photography for private purposes on publically accessible parts of railway infrastructure does not require any special permit. What an asshole. Then again, every time people have told me that it's illegal to take pictures, it never was. There was only one occasion on which I needed (and had obtained) a permit, and the security guy who approached me there just asked for said permit instead of lying to me about photography not being allowed.

The locomotive seen here is of course a former class V43, current class 431, dubbed Szili due to the silicon rectifiers that were used in the power controllers. While obsolete by today's standards, they were considered a very modern feature back in the 60s. The first few locomotives were actually built by Krupp in Germany, while the entire rest of the class was built by Ganz in Hungary.

Description
With the summer heat wafting across the railyards, the InterCity from Szeged to Budapest is about to pull up to the station platform at Kecskemét, with impatient passengers having already opened the manual doors of the rearmost cars.

Back in the day, this was also a common sight in Germany, but nowadays, all trains are required to have door locking even at zero speed, making sure passengers only open the doors when they are supposed to. As we can see, this doesn't seem to be as big a concern in Hungary. Generally speaking, the railroading world there is somewhat stuck in the past in quite a few aspects. You can decide for yourself whether that's good or bad. From a railfan's point of view, it's usually good, since old rolling stock usually attracts more interest. But it's also obvious that needing two locomotives to hand off trains at dead-end stations requires more rolling stock and manpower compared to push-pull trains or units, which are pretty much standard in German long distance trains. Still, it's nice to see things done the oldschool way once in a while.

And yes, we were on a short trip to Hungary again to take care of some issues in Budapest while staying at my aunt's place in Kecskemét, my mother's birthplace. Also, if you suffer from an inflammation of the middle ear, try not to get onto a plane, m'kay? Good. In other news, while I was taking pictures here, a member of staff hustled past me, barking something about photography being forbidden. I begged his pardon, since he was already moving away from me, and he reiterated that photography without a permit is prohibited. I took out my smartphone, did one Google search, and found, on the homepage of the Hungarian State Railways, that photography for private purposes on publically accessible parts of railway infrastructure does not require any special permit. What an asshole. Then again, every time people have told me that it's illegal to take pictures, it never was. There was only one occasion on which I needed (and had obtained) a permit, and the security guy who approached me there just asked for said permit instead of lying to me about photography not being allowed.

The locomotive seen here is of course a former class V43, current class 431, dubbed Szili due to the silicon rectifiers that were used in the power controllers. While obsolete by today's standards, they were considered a very modern feature back in the 60s. The first few locomotives were actually built by Krupp in Germany, while the entire rest of the class was built by Ganz in Hungary.