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Description
Was in Budapest for a few days to take care of some matters, and by complete chance, I saw this beauty running on the line 4 and 6, which is normally serviced exclusively by Siemens Combino units (with the ones in Budapest having been the world's longest tramcars upon delivery). After a little research on the internet, I found out that two "nostalgic" trams are running during the evening from October the 22nd until November the 4th to commemorate the Hungarian Revolution of 1956.

These old UV type tramcars are quite close to my heart, as I used to ride around in them with my grandmother when we did our public transportation tours back when I was a young child. Since pensioners travel for free, with month-long passes for minors being cheap, we could freely roam the network. I'd pick out a line we never rode until then, we'd go there, and ride it terminus to terminus. My parents didn't really have much patience for this, but my grandmother had absolutely no problem coming along to these tours, often remarking that I brought her back to former workplaces from the 60s and 70s. In fact, the two photos (technically of MUVs and not UVs) were taken during such tours. Back then, this type of tramcar was still pretty widespread, so I spent a lot of time in them, on lines that went all the way out into suburban forests.

It was quite nice to ride these old machines again, which were first built in the 1950s. They were modern for their time, with quick acceleration, dynamic braking, double traction control, and amenities such as windows that you could crank down (unless those meddling kids nicked the handcranks). Unfortunately for passengers, there was no heating, due to cost cutting measures at the time of production. For a long time, they were the backbone of Budapest's tram network, but quickly lost most of their routes to newer rolling stock in the early 2000s. The last UV in regular service ran in 2007, with most of the stock having been cut up, though a few were also donated or bought by preservation societies. A few units remained with the Budapest Transport Company for nostalgia trains, one of which we see here in a typical configuration for higher capacity lines, with a trailer car sandwiched between two motorcars. Took the photo while we were reversing at the terminus Móricz Zsigmond körtér.

What I liked most was looking out the window as we pulled up to the stations, as the look of disbelief and confusion on the faces of other passengers was just priceless. Imagine not knowing about this thing, and then having the 1950s pull up to the platform instead of the shiny and modern tram you've come to expect. Just great fun. And it was also interesting to see that this half century old thing was just as good at moving passengers around as the latest and greatest that technology has to offer. I will admit, a Combino Supra does hold a lot more passengers than a typical UV train. But what it lacks in capacity, it makes up for in style.

In other news, my bf got me a Galaxy S6 Edge for my birthday, finally allowing me to retire my ancient S3 (which I also got from him). Not having known about this commemorative tram, I didn't bring along my proper camera, but I was quite pleasantly surprised by the low light performance that the S6 had to offer!

Description
Was in Budapest for a few days to take care of some matters, and by complete chance, I saw this beauty running on the line 4 and 6, which is normally serviced exclusively by Siemens Combino units (with the ones in Budapest having been the world's longest tramcars upon delivery). After a little research on the internet, I found out that two "nostalgic" trams are running during the evening from October the 22nd until November the 4th to commemorate the Hungarian Revolution of 1956.

These old UV type tramcars are quite close to my heart, as I used to ride around in them with my grandmother when we did our public transportation tours back when I was a young child. Since pensioners travel for free, with month-long passes for minors being cheap, we could freely roam the network. I'd pick out a line we never rode until then, we'd go there, and ride it terminus to terminus. My parents didn't really have much patience for this, but my grandmother had absolutely no problem coming along to these tours, often remarking that I brought her back to former workplaces from the 60s and 70s. In fact, the two photos (technically of MUVs and not UVs) were taken during such tours. Back then, this type of tramcar was still pretty widespread, so I spent a lot of time in them, on lines that went all the way out into suburban forests.

It was quite nice to ride these old machines again, which were first built in the 1950s. They were modern for their time, with quick acceleration, dynamic braking, double traction control, and amenities such as windows that you could crank down (unless those meddling kids nicked the handcranks). Unfortunately for passengers, there was no heating, due to cost cutting measures at the time of production. For a long time, they were the backbone of Budapest's tram network, but quickly lost most of their routes to newer rolling stock in the early 2000s. The last UV in regular service ran in 2007, with most of the stock having been cut up, though a few were also donated or bought by preservation societies. A few units remained with the Budapest Transport Company for nostalgia trains, one of which we see here in a typical configuration for higher capacity lines, with a trailer car sandwiched between two motorcars. Took the photo while we were reversing at the terminus Móricz Zsigmond körtér.

What I liked most was looking out the window as we pulled up to the stations, as the look of disbelief and confusion on the faces of other passengers was just priceless. Imagine not knowing about this thing, and then having the 1950s pull up to the platform instead of the shiny and modern tram you've come to expect. Just great fun. And it was also interesting to see that this half century old thing was just as good at moving passengers around as the latest and greatest that technology has to offer. I will admit, a Combino Supra does hold a lot more passengers than a typical UV train. But what it lacks in capacity, it makes up for in style.

In other news, my bf got me a Galaxy S6 Edge for my birthday, finally allowing me to retire my ancient S3 (which I also got from him). Not having known about this commemorative tram, I didn't bring along my proper camera, but I was quite pleasantly surprised by the low light performance that the S6 had to offer!