European Railroad Discussion > Question re: Hungarian charter train at Semmering on May 27

I was fortunate to be at Semmering, Austria, on Saturday, May 27, when a charter train arrived from the direction of Vienna, powered by ÖBB 1010.10, from the railway's collection of preserved equipment.

The train consisted of a variety of passenger cars in green-and-cream and blue-and-white liveries. A little research suggests to me that they are probably Hungarian.

Many of the passengers disembarked at Semmering and headed for the trackside trail that would take them downhill where, I suspect, the train returned later in the day to pick them up at one of the stations below Semmering. Other passengers stayed on board as the train departed Semmering to head through the tunnel toward Mürzzuschlag.

Anyway, here's my question: from the photos below, can anyone tell me any more about this train, such as what group chartered it, and who owns these cars?

Tom Murray
Santa Rosa, California

---

---

---

And a few more photos of this train's equipment (the car marked "Budapest" was one good clue that this equipment might be Hungarian).....



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/27/17 12:20 by tmrail.

---

---

---

By the way, even though it was a cloudy day at Semmering, the sun did come out briefly while this train was stopped, allowing for a somewhat better photo of ÖBB 1010.10.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/27/17 10:17 by tmrail.

---

Sorry, I can't provide any information on this specific operation, but I think you're on the right track in naming the cars as Hungarian. The blue and white color scheme is the first clue -- for many years the scheme used by the MAV (Magyar AllanVasutok - Hungarian State Railways.
On the car named "Orfeum", the oval badge to the left of the windows includes the letters "MAV", and the legend below it, in smaller letters, says "MAV NOSZTALGIA" -- a pretty good indication that these cars are preserved older equipment. Also, one of the other blue-white cars carries the name "Pannonia", which is the old Latin name for the region of today's Hungary.

The green-and-white cars are a bit more puzzling, because to me they look more like Swiss-design cars, in particular the door design and location, and the truck design, look like Swiss cars of the 1950s. Maybe MAV bought Swiss cars in the '50s? I also wonder why they carried saint's names in Latin (Sanct Stephanus - Saint Stephen - was the king who brought Christianity to Hungary and therefore was named its patron saint).

Roger Lewis (airbrakegeezer)

Very interesting photos. Thanks for posting.
ALLEN

I made a post on a European Trainspotting list to see if anyone had information on this train, if I get a response I will post it.

Thanks to all for your responses thus far.

Posted from iPhone

And here is the response I got: The train was a nostalgia special train operated on behalf of "Club 1018" from Mürzzuschlag to Budapest with locomotive 1010.10 powering the train as far as Hegyshalom.

Club 1018 Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/Club1018/

Thanks very much for the info, SOO6617. Very interesting!

Tom

P.S. Off subject -- I worked for Soo Line in the 1970s. It was a great place to learn about the railroad business.

Posted from iPhone

Looks to me like the first two coaches are Schlieren type cars , originally used by the OeBB?

Thomas Eckhardt