A couple of stops outside of Budapest lies an abandoned train depot. Well I say abandoned, there’s still a working site around it, but the trains and container sit their unused for years. The land has started to take over; graffiti and fire leave their scars across the place.
It seemed quite an interesting site and gave me my first chance to explore a derelict site abroad while on a short holiday to Budapest.
A brief history of the site (largely stolen from AbadonedSpaces.com):
In the first few years of the 20th century, this depot was built as a repair complex for the national railway. One of the workshop halls measures 24,000 square meters (28,704 square yards) and was actually Budapest’s largest building in 1902. The depot was busy during its lifetime. As well as servicing active trains, older wagons and locomotives were brought there for repair or restoration before being sent on to the Budapest Railway Museum.
But WWII, and steam trains becoming obsolete took a heavy toll on the depot, and the site was gradually abandoned, although the southern part is still used for repairing modern trains. It appears that many of the locomotives earmarked for the museum were just left where they stood, possibly due to a lack of funds.
Trains at the Red Star Train Graveyard include rare Hungarian MAV 424 steam engines, German freight cars, and Soviet cars from the 1960s. A couple of the Hungarian steam engines have a red star on the front, which is how the place got its name among the locals. In addition, one of the trains left on the site is a MAV 301 engine, one of only a few still in existence. According to rumours, there is a strong possibility that some of the German freight cars stored there were ones used to transport Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz during the Nazi occupation of World War II.
Over time, the Red Star Train Graveyard has become overgrown by plants and the trains have succumbed to rust, but that hasn’t stopped it from becoming a unique local attraction.
So having some time free on a wet Sunday I set off to explore this interesting place. The site was in a cool state. I was nervous at first as I’d heard that it was still adjacent to a working site and did see a group of people walking to one of the gates when I was inside so went behind some trains until I got into the main depot. Here was a wide variety of trains which I cautiously went around as with the raining dripping through the broken roof it sounded like others were inside.
Eventually I got confident and openly explored the places getting lots of pictures. As said it’s not an abandoned site which I was reminded of when I heard some voices. A couple of security guards had spotted me and even with a big language barrier it was easy to understand they were telling me to bugger off and not come back. Having been inside for about an hour I was almost ready to go anyway so prompt left, but have several photos to share. Please see below and enjoy:
Thanks for reading.
It seemed quite an interesting site and gave me my first chance to explore a derelict site abroad while on a short holiday to Budapest.
A brief history of the site (largely stolen from AbadonedSpaces.com):
In the first few years of the 20th century, this depot was built as a repair complex for the national railway. One of the workshop halls measures 24,000 square meters (28,704 square yards) and was actually Budapest’s largest building in 1902. The depot was busy during its lifetime. As well as servicing active trains, older wagons and locomotives were brought there for repair or restoration before being sent on to the Budapest Railway Museum.
But WWII, and steam trains becoming obsolete took a heavy toll on the depot, and the site was gradually abandoned, although the southern part is still used for repairing modern trains. It appears that many of the locomotives earmarked for the museum were just left where they stood, possibly due to a lack of funds.
Trains at the Red Star Train Graveyard include rare Hungarian MAV 424 steam engines, German freight cars, and Soviet cars from the 1960s. A couple of the Hungarian steam engines have a red star on the front, which is how the place got its name among the locals. In addition, one of the trains left on the site is a MAV 301 engine, one of only a few still in existence. According to rumours, there is a strong possibility that some of the German freight cars stored there were ones used to transport Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz during the Nazi occupation of World War II.
Over time, the Red Star Train Graveyard has become overgrown by plants and the trains have succumbed to rust, but that hasn’t stopped it from becoming a unique local attraction.
So having some time free on a wet Sunday I set off to explore this interesting place. The site was in a cool state. I was nervous at first as I’d heard that it was still adjacent to a working site and did see a group of people walking to one of the gates when I was inside so went behind some trains until I got into the main depot. Here was a wide variety of trains which I cautiously went around as with the raining dripping through the broken roof it sounded like others were inside.
Eventually I got confident and openly explored the places getting lots of pictures. As said it’s not an abandoned site which I was reminded of when I heard some voices. A couple of security guards had spotted me and even with a big language barrier it was easy to understand they were telling me to bugger off and not come back. Having been inside for about an hour I was almost ready to go anyway so prompt left, but have several photos to share. Please see below and enjoy:
Thanks for reading.
