Lillafüred forest railway

The railway starts from Dorottya Street in Miskolc, at the foot of a ten-story tower building (on top stands the Szabó Gyula observatory, barely visible from below). Tickets can be purchased in the station waiting room, where longer queues may occur during the summer peak traffic. After departure, however, the train quickly moves away from the dense urban environment and covers the next kilometer among the houses and gardens of Előhegy Street. From here, there is still a good view of Miskolc’s western housing estates, and the Diósgyőr castle also appears here and there in the distance between the walls. After a long, suburban meandering, the train passes through its living area at the Majláth depot, whose yard is lined with the railway’s current vehicles, including some older cars, museum pieces, and in the open-door engine house sometimes some of their companions undergoing maintenance or renovation. Soon we cross the Lillafüred highway, then the Szinva stream, and finally enter the forest.  

Among the shady trees, the engine now sounds louder because the climb is steep and will continue with small interruptions until the terminal station. Along with the altitude gain comes an increasingly wide view, which opens for passengers for the first time on the fourth kilometer of the route, at Paper Mill station, on a wide screen. Here branches off the last remaining branch line, which leads back down the valley all the way to Mahóca. The steep climb continues after the station as well. The track crosses small side valleys sometimes on embankments, sometimes on smaller bridges, while slowly but surely climbing higher on the mountainside, rising a bit more steeply by the Szinva stream flowing in the valley.

After one of the curves comes a deep rock cut, then a dizzying height: beneath the track is the Mély Valley and the overpassing viaduct above it. The 22-meter-high structure is one of the highest railway bridges in our country. On narrow gauge railways, the only similar large structure and a few smaller companions can also be found here in the next kilometers. After the valley bridge, the forest becomes sparser, the impenetrable shrub layer is replaced by solitary, huge beech trees. Among tree elders taller than thirty meters, the railway sometimes looks like just a tiny toy train. The forest soon thins further, and from nearly fifty meters high, the view of Alsóhámor opens before the passengers.

The next stop is Puskaporos, located on a steep hillside, where the train arriving from the opposite direction is already waiting during the denser summer half-year traffic schedule. Passenger traffic here is minimal; besides some summer cottage users in the area, only walkers using the blue cross hiking trail leading to Fehér-kő board here and disembark.

After the station comes another forested climb, then the first tunnel, beyond which a landscaped city park, and the area of Lillafüred station unfolds. The train soon pulls up next to the covered platform roof, where most passengers get off. All the sights of the area are close to the station: Hámori Lake, the Palotaszálló Hotel, and Lillafüred itself can be reached within a minute or two, as well as the four hiking trails passing here. However, at this point, the journey is just a little over halfway through.

After departure, another tunnel follows, at the end of which we simultaneously return to nature from where we disappeared at the previous tunnel... The railway balances on an even steeper mountainside, while the water of Hámori Lake glistens at the foot of the slope. The rails first cross the unique, curved Görbe Bridge, then the small, single-span Savós Valley viaduct, now again in endless forest. Slowly, the track approaches Ómassa Road, which barely fits together with the Garadna stream in the narrow valley bottom. Only near Ómassa does the space begin to widen again, after the railway has passed the famous ancient ironworks, where the iron still glows today during significant events. Passenger traffic is again significant at this station, and those who remain on board usually travel all the way.

Above the trout farm ponds at Lillafüred, the forest reigns again, and the track is bordered in places by leaves the size of tables. The idyllic landscape nearly begins to feel familiar when, surprisingly compared to before, we arrive at Garadna terminal station. The station’s location about two kilometers below Ómassa is not very fortunate: here only hiking trails leading to the Kis Plateau, a small restaurant, and a hostel greet passengers. Of course, many who travel this far often do not immediately return, as these mentioned hiking trails represent the starting point for most hikes. After a short climb, increasingly spectacular places can be reached, from which the Miskolc starting point is just a reassuringly distant landmark in the shadow of the Bükk wilderness.