Szilvásvárad Forest Railway

The history of the forest railway

At the peak of railway transport, in the mid-20th century, Szilvásvárad had two forest railways. Steam-hauled trains ran up and down the Szalajka and Tófalu valleys from the lumber yard at the edge of the village, loaded with the most valuable treasures of the Bükk: huge beech trunks and iron ore, which became especially valuable after the formation of the Trianon borders. More than four hundred meters higher, at the northern edge of the Bükk Plateau, a completely different railway network with a narrower track gauge of only 600 mm wound, where mostly wood-loaded wagons were pulled by horses.

Initially, the two networks were connected only by a wooden track, but soon this was replaced by a special technical solution: on the cable railway built on the same route with a track gauge of 760 mm and an almost forty-degree incline, the freight wagons of the lower network were pulled by wire rope. In the years after World War II, the line on the Bükk Plateau was also rebuilt to a 760 mm gauge and extended towards Bánkút, so that timber harvested on the plateau could reach all the way to the Szilvásvárad MÁV station without transshipment.

The network was discontinued relatively quickly in 1967: after the construction of forest access roads and the introduction of high-performance trucks, the plateau railway and the cable railway were dismantled, and the Szalajka Valley railway was dedicated to serving excursion traffic. The vehicles operating today started service at that time.

Since then, there has not been much change on the railway, although tourism around Szilvásvárad has undergone huge development. Where the former lumber yard once stood is now a car park, and along the street leading to the railway, small and larger restaurants, souvenir shops, and eateries have opened one after another, serving the arriving crowds. Thus, those who arrive at the railway today find the terminus almost at the edge of an urbanized environment. After purchasing tickets, passengers usually have to wait briefly, as the vehicles are generally only opened a few minutes before departure.

Route

But now that we have come this far, that also means it is time to travel! After the slow sightseeing so far, there is a definite change of mood when the locomotive suddenly switches to full speed, and we leave the buildings around the station at the "dizzying" travel speed of 25 km/h, with a real forest breeze, soon entering the foliage.

Next to the track is the paved road of the Szalajka valley, and beyond it the Szalajka stream can be seen among the trees. What appears on the map as tight blue, yellow, and black lines is now beneath and next to our feet, following one curve after another.

The track soon rises above the road, then with a sharp curve, the train "flies over" to the other side of the stream. There are no bridges here or elsewhere, but the widely spaced embankments over the uniformly flowing stream are sufficient, with large reinforced concrete culverts at their bases.

After the curve, we arrive at the Szalajka Fishpond station, whose tracks already lead beyond the next curve. Here, halfway along, there are usually very few passengers getting off, although those who want to quickly reach the lower valley attractions, such as the forestry museum, the open-air deer petting zoo, or the Saffron Trout Yard, should start from here. Without passengers getting off, the train generally does not stop here.

The momentum maintained by continuous movement is useful here, because right after the station begins the steepest track section in Hungary, with a 60 per mille gradient (6% on roads), lasting for the next kilometer. The engines work loudly, but with the light, open wagons, the speed hardly decreases. A three-car train full of passengers together with the locomotive weighs nearly forty tons, with just under 200 horsepower, equivalent to a scooter's power per ton. The railway is not by chance one of the most efficient means of transport, so this is enough to keep the reduced speed of twenty kilometers per hour.

While numbers flow in our heads, the stream slowly disappears from beside the rails, replaced by the canopy of the trees growing next to it: we can observe the valley from increasingly higher viewpoints. The route here is perhaps the most spectacular, with smaller rock cuts instead of sharp curves, significant depth below, and a slowly unfolding view of the peaks rising above the Bükk coloring the journey.

In the next curve, we suddenly reach the top of the valley: the forest closes again, and to the right a small station has become a buffet, behind which the huge clearing dominates the landscape. The train turns quickly one last time to the left edge of the meadow and soon arrives at the recently thoroughly renovated Fátyol Waterfall terminus.

Although earlier it was possible to get off directly onto the meadow from the carriage steps here, due to increasing traffic, a "proper" station was built by 2012, with pram-accessible platforms, toilets, and rain shelters. Mostly made of concrete, the building is carefully clad with selected stones by the designers, while the non-load-bearing structures, railings, and columns are made of wood, overall tastefully packaging the facility.