Cold Turkey

Aka Humbug Harvest III

As is now traditional for me, I was looking for a ‘christmas avoidance’ move, to spend the time somewhere I’d find as little mention of the ripped-off Pagan festival as possible, but more importantly where I wouldn’t be faced with half service or worse. Most of my usual ‘partners in crime’ were unable to go anywhere, either due to work or being under the thumb, but Redhill had a pass-out from both, and seemed up for my suggestion of xmas avoidance in Turkey (oh the irony!).

At first my only source of reference was the Thomas Crook world book, which seemed to suggest there were few moves available worth doing other than the three overnights each way between Ankara and Izmir. However, through a combination of the Turkrail and Europeanrail Yahoo groups, as well as the TCDD website, I realised there were plenty of moves available, and that we’d get some decent mileage, proper overnights, and plenty of winners. Thus we extended the Turkey part to a week, having previously planned to move into Bulgaria after a few days, then onto Romania for a scratchfest over New Year (get the Ronnies in!).

Megaching flight prices on New Year’s Day and the next day led us to extend the trip to two weeks, to get a headstart on 2007’s winner count! Thus the plan was Sleazyjet to Istanbul on Saturday 23^rd, down to Ankara for a couple of days, across to Zonguldak for a day in hope of getting a GE pilot on the local trains, back to Ankara, before a day scratching around Adana, finishing with a mammoth 20 hour journey back to Istanbul for the overnight to Sofija. We then planned to do an overnight to Bucuresti for a few days of CFR scratching, before flying home from somewhere handy (bloody typical though – Wizz started flights to two Romanian destinations a week later! Cheers then!).

Saturday 23^rd December 2006 – 5 Continents down, Australia and Antarctica to go!

After a sleepless night in the Ibis at Luton Airport thanks to Redhill’s snoring, a 5 am start saw us joining the hordes for the early check-ins. We were allocated boarding group C, but managed to blag our way on with the priority boarders, and managed to get the front seats for the four hour flight. A tedious but comfortable enough flight ensued, and at 1.30pm local time we touched down, a few minutes late. Escaping the airport was relatively kerfuffle-free, apart from waiting to come and sell us our £10 ‘visas’. We then leapt into a taxi to Pendik, as although we’d seen buses we had no idea if they stopped anywhere near the shack. Ten minutes and 20YTL (about £7-8) later, we were at Pendik station, and legging it for a hauled train that we were hoping to make – we missed it by seconds, so caught the local unit behind. With hindsight it is perhaps as well we missed the lok, as we’d paid the ‘banlio’ fare (flat fare 1.30YTL), for which no ticket is issued, and which is not valid in the ‘Ada-Eks’ (trains for old biddies only? Actually an abbreviation of Adapazari Ekspress).

We arrived at Haydarpasa about 1530, and set about trying to obtain our Balkan Flexipass tickets. At first we had trouble getting the message across that we didn’t want to catch the Balkan Express, but in the end it transpired that the Flexipass is only available from the European station, Sirkeci. We therefore caught a boat across (my first inter-continental ferry!), another 1.30YTL, taking about 20 minutes. At the international office we had no trouble obtaining the Flexipasses, at a very reasonable £128 each for 15 days peasant class travel. Toff class is available for approx £170, considerably cheaper than the £200+ charged by most Western European agents (who don’t do slum class). We had intended to buy FC ones, but the Bert actually convinced us not too, explaining that the cheaper one is valid on Pullman trains (more later!) and allows travel in cheaper twin-berth sleepers (26YTL each compared to 40YTL FC).

Pieces sorted, we set off back across the Bosphorous on another boat, arriving at Haydarpasa just in time to miss the 1735 express train we’d intended to leap (the boats follow a triangular route, sailing from Haydarpasa to Kadikoy, then across to Sirkeci, then direct back to Haydarpasa, with departures every 20 minutes). We took the 1753 Ada-Eks out to Kartal, to start a few leaps which netted us nine sparks, sadly no sign of any E40s though. We then grabbed a couple of beers from a shop at Bostanci, including one from the Taps brewpub, before catching the Adana overnight as far as Eskisehir.

Sunday 24^th December 2006

We awoke in time to alight at Enveriye at 0500, sadly having to flag the diesel going forward as it misses the inbound trains from Izmir (or rather, is inconveniently timed to stop at completely different shacks than the Izmirs). There was a taxi waiting, so we jumped in for the 2km run to Eskisehir station on the main line, where we took coffee to pass the two hour fester until our planned move. However, in that time we took the opportunity to view the departures sheet, and found one of the trains no longer runs, which didn’t scupper the move but did reduce it to two locos, for a spark to Ankara. We therefore elected to get on the inbound Izmir overnight, for a 263km ‘under the wires’ GM move. The bert started quoting about it being ‘super Pullman’, and rioted about our second class pieces, saying we needed upgrades and resos – in the end he simply walked off.

On arrival at Ankara, we took an EMU (every 15 minutes) out to the end of the banlio, at Kayas, to pick up whichever of the Kars and the Kurtalan inbound trains turned up first. In the event it was the ‘Dogu Ekspress’ from Kars, surprisingly on time. We then took this back to Ankara, and went to the nearby Wimpy for food, and more importantly a bog (virtually every train, station, and café bog, while clean enough, is of the barbarian wop style ‘squatter’, lacking the requisite throne (most new Pullman cars have a proper one at one end though)). We then went to the nearby steam museum, and photted the various exhibits including an NBL WD2-10-0, no 8Fs though.

After lunch we took the 1330 Kars as far as Kayas, for a unit  back, before having a dud spark (d’oh!) to Sincan to await a choice of two inbound cans. As we had a two hour fester, we decided to explore. The main road is parallel to the line, so for no particular reason  we turned right. We wandered around for about an hour, having completed a loop and finding nowt, only to find a café, kebab palais and shop all five minutes from the shack, if only we’d turned left. Back at the shack, the first arrival was late due to the engineering works around Eskisehir, and also dud, so we festered for the second, which was late enough to give us a tight plus back at Ankara. Winner though, and as the saying goes, ‘always makes!’.

It was now time for a potential ten-diesel move, the only problem being it was ‘midnight spinning’! The best moves in some parts of Turkey are at night, in particular the junction shack of Kutahya has 16 trains a day, 12 of them between 11pm and 6am! We took GM DE22034 to Sincan, for rubbish sewing machine DE11069 to Malikoy, where we couldn’t believe the expresses would stop, the shack wasn’t even lit! There was however a shop, selling beers (all by Efes, but not all as rancid as that company’s ‘Pilsner’) and which allowed one to drink in. We then went back out for DE22027 forward, only managing to read the (shockingly faded) number by use of the powerful LED torch built into my phone! We stepped down again at Polatli, where we nearly missed DE22050 going forward as it went through the far road, and there was an Ankara-bound express in the way. Cue through-the-train move! The GM was taken to Kutahya, as we were late and therefore behind the Enveriye-Konya DE24 onto which we were hoping to step down. We waited for what we thought was the on-time 0125 departure back to Kutahya, but which turned out to be the 2338 running rather late, having come from Konya. Rolling into Alayunt we saw the laterr train waiting on the curve from Alayunt Mussels on the Konya line, which turned out to have a GM, rare for that line. D’oh again! At Alayunt we were invited into the red-cap’s office, as the waiting room was unheated. I took the opportunity to charge my phone and phot the two station cats.

Monday 25^th December 2006

Bah Humbug!

We didn’t have long to wait for another DE24 back to Kutahya, for the delayed Adana-Haydarpasa back to Alayunt, where we only had to wait a few minutes for the first inbound Izmir overnight back to Eskisehir. We then festered again for the fast one from Izmir, this time leaping at Sincan for the last of the overnights into Ankara. This time we avoided the reso farce by picking some empty seats, and writing the numbers down in the ‘journey record’ issued with the Flexipass as if we’d reserved – surprisingly it actually worked! We then did a unit to Kayas for the inbound Guney Ekspress from Kurtalan, nicely making winner DE22002 on the 1330 Kars at Ankara.

We then tried to make some reses. No problem resing seats to Zonguldak and back, but Adana proved more of a problem. We were told there were not only no beds for Wednesday night, but no seats. As reses are free we accepted the offer of a res for Tuesday night. We also tried to book beds for the Adana-Istanbul overnight for Thursday night, but it was only after we’d left that we realised they’d booked us on the lunchtime train, so we had to go back for a refund (less 10%), and book seats.

 As the 1430 Istanbul was dud again, we ate in Ankara before catching a unit to Sincan for the same choice as Sunday, and again the first was dud and  the second was late.

Back at Ankara, both the 1808 Kars and 1810 Izmir were dud, so we had more food, covered the 1900 Izmir, also dud, and then covered the 1950 Elazig, 2015 Adana, and 2000 Izmir. All three were winners, but obviously not possible to have them all. We could either do the Elazig to Kayas for the Adana to Irmak for a fester for the Zonguldak, or do the Izmir to Sincan for a can back. We decided to risk taking the Izmir, as we figured we had more chance of clawing the other two back. A winning can back gave us time to obtain provisions before the nine-hour trek to Zonguldak. The overnight was as ever very comfortable (sadly no sleepers on this train) to start with, but while I slept some moron turned the heating up to sauna level, and I awoke sweating. As my bag contained my water and some chocolate, I decided to move it away from the heater, but a metal part of the strap had been resting on it and gave me some nice burns that took a couple of weeks to heal, so many thanks to the cretin who turned the heating up (and to whoever devised a heating system that brings the passenger into contact with an oven-temperature heater). Anyway, we adjourned to the other coach, which mercifully wasn’t pumping therms, and got some more doss.

Tuesday 26^th December 2006

We awoke to find we’d had an engine change in the night. I’d seen some deep snow up in the mountains during the night, but at Zonguldak there was only a light covering (despite avoiding Christmas, we still had ‘Cold Turkey’ for boxing day – boom boom). After a coffee, we took the first Karabuk local to Turkali, where we stood on an exposed platform overlooking the sea, with fierce winds blowing horizontal snow at us. We were most unimpressed to see the return move was a sewing machine, as DE24s seem to be solid in this area. We figured it was probably because the overnight must have nicked the DE24 on the way down. Back at Zonguldak we filled the fester with kebabs, beer, and a fruitless search for a proper throne. No proper bogs, but we did find a proper beer: Tekel from Sivas, unpasteurised too! (it’s from Yozgat Bira Fabrikasi).

The afternoon saw us take the sewing machine out for another Alsthom back, then a visit to the supermarket before another run up the hill behind a DE24. We alighted at some absolute shack for the +10 for the northbound train back a couple of shacks to pick up the afternoon ‘kick out’. By now it was freezing, and dark, the station being literally a platform in the middle of nowhere. And so we waited. And waited. And waited… eventually DE24366 turned up on the kick-out, and still no sign of the one to Zonguldak We took this forward to Caycuma, where we crossed the inbound train from Karabuk, well over an hour late. We took this back to Catalagzi, as we knew the shack was not too bad, and we wanted to cover the last northbound just in case. As it happens, the sewing machine had been swapped, but for dud DE24368 off the overnight, just as well as it was also over an hour late, and crossed the overnight at Catalagzi. And so we boarded the overnight, ready for the morning’s mini spin.

Wednesday 27^th December 2006

After a fairly decent doss, we awoke at Irmak, to find the late-running 4-Eylul Mavi Train from Diyarbakir alongside. However, by the time the doors on our train opened, the latter was pulling out. D’oh! We retreated to the waiting room to await the inbound Adana train, and were soon invited into the Redcap’s office to warm up. The Adana arrived with DE24266, pleasing as it was the one we’d flagged on Monday night, and we took this to Elmadag for another Redcap fester for the eastbound Van Golu Ekspresi, which goes through to Tatvan on a Wednesday. However, we were heading back to Irmak for a ‘perm two from three’ move involving two trains from Kars and the westbound from Tatvan. Unfortunately, the first arrival from Kars doesn’t stop at Elmadag, thus preventing a double step-down. At the right time for the second Kars, we heard a train approach, and went to await it, only to see a lengthy freight arrive. However, twenty minutes later the first Kars arrived, but was dud, which at least solved the dilemma of which to flag. Soon afterwards, Dogu Ekspresi arrived behind DE22053, which we took to Kayas, partaking in breakfast and coffee on the way.

At Kayas, we got to the stage where the train forward was dodgy for making the 1330 to Kars at Ankara, so with both being equally likely to be winners we made an executive decision to do an EMU in to bring the 1330 out, a good move as it not only produced a winner, but made into the very late Tatvan at Kayas, also a winner. This staggered into Ankara, rolling in at 1430, not good as we wanted to make the 1430 spark westbound for the usual Sincan move. It ended up as a literal –1, but we still made by bailing off the diesel at the top of the steps, storming through the subway, and piling onto the spark as it pulled out, before the diesel even stopped! All in vain however, as the spark was dud, as was the one back from Sincan.

Both the 1810 Izmir and 1808 Kars were dud, so we adjourned for pizza and some hellfire Turk Kahvesi (beast real Turkish Coffee) at the place opposite the entrance to the long subway from the shack. We returned for the 1955 Elazig, noting happily it was DE22026, the other engine we’d flagged Monday. I paid a quick visit to the market stalls under the shack to buy a jumper, having forgotten to bring one, then we took the GM to Kayas, our last TCDD GM move for the trip – or so we thought! We then boarded the Adana, with some concern – where would we sit? We decided to play ignorant, and sat in the seats we’d resed for the previous night, filling the details in on our flexipasses. Sadly the ruse didn’t work, and the Bert pointed out the date mistake. Fortunately, he said to go to the first coach, which seems to be unresed in Turkey. We got two single seats and dossed, being awoken at 3am when seemingly the entire population of some piss-ant town boarded the train. We feigned sleep to hopefully avoid any ‘get out of my seat’ farce, and soon drifted back to sleep for real, awaking to find people dossed in the aisles, vestibules, luggage space, anywhere a body could fit!

Thursday 28^th December 2006

We arrived at Yenice on time, so looked good for the +35 at Adana, but then festered half an hour for no apparent reason. We made, and did a step down move to Incirlik, where we took breakfast in the form of some hellfire bread rings, Turk Kahvesi (once we’d managed to convey the ‘no milk’ message – why pollute good coffee?!) and crisps. We then returned on the inbound Islahiye, for what should’ve been a step down onto the Mersin stopper. However, the Islahiye caped at Adana, and then formed the stopper. We therefore waited for the next one, which we took to Sakirpasa to pick up the inbound stopper from Konya… which doesn’t run. We festered for the next inbound Mersin, while being pestered by some local kids (this was the only hassle we had in the country though, so it’s not quite Egypt style!). The local was late, and when it finally produced, it was a cart! Cheers then!

Back at Adana, our plan was to take the lunchtime Istanbul express to Yenice for a bonus Alsthom, however as we walked up the platform it didn’t sound right – ‘it’s white and going ‘ying’’ I exclaimed, and sure enough wandering off the end of the platform brought us alongside DE33020. We took phots before boarding, and then photted again at Yenice,  or at least I would’ve done had my camera not chosen that moment to decide the batteries were totally dead. We then proceeded to cover the rest of the local diagrams, and enjoyed a fine meal in a restaurant on the station at Tarsus. Back at Yenice we festered for the inbound from Istanbul, and when it finally arrived we were surprised to see DE33023 at the head, so maybe this pair of trains is booked for these devices now – if so it’s pretty much the only way to get them in.

We had a quick wander around Adana, and bought dark beer, plus a ‘beer disguise kit’ (TCDD don’t allow drinking on their trains, other than in the buffet, which only sells Efes shite) – i.e. a bottle of Pepsi! Works a treat with dark beer, looks a bit dubious with lager though! We then returned for the overnight, but while we waited the 2100 Mersin rolled in with DE22077 piloting – a winner, plus pretty rare track for a DE22 on passenger. We did this to Yenice, where the GM came off. We then adjourned to the Redcap’s office, where the chap explained (with the help of the translate tool on his computer) that our overnight had run a couple of cretins over on a crossing, and was two hours late. D’oh! Still, we’ve got a +5 hours back in Istanbul… However, the overnight got later and later (how long does it take to shift a couple of bodies and hose the front down?! Even nanny-state Britain gets trains moving within a couple of hours!), and eventually turned up four and a half hours late, at 0230! To add insult to injury, thanks presumably to the careless clowns, the loco had been ripped and replaced by dud DE24266. Cheers then! Oh well, at least we ‘plastic’ cleared it i.e. over 1,000km (in two days!)

Friday 29^th December 2006

We made up some time to Konya, but faffing around with the booked loco change meant a five hour late departure, which increased to five and a half by Enveriye. We decided that we had no chance of making the Sofija train at Istanbul, so cut our losses and bailed, once again taking a taxi to Eskisehir. Here we took the evening Konya stopper (shown on shack bible as DMU) to Kizilinler, which turned out to be completely unlit, with no signs of life and not even a waiting room. Not a place to get stranded! A train approached at the right time… but yet again turned out to be a freight. About half an hour late the day train from Izmir appeared, and we piled on, having stood no chance of reading the number. At Eskisehir we went to check, and after I glanced up and saw the last three digits ‘108’ started to walk away. ‘Hold on’, said Redhill, ‘look at that again’. I did so, and it sank in – we’d scored a class, namely DE18. Beast! Not heard of one of these working to Eskisehir before, certainly not complaining though!

We adjourned to a nearby restaurant for another huge meal, before catching up on e-mails in a net café. We then ambled back to the shack for the first overnight to Izmir, pleased to score DE22047. We took this to Kutahya, where the fun and games began…

Saturday 30^th December 2006

We were aiming to do a similar move to Sunday night, and again the first one from Konya direction was mega delayed. Sadly this meant we were unable to get back to Alayunt to cover the second and third Izmir overnights, for which we could’ve stepped down had we known. We were therefore not too unimpressed to see both arrive with winners!

In the event the 0125 Istanbul-bound turned up first, and was a winner. We did this to Alayunt, where we again visited the Redcap (and amused them by photting the station cats!) before catching the near-on time 0204 back to Kutahya, dropping straight onto the very late 2338 Istanbul. We returned to Alayunt, where we confused the Redcap, more so when we leapt on an unadvertised extra to Izmir which turned up. We hadn’t seen what was on the front, but knew something was wrong when after an initial bit of thrash out of the shack we started to crawl. Eventually, at the junction where the Kutahya reversing loop diverges, the loco finally gave up the ghost. We saw the rescue engine approach, so I bailed out and used my ‘phone torch’ to identify both locos. The pilot then dragged us to the station throat, and came off again. We could see the first overnight from Izmir was in the shack, so we bailed and ran the last half klick! In the event we could’ve strolled, as they hadn’t finished playing silly buggers. The rescue engine, DE24408, sat in the shack, while the original loco, DE24326 ran under its own power to the yard. DE24408 then went on the stock, and finally dragged it clear of the throat and into the station (presumably taking it forward to Izmir). Finally, we departed, pleased with another new DE22.

Back at Alayunt, the Redcap was becoming rather perturbed by out frequent appearance at his shack. It was evidently his doss time, as we were not invited into the office this time, instead he lit the stove in the waiting room. At this point, Redhill remarked ‘here we are, two managers, and we spend our holiday huddled round a stove like a couple of vagrants!’. Hmmm, when you put it like that…

We were awaiting the other two overnights from Izmir, but they were clearly very late, as when the Redcap woke us up it was to tell us that the overnight from Haydarpasa was in, and we could do that to Kutahya for the Izmir-Ankara back. We did so – bonus scratch – and festered again for the overnights. What should’ve been the third overnight turned up first, about an hour late. We flagged this as it was dud, and awaited the ‘middle’ one, which arrived two hours late, sadly with another dud.

Back at Eskisehir we again went to the net café, before leaping onto an express to Istanbul. It was wedged, but fortunately we got seats, and dossed most of the way.

Back at Istanbul, we did a quick can leap, before catching a (winning!) boat to Sirkeci, where we booked our pieces for the overnight, at a reasonable 16YTL (about £6) for a bed to Sofia. However, we should perhaps have booked to Beograd, as the BDZ dosser was a shambles – even the JZ one was better! We had a leap to do first, involving the Thessaloniki sleeper to the first shack for a local back. However, I hadn’t checked the formation of the former, so we were withered to find it was sleepers only, with a Bert on each door. One turned his back for a moment, so we leapt on and claimed a compo. Fortunately, there was no sign of the gripper or attendant on the half hour run to Halkali, where we bailed. The return move was on time, and we took our beds on the overnight, though it was too dark to see owt as the BDZ coach had no lights when the dynamo wasn’t running (and none in our compo anyway!). Right, we’ve got beds, make the most of them, doss while you can…

Sunday 31^st December 2006

The border into Bulgaria is still fairly heavy handed, and everyone has to detrain at Kapikule and queue to have their passport stamped by the solitary official. Still, can’t be as heavy as it used to be, as this train is notoriously late, but we arrived in Sofia near enough on time. The through coaches were shunted at Sofija, so we sneaked into a compo in the JZ dosser, before grabbing some beer and lunch. As we were on time, we decided to risk the +20 at Pirot to get the two Serb GMs in – hoping for some 644 or 666 action, but happy enough with two winning 661s for both of us. The border Bert was a little concerned to see us back so soon, but let us pass without too much hassle.

Back at Sofija, we checked into the station hotel, did a quick spin to Sofija Sever and back, before heading into town for beer and food. Gazza had texted me the address of a brewpub, so naturally we headed there. The bouncers asked us for tickets, but we explained we’d only just arrived, so he promised us entry in return for a ‘tip’ for the bouncers. I resisted the temptation to say ‘don’t eat yellow snow’, and proffered 5 Lev (about £2). ‘Ten’ quoth the doorman. We coughed up, reasoning everywhere would be similar tonight. He led us in, whereupon we were presented with an extensive menu, and asked for 80 Lev each (about £30!). Er, FOAD chief! He explained that the only option was this all night menu including many courses and all the drinks, and declined to allow us to just have a couple of beers. To rub it in, there was even a handpump! We decided to flag (if nowt else, we didn’t have the money on us), so I asked the doorman for the 10 Lev back, which to his credit he did hand back.

We then wandered round in search of beer and more importantly food. However, everywhere was either closed (including McScum, what a shame) or had a similar setup to the brewpub. Eventually we found a wop restaurant, where we got a passable pizza. We then headed back to the hotel. We figured we weren’t far from the shack, but couldn’t be arsed to walk, and couldn’t find anywhere to buy a piece for the tram. We therefore hailed a taxi, and piled in. Just as we set off, the Bert quoted 25 Lev. Again, FOAD chief! It’d only been 2.50 Lev on the way out, we’re not partaking in your rip-off. We bailed out and hailed another, who flatly refused to take us to the shack. A third pulled up, and didn’t turn on the meter. We decided that as he hadn’t quoted a price we could argue the toss at the end (though with memories of the Kobanya Kispest Circular Taxi Co in our minds!). In the event he asked for 3 Lev, so presumably it was so he could pocket the money rather than declare it, as opposed to ripping us off. Back in the hotel, Redhill dossed, while I stayed up for midnight, watching the fireworks as we returned to the EU chronologically rather than geographically for once!

Monday 1^st January 2007

Dobre Novi Godina! An earlier start than we’d have liked given it was our first hotel of the trip, but necessary to cover the narrow gauge line from Septemvri, now pretty much the only worthwhile move in the country thanks to the recent invasion of unDesirable carts. We dossed most of the way to Septemvri, where we found 81002 shunting some stock out of the platform, to make way for the first train to Dobrinishte. We piled on to score the shunt, but were immediately evicted. Ok, plan B, the stock for Dobrinishte was in an adjacent siding being preheated, so we piled onto that instead, scoring the 81 into the platform. We then returned to the main station to raid the solitary open kiosk for butties, cakes and of course coffee.

We decided to risk the ‘paper minus’ at the crossing shack, and made with time to spare for the return back down the scenic valley to Septemvri. We then did a quick out and back spark spin, being rewarded with a pair on the return. We had about an hour until the afternoon Dobrinishte run, but Septemvri has little to offer at the best of times, and less than that on a public holiday! We eventually found an open bar, and obtained beer and crisps for the afternoon. I was undecided as to whether to do another run on the narrow gauge, or return to Sofija to have another go at the brewpub. In the end I decided on the former, despite the fact that the outward run was dud.

On returning to Sofija, we repeated the previous night’s leap to Sofija Sever, before taking our couchette on the overnight to Bucuresti. The train was only load five, about a third of the load when I did the run three years ago. Both border grips were mega free, the only issue was identifying the 07 in the middle of the night, but fortunately at Ruse the doors between coaches were unlocked so I was able to storm through the Romanian sleeper and identify the loco before the bert shouted the local equivalent of ‘Oi you!’. More doss, and an on time arrival in Bucuresti.

Tuesday 2^nd January 2007

First job was to obtain a bible, and then to work out moves. Redhill had been two years previously, so set about the planning, noting that many convenient pluses had become inconvenient minuses, as well as trains going in the wrong order to scupper step-down moves. We also checked the public holiday schedule, as the 2^nd is also a holiday in Romania. We then went to book couchettes to Iasi, Ada charging us 50RON (about a tenner) for two beds in a 6-berth compo (Bucuresti is the only booking office I know where grippers try to demand to see a ticket before they’ll let you get in!). As I went to put my ticket away, I noticed the price was 19.60RON, and pointed this out to Ada, who replied that’s 19.60 each, we’d paid for two. Us accountants may have some funny ideas about adding up (especially where HMRC are involved!), but I’m pretty sure twice 19.60 is not 50! I pointed this out and Ada duly handed over 10RON from a drawer – rip someone else off you thieving bitch!

The early morning move was out due to the holiday schedule, but the next part of the move was still running, or so we thought until we arrived at Titu to find a piece of paper pinned up listing an extra twenty or so extra cancellations. Titu was probably a one-horse town at some point in the past, but the locals most likely ate it some time ago, as there is fuck all there now – and our +50 became a +240. Great! On the plus side, the station bar had plenty of winning beers, on the downside the bogs were absolutely rancid – complete with steaming toms in urinals and in the middle of the floor! We asked the station bert about getting a taxi, he laughed.

About 2pm a 60 turned up on a freight pointing towards Bucuresti, so we tried to hitch a lift using the old ‘we’re drivers in UK’ line, Redhill showing his staff pass (which fortunately doesn’t show his actual job title of marketing manager). We were invited into the cab, but sadly it wasn’t going any further at this time, so we just had a trip round the yard, picking up another 60 in the process. When we’d finished, as we climbed down, Redhill managed to fall over backwards, made even more amusing as he’d stowed his half finished beer in his inside jacket pocket while we were shunting. Needless to say I expressed sympathy in true Sheffield fashion – ha ha!

Eventually our train out of town appeared, and we headed indirectly back to Bucuresti for our overnight to Iasi.

Wednesday 3^rd January 2007

We awoke just before Iasi, pleased to note we were on time. We made the +7 for another GM back out to Nicolina, where we went to the buffet for coffee and timetable perusal. Here we found that the moves had changed so that to cover everything some taxi moves would be needed between Nicolina and Iasi (we did three in the end, the first being 10RON ‘off meter’, and the others being metered at about 5RON). Around lunchtime we covered an international to Moldova, formed of an 80 on two CFR-owned, but distinctly soviet looking (hard class!) coaches. We took this to Nicolina, where it stopped right outside the police station. We alighted before the feds turned up, though they may not have bothered since we’d been the only people on the train. After some more spinning, we had some time in Iasi, so remained on our train while the station pilot shunted it to the yard. We then did the overnight back to Bucuresti, and this time we did not have the compo to ourselves, but still managed solid doss.

Thursday 4^th January 2007

We did the early morning move that hadn’t run on Tuesday, though late running cost me one winner. We then repeated the Titu move, though thankfully only had to wait about an hour there this time! As we rolled into Basarab, a can pulled up alongside, so we scrambled across onto that for the last klick into Bucuresti. In the afternoon we decided to cover the line to Urziceni. One of the shacks we leapt at, Barbulesti, is not a shack at all, the train just stops on a level crossing! Great fun for a +20 in the dark!

At Urziceni there is very little, and it got worse – we found a much-needed Bankomat, only for both our cards to be rejected. We later found that this was because Redhill’s bank blocks your card if you use it for over a week abroad without telling them, and I’d gone overdrawn because my employers had fucked up and not paid me when they should. Fortunately I had a card for my dormant NatWest account which has an overdraft facility, though they ching a fortune for the privilege of overseas transactions.

We had planned to return to Bucuresti via Ploesti, to gain a can, but as we’d seen the express from Galati with a 60 on Tuesday, and it’s shown as hauled in bible, we decided to wait for that. Predictably, it was a rancid unDesirable unit, and we had no choice but to do it. The bert even tried to ching us up for a res, but we argued until he went away.

Back at Bucuresti, we just made the Beograd overnight, and obtained a couchette on board. The bert tried to ching us 30RON each for a 4-berth, but we decided since it was empty we’d have a 6-berth and pay 20RON each – who cares if you’ve got two empty beds above you or four? We were in a four berth anyway, and all seemed well until we left, and found that the compo windows were sealed shut, and the heating was permanently set to sauna level. This let to a poor night’s sleep, and waking up sweating more than once.

Friday 5^th January 2007

It would be an understatement to say I was relieved to get out at Timisoara Nord, though I felt the worst I had felt any morning of the bash, including after the Turkish Midnight Spins. There were no locos due out for a while, so we did a pigtaxi out to Timisoara, for a half-hour fester to bring a loco in… which turned out to be another cart, cheers then.            We then had a move for a fairly lengthy out-and-back, with a step-down to kick off (with an hour to fester at Timisoara Sud, where there is predictably nowt). This accomplished, we had a couple of hours to kill at Nord, so we booked into the hotel opposite the shack, costing us around £28 for a twin room. After a short relax and much-needed de-rance, we went to a nearby café for a fat bastard lunch.

After lunch, we had a straight out-and-back to Sud, before another out-and-back on the Radna line. Just before boarding the latter, Redhill spotted a Servtrans 40 on stock, in tandem with a CFR one. A quick check revealed it to be an all-shacks to Craiova, and even better we could do it to Timisoara Est for our booked move forward – a rare example of this type of move working in this area.

Back at Timisoara Nord, we had another out-and-back move, which gave us a +7 onto a train to Arad to cover three more diesels. The return was about five minutes late, made up some time between Sud and Nord, but then got held shortly before Nord, so we rolled in on a dead, having to get to the far side of the shack. We baled off before the train stopped, legged it over about a dozen running lines, before running down the requisite platform, trying not to fall into the holes! We made by seconds, and the move from Arad went perfectly (though we were less than impressed with an 82 for the first leg) – some TTIs did the same move as us, prompting a mass movement of normals down the train to avoid them.

Saturday 6^th January 2007

We hadn’t finalised our move, reasoning we’d see how we felt in the morning. Plan A was to pick up the overnight to Beograd, and return to Budapest via covering the Subotica-Sombor  branch – this didn’t really appeal though, as the move wasn’t too good, and involved a mega-early start. We therefore went for Plan B, which was an express out-and-back to Lugoj, though Redhill initially voted for going back to sleep and doing nowt until our lunchtime train to Arad. He was eventually persuaded, and the move produced two new GMs.

Lunch was taken at the same place as yesterday, before heading to Arad on a spark. At Arad two trains run combined, so I figured it was ‘two for the price of one’, however the lead loco turned out to be the GM from last night. Oh well, just have to hope the lok in the middle powers… no, it’s the fecking Sulzer from last night, cheers then! None for the price of two! At least we got a winner back to Arad, and made the fairly tight plus onto the international to Budapest. We effed it in the Polish portion from the border to Bekescsaba, where we obtained pieces to Budapest, along with beer and food, before rejoining the Budapest portion.

A Romanian Bert on the morning move had told us about a cheap hotel in Budapest, near Keleti,, so we headed for that, but his directions were pretty poor so we gave up, checking into the Ibis for €53 twin. We dined in the Burger King, before catching up on the football results (in my case at least), and having an early night.

Sunday 7^th January 2007

A relatively late start saw us back at Keleti for 8am, where after being sent to various different offices we finally obtained timetables. We then did a couple of spins out to Kobanya Felso until the inbound locos started heading out again, before catching a bus to Budapest Zuglo to cover the turns out of Nyugati. It was only after doing a few of these that we noticed our Budapest day tourist pieces weren’t valid for trains (or at least didn’t mention MAV). Oops! Good job we hadn’t been gripped! We also covered the M41 diagrams, and I was pleased to score three out of four, though doing so did involve walking back from Kispest to Kobanya Kispest.

In view of our lack of apparent validity, and the lack of winners, we did a couple of tram moves before heading to the airport. We hovered in the right place for when check-in opened, managing to get boarding numbers 2 and 3. This was fairly vital, as we were both on tight pluses back at Luton. Yet another flight on ‘pressure cooker’ HA-LPB, must be close to clearing that one for 10k! An on time landing meant we both made out connections from the airport… but for me it didn’t end there. I made the unit I’d planned to catch to Bedford for MML forward, only to find that while MML were running through, Thameslink or whatever they’re called now were using buses for part of the route, and so would no longer make the connection at Bedford, and no-one had the sense to get MML to stop at Luton to pick up the passengers affected. Welcome to Fuckrail! I therefore ended up on the last MML, arriving back in Sheffield around midnight.

Conclusions

Turkey is one of the best countries I’ve been to in a long time. Apart from proper bogs, the country has it all – there’s plenty of diesels to spin, there’s 1,000km+ runs to be had off GMs, even the DE24s sound pretty decent, despite having Pielstick engines. Some top food is available at low prices, though good beer is lacking, most places only stock rancid Efes. The overnights are pretty comfortable, though I’d have liked to have sampled the beds at least once. Security is also pretty good, leaving your bag on’t rack while you doss is no problem (unlike Romania!). Only possible downside is that the best spin moves are at night!

Bulgaria seems less of a shit-hole than when I last visited in 2003, but apart from the narrow gauge is now largely pointless as diesel locos have finished apart from a couple of cross-border services. Romania remains a complete dump, and if not in a couchette one needs to sleep with one eye open as the locals are unlikely to miss a chance to half-inch your bag. Facilities are minimal, and basically everyone is looking for a way to rip you off or steal stuff. On the plus side, the Sulzers are rapidly being re-engined with GM, so unusually as time goes by the traction scene gets better, though the rancid new units have hit the moves on some lines.