Showing posts with label Hungary. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hungary. Show all posts

Monday, July 10, 2017

Inside an abandoned train yard in Budpest

The abandoned Istvántelek Train Yard occupies a vast area of land outside Budapest. Also known as the Red Star Train Graveyard, it is the resting place of more than 100 train cars and locomotives that have been abandoned in various states of disrepair.

The train yard was built in the early 20th century and today only a small part of it is used while the rest remains abandoned. Two large depots, a few smaller sheds and open-air areas are scattered with train engines and carriages, some newer and some from many decades ago. 

Among them, many German rail cars that could be among those that carried hundreds of thousands of Hungarian Jews to their death in Auschwitz during Nazi occupation in World War II. The Red Star Train Graveyard comes from a few Hungarian MAV 424 steam engines that bear a red star on their fronts. Also in the yard, many Soviet train cars brought to be repaired before being exhibited in the Budapest Railway Museum but never made it to the display and were instead abandoned there. 



Monday, September 12, 2016

The semi-abandoned Kelenföld power plant in Budapest


The Kelenföld power plant of Budapest was built in 1914. Back then, it was the first boiler house and electricity-supply building in Hungary's capital, as well as Europe’s first electricity exchange.

The building is an incredible example of thoughtful industrial design from the prewar era with its Art Deco control room, with a massive glass ceiling, being one of the more recognizable features. It was designed by two architects around 1927, Kálmán Reichl and Virgil Borbíro, and was constructed within 2 years. Throughout the rest of the plant, corridors are decorated with tiles from Hungary's world-famous Zsolnay porcelain manufacturer.


The control room, as well as the largest part of the power plant shut down and was abandoned in 2005. A part of the the plant is privately owned and still in operation, providing power to Budapest. Today, the plant produces 4% of Hungary's energy and 60% of Budapest's heating and hot water. The main gas supply comes from Russia through Ukraine and in case it gets shut off, for whatever reason, the station has a liquid fuel-oil reserve on-site that can last for eight days.

Even though the largest part of the factory today is abandoned, it can't be demolished as it's protected as an 'industrial heritage' building. Sometimes, the building is used for music videos and movies while some rare tours for the public inside the facility have to be booked well in advance.







SEE ALSO: More abandoned industrial sites around the world // More abandoned places in Hungary // LIST OF ALL DESERTED PLACES 
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Monday, August 22, 2016

An abandoned socialist textile factory in Hungary

This abandoned textile factory was co-founded in 1922 by Elberfelder Textilwerke and the Leipzig Kammgarnspinnerei Stöhr Co, in Budapest, capital of Hungary. The new industry, called Domestic Worsted Spinning and Weaving Factory Ltd., produced worsted wool of ultra-fine quality. The factory survived World War II with only a few direct bomb hits and later became the largest socialist wool plant in the country. 

The factory though didn't survive the fall of the Soviet Union. The textile business was privatized in 1990 and liquidated a few years later. Since then, some factory buildings have been rented by smaller enterprises. However, the large factory building has remained abandoned for years.