The year 2002 had many surprises for the average tram-maniac of Budapest. For example the fact that not all UV's were scrapped at the moment as they became unneeded because of the "new" TW6000's from Hannover, was quite strange (but nice). Or the renewal of the tracks on Bartók Béla út, which has been first proposed in the early eighties (!) has been realized this year. Or the latest ones: first a renewal programme has been started for twenty CKD Tatra T5C5 cars. The other: two museum cars, number 1625 and number 1000 have been transferred from the Szentendre museum for re-commissioning (both oldtimers were inoperable until now). All this is happening in the main workshop of BKV at Fehér út, which in fact does not belong to BKV, but is a separate company. Because the plant has a rather long name (Vasúti Javító Főműhely - which means something like "Main Railway Repairment Wokshop"), we like to refer to it by its location, as just "Fehér út".

The workshop was established at the end of the sxities, parallel to the construction of the M2 subway line, which has its terminus just hundred meters from here. Originally it was planned that all big repairs and examinations of tram, subway and HÉV cars will be done here, but since then the HÉV does its stuff on its own, so this became tram and metro territory...

The vist had a few bonus surprises: there were many old snow-sweepers in there, having their annual fix-up before the winter!

And all those UV's! I did not count, but at least one dozen of them were receiving a V3-class examination, which means that they will be fine for another 120,000 kilometers.

A metro (subway) car, just to show you what it looks like right after a fix-up :)

And here's my all-time favorite, number 1000. This car was built in 1912 as the last car of type "V" for the tram company BKVT. It was numbered 1080, but the joint transportation company BSZKRT changed it to 1000 a few decades later. The wooden-bodied car received an all-metal body in the late fifties. A classical Budapest streetcar!

The other oldtimer, 1625 was built in 1896 for the company BVKV with trucks instead of the two self-aligning axles it now has. It was rebuilt in the 1910's, then in the fifties, and received its final shape in the seventies.

A UV wainting in front of the office building.

Modernised UV (MUV) car number 3427 has derailed a couple of months ago and was then placed to storage here. It's not clear yet if it'll be repaired or not.

The prototype of the refurbished T5C5 cars, number 4333. The most important improvement of this project is a chopper system instead of contactors.

Of course every improvement reflects in the outlook, too...

... with new interior colors and a visual passenger information system.

The modified instrument panel.

Number 4330 will also be rebuilt.

Trams waiting by the test tracks.

3407 doing a test ride.

T5C5 car number 4314 is the second prototype for the Tatra modernization programme.

This UV has not yet been annulated, even if it seems so. I wonder what they'll do with it!

This booth is in fact a small tramcar from the once-existing narrow-gauge tram system of Szombathely (located in Western Hungary, near the border to Austria; the system - in fact only one line - was closed in 1974). Originally the car was built in 1927 as a gas-fuelled motorcar for the night routes of BSZKRT, but then it received electric traction and narrow-gauge axles, and was sold to Szombathely in the 1950's.

Not much has left of the interior! One day the car will be rebuilt to its original state, but I won't see that happen anytime soon...

Two-axle trailer number 6029 somehow escaped scrapping. Now it stands behind motorcar number 3710, which is I believe one of the first light-metal trams : it's a 3600-series car built in the late fifties out of aluminium, and with UV bogies.

Let's enter the hall, where we can see lots of Tatras...

... undergoing modernization.

Oh, and yes, there's also a TW6000, too!

Tatra interior.

Snow-sweepers (we dont't use snow-ploughs here) number 7121 and 7132.

More Tatras.

Another snow-sweeper and two UV bogies in one of the painting chambers.

A subway car in the next chamber.

And last but not least: a Ganz articulated after polishing...