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We had track maintenance works on the Grand Boulevard routes 4 and 6 at three sites concurrently. This necessited a shortening of the lines between Oktogon and Moszkva tér.
This is a picture taken before the temporary shortening. The turnout at Blaha Lujza tér is already halfway dissected.
A few days later the tracks are still closed, but the crossover and turnout have already been renewed.
The second construction site was at the crossing of Dohány utca.
Strange sight: a mobile toilet in the middle of the Grand Boulevard :-)
The third contruction site was at the crossing of Wesselényi utca.
The building site in the shade, with the New York Palace in the background.
A dense supplementing bus service was needed to cope with the heavy traffic!
The buses used the private right-of-way of the tram: they only left it before the construction areas.
Lots of Ikarus 280 articulated buses at Oktogon...
The rest of the semi-circular tram lines was served by a route "4-6".
A Ganz CSMG2 in all-over-ad.
Behind the scenes: the really long depot rides
More interesting than the shortening itself was the way on which the trams of route "4-6" reached their territory, because the main catering way to the Grand Boulevard - Népszínház utca - lays on the other side of the construction areas!
So, the CSMG2 double-sets had to go until the end of route 1, then via Bécsi út and Frankel Leó utca...
... which is used by route 17 normally.
To get to the operational section of the Grand Boulevard, they used the connecting track in Török utca. Of course this rarely used section does not have an automated switch, so the drivers of the "4-6" trams have had to set the points manually...
... and of course the following tram 17's had to re-set the points back to their direction in front of them.
The turnout seen from north.
In Török utca police were "guarding" the track so that no car would park on it. You can see two track here, but unfortunately...
... only one can be used since 2000. This in turn led to another peculiarity: the trams were forced to return to their depot after the day on a different route!
Let's enjoy this rare sight: trams in Török utca...
... and trams entering service at Margit körút.
The returning of these trams to their home depot Hungária was only possible by going 'round half the city: they left their service tracks through Moszkva tér...
... then via route 18 (pictured here at Szent Gellért tér)...
... down to Remise Budafok. Here they reversed
(the terminus of route 18 at Albertfalva kitérő was too short for
these 54-meter-long double-sets, so they'd had to come all the way here!),
went back to the actual terminus of route 4, from where they rode their
normal depot ride over route 4, Mester utca, Haller utca,
Orczy út, Salgótarjáni út - and voila, they arrived. This
of course took more than an hour even without the halts in the tram stops!
"Tram jam" at Szent Gellért tér
I went out to take photos of the long depot rides mentioned above, when I witnessed the aftermaths of a hold-up somewhere on route 18....
This is a T5C5K double-set of route 18 following a UV triple-set of route 47...
... followed by a T5C5 double-set of route 18, which was followed by...
... a UV double-set on route 41. And just look at that:
what's that behind the UV's? Yes: another Tatra double-set of route 18!
:-)
"And then..."
To conclude this pictorial about the summer and autumn of 2004, here's a UV triple-set at the terminus of route 19 at Batthyány tér, with the illuminated Chain Bridge in the background.
I hope you liked my pictures! That's all for now...
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