Childrens Railway

Childrens railway

There is a narrow gauge railway in hills of Budapest, I think it runs for approx 15 km, and it is staffed by kids. Adults drive the trains but the staff are the outstanding pupils selected from the cities schools. Anyone without straight A grades for the last 3 years need not apply. The railway is about 60 years old and set up by the Russians.

As the staff don’t speak English, I had to order the tickets and enquire about train times, return times etc. It must have been something about the approx 10 year old girl dressed in uniform, which muddled my brain. Whatever she said I could not understand as I thought it was just too freaky to see kids in uniform saluting the trains. I must have asked about the train times at least four times. Nothing she said was being absorbed by my grey matter, apart from the endless mantra of “that kid is wearing a uniform and its freaking me out”. Hubby came over and asked me if I felt alright.

I spent the two train journeys watching every move the staff kids made. I don’t know what it was, it was just a bit unnatural seeing them in uniforms. Kept thinking I was in an episode of Dr Who and the kids are super intelligent alien forms about to eat me and the kids for dinner. Despite the beautiful scenery and the intoxicating diesel fumes (they don’t exactly worry about the carbon footprint) I felt very uneasy.