Spring 1941, a trip to Kónya

Dear Sir, On your interesting website "Szakmai oldalak", I found, in the list of the "gasdasagi vasutak" in Észak-Alföld, some indication of a rail line for agricultural transport that would have existed in the district of Kónya (Hortobágy), it seems up to the eighties. The only information known on this line seems to be the length of 1800 meters. Perhaps I can provide some other information on the line, on which I made a quick trip back in 1941.

A kónyai lóvasút szerelvénye battyog a nagyvasúti állomás felé
Fotó: Tasnádi László

In the years 1940-1942 I lived in Budapest with my family because of my father's work, head of the Italian school of Budapest. In the spring of 1941 my father was called by the University of Debreczen to take some lectures on Italian literature, for which reason my family spent a week or so in that city.

The lectures of my father were followed by a rich gentlewoman, owner of vast land planted with tobacco in the territory of Kónya; this lady invited my father to spend a day with his family as a guest in his house located on the property.

Accordingly, one morning we left the MÁV station Debreczen on a local train (composed of the typical small two-axle passenger cars with open-balcony entrances of the time) and after a journey of about an hour we reached the small station of Kónya.

Leaving the small square opposite the station, there came a surprise: a small track came from a side road and ended in a two tracks stub terminal and on one of the two tracks was a parked vehicle, clearly intended for the carriage of passengers, pulled by a horse. It was the private railway of the lady named above, the properties of which were clearly of such an extension as to require a rail transport system (at this point I must note that, despite my young age, I was only 14, I was already quite experienced in rail questions).

All took place on the small car that was equipped with a single longitudinal bench on which could be seated no more than six or eight people sitting shoulder to shoulder; at least that's what I seem to remember. The car then walked unsteadily on the small track, the gauge of which should not be greater than 600 mm, similar to a Decauville railway.

With a route that seemed to me very long, extended through tobacco fields, the small car took us up to the house of the lady, who must surely be beautiful. But my interest was focused only on the small railway, whose track went behind the house, with numerous branches serving several agricultural buildings. A large number of small two-axle trucks were parked in sidings and many trucks were being pushed by hand to form small trains to be towed by a horse. I wondered how they could electrify the small network. In the afternoon after an inspection to the properties of the lady still on the passengers car, the same took us back to the MÁV railway station in Kónya amd with that ended my first (and probably only) visit to Kónya.

From that day it has been more than seventy years, during which I have often thought about the small railway, the great house and the lady who lived there, which I do not remember the name (but maybe not I never knew). But I can provide two details about her and maybe someone can identify the family: she was the widow of a count and was Jewish; persecuted by the Nazi regime of the Major Szálasi, committed suicide a few years after the fact that I told.

Two observations. It seems certain that after the proclamation of the People's Republic the land has become part of a collective farm and the horse railway remained in operation, more or less in terms of origin, until 1983; it should not be difficult to find any news of this period.

Besides this, where does the data on the length of the line (1800 meters)? Perhaps from Mr, Tasnádi László (has Mr. Tasnádi an e-mail address?) If someone has traveled or has traveled the path to the end, must necessarily be arrived at the buildings that once constituted the core of the farm with the house of the lady. It would be interesting to see what it is today.

Sincerely yours Vittorio Formigari, Rome (Italy)

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