Childrens Railway

The children’s railway of Budapest was established in 1948, in 2015. It was placed in the Guinness world record book as the longest railway, where all traffic and ticketing offices are done by kids.
That’s what the brochure says. But lest you think it is a railway run on child labor, it isn’t. At least not in the negative sense. I’m not sure of all of the history, because most of the museum was in Hungarian, but the railway origin, apparently comes from something like a Boy Scout camp during communist times. I think it was called the Young Pioneers, and it was a way to both introduce kids to trains, and introduce them to a working life.
The railway line runs through a protected forest area, I think it had like eight stops, with the train itself, being controlled by adults. The kids are all between about eight and twelve, they work at the railway two days a month, they sell tickets, they work in the museum, they signal the trains, and generally looks super cute saluting each other as the train goes past.
There was little doubt that the railway was started during communist times, the mural on the wall above the main ticket office was a dead giveaway, but now, it really does look like a fun activity for kids, that teaches a lot of responsibility.Read more