The abandoned Istvántelek Train Yard (Istvántelki főműhely), otherwise known as the “Red Star Train Graveyard,” occupies a vast area of land in Budapest. More than 100 locomotives and train cars rot away, some in deteriorating depots, others out in the field. Among these are some very rare train engines, and a few cars that are said to have transported prisoners to Auschwitz during the Holocaust.
Built at the beginning of the 20th century as a repair yard for the national railway, only a few southern parts of the train yard are still in use, while most of it is abandoned. Two large depots, a few smaller sheds and open-air areas are scattered with locomotives and railcars, some of them very ancient, others more recent, from Hungary’s time as part of the Soviet Regime. Some of the trains were brought here to be repaired and exhibited in the Budapest Railway Museum but never made it to the display and were instead left behind in the train yard.

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This factory was one of the largest industrial investments of the 1950s in Hungary, it provided electricity for 50 years. Construction involved almost 4,500 workers, and about 2,000 workers who were employed in the manufacturing process after construction was finished. Of the total 
production 80% was reserved for Soviet use and the remaining 20% was placed at the disposal of the Hungarian industry.
The Hungarian economy prior to World War II was primarily oriented toward agriculture and small-scale manufacturing. From the late 1940s, the Communist government started to nationalize the industry. At first, only factories with more than 100 workers were nationalized; later, this limit was reduced to only 10. From the early 1950s, more and more new factories were built. This rapid and forced industrialization followed the standard Stalinist pattern in an effort to encourage a more self-sufficient economy. In 1968, Stalinist self-sufficiency was replaced by the “New Economic Mechanism”, which reopened Hungary to foreign trade.
Although Hungary enjoyed one of the most liberal and economically advanced economies of the former Eastern Bloc, both agriculture and industry began to suffer from a lack of investment in the 1970s.
The factory has been under demolition for the better part of the last decade and the process is still under way.

2049 Factory

Poveglia was constructed on a permanent fortification built by the Venetian government and from 1793-1814 was used as a plague quarantine station, or “lazaretto”—one of many in the Venetian lagoon.
The tiny island is said to have hosted over 160,000 infected souls living out their final days and hours there—so many that there are whispers that 50 percent of the soil consists of human remains. Recently, mass graves have been found on the nearby islands of Lazaretto Nuovo and Lazzaretto Vecchio containing the remains of thousands of plague victims. Poveglia has yet to be fully investigated.
Finding the location of Poveglia to be small and easily missed, Napoleon also used the island for a darker purpose, storing weapons there. The location was discovered, and many small battles took place as the island claimed even more lives.
In 1922, a mental hospital was opened on Poveglia. Local legend says that one doctor at the hospital tortured and killed many of his patients, butchering them horribly, only to later die by falling from, or possibly being thrown off of, its bell tower. The hospital closed in 1968, and the ruins are still there, slowly being reclaimed by greenery. While it is professed to be a former retirement home, evidence that it housed mental patients is still evident.
With a past like this, it’s not surprising that Poveglia is believed to be haunted, attracting the attention of ghost hunters and paranormal investigators.

Explored	2019
Year of Inception	1950s
Condition	Decaying
Surroundings	Budapest