Short history of the Hungarian Railways

Part #2: The Hungarian State Railway, MÁV (1868-1890)

In 1867 Hungary and Austria made the historic Compromise, and the Austrian-Hungarian Monarchy was founded. The Hungarian Government took over the responsibility for the transport issues. They faced with a collection of complex problems. Most railways on Hungarian territory were built with a State Interest Warranty. This means, the Austrian Government warranted a certain level of interest rate for the railway companies for the case, if their profit will be less than calculated. This encouraged the companies to build and operate expensively. After the Compromise the Hungarian Government inherited these duties and to maintain the country's infrastructural development, continued the practice of State Interest Warranty. This resulted a huge sum to pay: in the year 1874 more, than 8% of the State Budget was paid for Railway Companies as rate subsidy.

The other problem was that these companies, mostly operated by Austrians, applied a tariff structure that made the transport very expensive inside Hungary, but cheap towards Austria. This handicapped the Hungarian industry development - failing to justify the goals of the Interest Warranty.

The third problem was that the railway companies rejected to build lines close to the borders, into the mountains. This would have been an important military requirement.

Thus the Hungarian Parliament decided to establish the Hungarian State Railway, MÁV (Magyar Államvasutak), in 1868. In the following decades they financed the takeover of the major private railways in Hungary. In 1892 the Austrian State Railway (StEG, former KKStB) - despite of his name this was a private company - was nationalized. With this the basic MÁV network was complete. Only two major and two smaller private railways survived the nationalization. They were the Austrian-Hungarian Southern Railway (SB/DV) and the Kaschau-Oderberg Railway (KsOd) as large companies; Györ-Sopron-Ebenfurth Railway and the Arad-Csanád Railway (ACSEV) as smaller one. There were many private local railways that were usually operated by MÁV.

Locomotive Development

MÁV inherited a mixed collection of locomotives and rolling stock from the nationalized companies. Most engines were built in Austria. MÁV found out the types that were best suited for their requirements and contracted the Co. Sigl in Vienna to build them. For a while Sigl became the major manufacturer of MÁV locomotives.

The engines were ranged into four classes:

Class I - Fast passenger locomotive, usually 4-4-0
Class II - Passenger locomotive for plain areas, usually 2-4-0
Class III - Freight locomotive on plain and passenger locomotive in the mountains, usually 0-6-0
Class IV - Mountain freight locomotive, usually 0-8-0

Later on this scheme was extended by 3 other Classes for branchlines.
Until 1874 the Class I was empty, there was no fast passenger locomotive available at MÁV.

In 1870 MÁV established its main workshop, that became later the "Machine Plant of the Hungarian State Railway", MÁVAG. They built the first loco in 1873 using Sigl plans. They, however, soon set up their own Design Department and from the 1880s most Hungarian built steamers were also designed there. Austrian manufacturers often purchased plans from them, usually to build engines for other Hungarian railways.

The typical Class I engine of this era was the Class Ia (1881, later Class 220) 4-4-0 and its follower, the similar Class Ie (1890, later Class 222), also 4-4-0, with its interesting Woolf-tandem compound engine. The typical freight engine was first the Sigl developed Class III (1869, later Class 335), 0-6-0, and later its increased power version, the Class IIIe (1882, later Class 326). The Class IV (1971, later 441), 0-8-0 engine was designed for the Karst-line in Croatia, from Zagreb to Fiume (today Rijeka).

For the branchlines the small Class XII (1889, later Class 377) outside frame 0-6-0T engine was built.

All these locomotives were built as outside frame engines, only small classes of inherited steamers were constructed as inside frame loco. They were usually equipped with a Stephenson valve gear inside the frames, and the valves were also there. This was a very simple and reliable construction, but it was difficult to maintain. The Class I and XII locos had external Stephenson valve gear, that was mounted outside the frame, on the cranks. From the 1870s all steamers were built with cabs and the older engines were also retrofitted.

The cars were first built by Austrian companies, like Ringhoffer in Prague, but later from Hungarian private companies, like Ganz in Budapest, MWG in Györ and Weitzer in Arad.

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