Place and Role of Narrow Gauge Steam Locomotive Production in Hungary

Are there any Hungarian specialities besides the tastes of the kitchen, or the short drinks fermented from the fruits of Pannon landscape's Mediterranean downhill gardens, or beyond the Tokaj region's heavy wines sweetened by the muscatel raisins dried in the October wind coming from the high mountains surrounded by the Carpathian basin? Is there anything typical Hungarian in the renascent Europe besides our unique language and the domestic animals taken from the Mongolian steppes on our long journey, or our ancient songs which are known and sung by the Asian pastoral tribes even today? If yes, besides the well-known Rubik's cube, these are the phase converter electric locomotives of Kálmán Kandó equipped with induction traction motors and, put into service in 1932 on the Budapest-Hegyeshalom line electrified with single phase 50 Hz overhead line system, the Jendrassik-type diesel engines keeping the fame of the Ganz factories for many decades, and many other engineering works, among them the steam engines designed and built to meet the domestic and the Carpathian basin's traffic requirements in MÁV Machine Factory and MÁVAG Works in Budapest.

Autorentext

I was born in Budapest on 04.04.1957. I started to work for the Hungarian State Railways (MV) as a young mechanical engineer in 1981, when the last steam engines were retired in Hungary. The modern rolling stock, running in commertial service, made a lot of work for the railway staff, but the steam engines remained a part of my life.