MÁVAG
MÁVAG was the largest Hungarian rail vehicle producer. MÁVAG company was the second largest industrial enterprise after the Manfréd Weiss Steel and Metal Works in the Hungarian half of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. MÁVAG was the property of the Kingdom of Hungary. After World War II MÁVAG was nationalized, and "Királyi" was removed from its name.
The company employed thousands of workers. The buildings were in the VIII. district of Budapest, bordered by the following streets: Kőbányai street, Hungária avenue, Vajda Péter street, and Orczy street. It was the most important Hungarian machine factory in the 19th century, along with Csepel Művek. The most respected products of MÁVAG were steam locomotives. The first was produced in 1873, and MÁVAG produced the famous locomotive no. 424 from 1924. MÁVAG's neighbouring company was the Ganz motor- és vagongyár, which manufactured diesel locomotives and luxury carriages for export.
In 1959 MÁVAG merged with the Ganz company and was renamed Ganz-MÁVAG.
The beginnings
Construction of Hungary's first railway line began in the second half of 1844. It is said that this was the first time that a steam locomotive was used on the completed line between Pest and Rákospalota, and later between Pest and Vác. The opening ceremony took place on 15 July 1846.The two predecessors of the Kőbányai út Machine Works were the Hungarian-Belgian Machine and Drive Building Company, founded in 1868, and the Hungarian-Swiss Railway Carriage Works, established on the site of the Northern Vehicle Repair Works. The latter company built the majority of the traction vehicles for the Alföld-Fiume Railway. However, by 1870 both companies had gone bankrupt and were liquidated.
The two plants were purchased by the Hungarian state and placed under joint control on August 1, 1870. The state founded the Machinery and Wagon Factory of the Hungarian Royal Railways and first handed it over to the management of MÁV, before establishing its own board. The first director of the factory was Frigyes Zimmermann.
After the Austro-Hungarian compromise of 1867, the legal obstacles of the development of national industry were eliminated, and the export of the locomotives became available. Corporate railways have grown, which, along with MÁV, demanded a large number of locomotives and wagons. The factory started production of vehicles in 1872, the first of which was the first domestic production III of 50 coke trucks and according to the plans of the Sigl factory in Vienna. class freight train steamer in 1873, which was presented at the Vienna World Exhibition that year.
Due to the global economic crisis, the company was temporarily reassigned to MÁV. On July 28, 1873, the building of the former Hungarian-Swiss Wagon Factory burnt down. It was rebuilt and turned into MÁV's main workshop. The factory's first proprietary-designed locomotive, number 7, was completed in 1878. The company produced a C-axis universal locomotive, the "Szolnok", for the Tiszavidék Vasút. It was given the 314 series mark, and was introduced at the Paris World Expo the same year. In 1877, the factory started to produce agricultural machinery and threshing machines.
In 1880, the Hungarian government merged the factory with the Diósgyőr Ironworks and established a joint management company under the name "Hungarian Royal State Railways Machine Factory and Diósgyőr Hungarian Royal Iron and Steel Factory Directorate, Budapest". In 1881, the factory was able to build larger bridges and built several bridges for the MÁV and Kassa-Oderberg Railways, as well as the iron structure of the Keleti Railway Station. The factory was taken over by Zsigmond Kordina in June 1881. The first truly remarkable domestic-developed locomotive was the 1883 10th, MÁV class Ia, and later the 220 Series locomotive. In the same year, the first composite locomotive of the factory was completed, MÁV Class 56, 568, and later in the series 20, which was the 75th finished steamer of the factory. Starting in 1884, the company was managed directly by the ministry of commerce. The director of the factory became Nándor Förster in 1890, the year the mill's threshing machine was completed.
The factory's 500th steam locomotive is number 28, at MÁV IIIe. Class 2535 locomotives were handed over on May 31, 1893. The thousandth locomotive, MÁV Int., Number 31, has a 468-track locomotive was completed in 1896 and presented at the Millennium Exhibition. In 1896, the factory made the steel structure of the Újpest railway bridge and the Ferencz József bridge. In 1896, when Hungary celebrated the 1000th anniversary of Hungarian settlement, the 1000th locomotive was exhibited.
The 1500th locomotive of the factory was built in 1900, Il. class 701 psz., which is IVd of Structure 46. Class 4405 and Transylvanian Mining Route with Govasdia Narrow Gauge Locomotive won the Grand Prix of the Paris World Expo, similarly to the plant's harvesting and threshing machines and locomotives.
From 1900, Károly Vajkay, director of the ironworks, and from 1903 Pál Róth became the director of the Ironworks.
Golden Era 1892 - 1914
The 20th century started with an economic downturn: the factory dropped 100 pieces of steam locomotives annually by 1904, almost half of them were made abroad, mainly in Italy. At that time, the vehicle parts of the electric locomotives produced for the Italian railway, Val Tellina, were also prepared for Ganz & Partners. Also for Ganz and Partner, the factory boiler plant delivered 159 de Dion-Bouton-based steam generators to the Ganz steam engine.The factory's bridging class then worked on major orders: they were built in 1898 and handed over to Budapest. At the time of the construction of the bridge, it was the largest chain bridge in the world. Structure Aurél Czekelius, beautiful gates were designed by Virgil Nagy. Steel structures were made by the Hungarian Royal State Ironworks. At this time, the 400 meter Tisza Bridge of the Algyő railway was built.
After the recession, steam locomotive production has risen again: by the year 1910, the factory had already produced 250 locomotives per year. In the 1900s, the Hungarian Royal State Iron Works planned and produced a number of steam locomotives of much larger size and power than before.
- the 71st-class, in-class high-speed train,
- the 84th factory IIIs. Class IV passenger trains,
- 90, 108, 114 IIIu. Class IV freight and passenger trains,
- 62nd factory IVe. Class 1 Mallet System Speedway,
- 87th factory VIm. Class 1 Mallet System Trains, or by-line service
- the TV. and TVa..
The bridgehead then made the Baja-Bátaszék, the Komárom railway and the Danube bridges. For agriculture, CT and XCT road steam locomotives, various locomobiles and steam bricks were built.
In the 1910s, with a few exceptions, the factory built only superheated steam locomotives. The two fast train locomotive types of the era, one of the most powerful 2'C1 'axle locomotives in Europe, are factory-fitted and 102 and 103 steam locomotives suitable for slopes with weaker superstructures. Until its outbreak, it produced 22 and 140 copies. The 327,023 steam locomotive delivered in 1913 was a locomotive bearing the factory's 3000th serial number.
The Hungarian Royal State Iron Factories have produced the 1051 Series Mallet system of the 1051 series, which is the largest and most powerful locomotive of the age in Europe until the construction of the MÁV Class 601 Engines were built in the MÁVAG factory in 1914. Unit 31 was the factory's 4000th factory locomotive, which was completed in 1917. By this time, the annual capacity of the factory exceeded 300, but the demand also required the manufacture of some smaller types in other plants. Due to the war copper deficiency, from 1915 only the Brotan-Deffner-system boilers with steel water pipes were made including the already mentioned 324, 375, 376 and 601 series locomotives. The first suburban locomotives were also completed: the first copies of the three-wheeled 342-series locomotives and the four-wheeled 442-series locomotives.
In addition, new 2'C axle-mounted high-speed trains, 1'D-axle heavy-duty trains and C'C-axis Mallet-system trains have been designed. However, only the production of the Series 328 series 118 could begin with these types.
The four cylinder Mallet -type Class 601 engines with their 22.5 meter length and 2200 KW power, were the largest and most powerful steam locomotives which have ever built before the First World War in Europe.
Interwar Period
The loss of the First World War did not initially have a significant impact on the life of the factory. Because of the large number of modern locomotives that had been taken away during the Romanian occupation following the fall of the Soviet Republic and that the Trianon Peace Treaty had condemned to neighbouring countries, MÁV did not cancel its wartime orders, and was able to deliver hundreds of new locomotives up to 1923. Hubert Dvorák, who had been the chief engineer until 1919, became the factory's director in 1919. In 1925, the Budapest and Diósgyőr ironworks were merged with the Győr Ágyúgyár and the company was renamed MÁVAG. During this period, the bridge division built two major bridges: the Danube Bridge at Danube-Földvár and the Horthy Miklós Bridge.Among the agricultural machinery, 405 tractors can be mentioned between the two wars.
István Horthy, the son of the governor, became the director of MÁVAG on 1 July 1937.
The MÁV Class 424 and others
By 1924, the first new type of steam locomotive of the post-war period had been completed, the first of the 122nd type, the Class 424, which later became famous in Europe. The wartime design was completely revised, the boiler dimensions were increased considerably and the axle arrangement was modified. The resulting solution was a fine example of the ingenuity of the "poor man of purpose": it was suitable for covering all the traffic needs between the two wars, from heavy freight trains to heavy passenger and high-speed trains. The vehicle type remained in production for more than three decades, and MÁVAG produced 514 of them, not only for MÁV, but also for several foreign railway companies after the Second World War. At that time, however, MÁV was only able to purchase 26 of them, due to its limited resources. The purchase of the 424,027, the 5000th locomotive of the factory, could only be made after lengthy financial negotiations, in fact for prestige reasons. In 1928, the "little brothers" of the 424, the so-called "engine replacement" steam locomotives of the 22 series, the 126th series, were born, which in the reduced traffic due to the economic crisis not only carried branch line trains, but also light main line express trains. Both types were characterised by multi-purpose use, simple construction, low coal consumption and low maintenance costs.
In the 1930s, MÁVAG was also caught up in the winds of industrial design and streamlining. In this spirit, and as a competitor to the Ganz factory's "ÁRPÁD" high-speed rail buses, the streamlined steam locomotive series 242, construction number 129, was born. However, due to its limited performance it did not become a significant series. In any case, the 1930s were not a time for steam locomotive production in the poor economic climate. The low point was 1934, when only three steam locomotives were built, but until the outbreak of war there was no year in which the output reached 20 locomotives. Only the boiler shop produced in earnest: more than 500 locomotive boilers were delivered to Indian orders.
MÁVAG was involved in the electrification of MÁV's railways from the very beginning: the factory produced the rolling stock for 29 VM7 and 3 VM8 factory-built Kando-type phase-change electric locomotives.
Up until 1959 the company produced 7578 locomotives. MÁVAG exported many locomotives: from 1900, to Italy and Romania, later to Egypt, India, Yugoslavia, and Korea. After 1945 the company exported diesel trains to the USSR, and in 1961 became well known there for Д1 local diesel trains.