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 the 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.
Up until 1959 the company produced 7578 locomotives, including the Class 601, the largest steam locomotive type built in Europe up to and during World War I. In 1896, when Hungary celebrated the 1000th anniversary of Hungarian settlement, the 1000th locomotive was exhibited. 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.
In 1959 MÁVAG merged with the Ganz company and was renamed Ganz-MÁVAG.

The beginnings

The two plants were purchased by the Hungarian state and placed under joint control on August 1, 1870, founded the Machinery and Wagon Factory of the Hungarian Royal Railways and first handed it over to the management of MÁV and then established 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, which was rebuilt, but it was no longer a part of the factory, but it became the MÁV's main workshop. The factory's first own-designed locomotive, number 7, was completed in 1878. For the Tiszavidék Vasút the company produced a C-axis universal locomotive under the name "Szolnok", which later became MÁV IIId. he was given the 314 series mark, and was introduced at the Paris World Expo in the year. From 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". From 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 from 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 in the 15th, MÁV Class 56, 568, and later in the series 20, which was the 75th finished steamer of the factory. From 1884, the company was managed directly by the ministry of commerce. The director of the factory became Nándor Förster from 1890. This 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 already completed in 1896 and was also presented at the Millennium Exhibition. Also in 1896, the factory made the steel structure of the Újpest railway bridge and the Ferencz József bridge.
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

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 of 290 m 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 Tisza Bridge of the 400 m long 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 324 series of locomotives were produced for decades in the largest number of ever produced Hungarian steam locomotives in a total of 905 units, while 375 locomotives were manufactured for half a century - the latest version of the steam engine was the latest Hungarian version. In 1908, the In. Class was built to 816 locomotive locomotives in the factory. At that time, the factory's main builder, Zsigmond Kordina, was Dvorak Hubert.
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 beautiful 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. 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.

Names of the company