0-2-2 Steam Locomotives in Hungary

Class 10 (Locobase 1536)

Data from A E Durrant The Steam Locomotives of Eastern Europe (Newton Abbot:David & Charles, 1966), pp 29, 40; and "MAV 10 sorozat" in Wikipedia (as translated by Google) at [], last accessed 2 October 2025.

Tufnell (1986) pointed out that the piston valves on these little cross-compound engines were almost as large as the cylinders themselves. MAV packed some interesting features in this industrial service design. It had probably the smallest Brotan boilers, a tri-vessel layout that, while unusual, was successful. (It is described in more detail in Locobase 1580.) On a very short wheelbase, the designers managed to place the boiler, two driving axles of which the valve drove the front one, an equal-sized auxiliary axle under the firebox, a full cab, and the miniature bunker.

They first began operating at the Csap and Békéscsaba heating plants, but at the end of World War I, hauled light (presumably very light) passenger service. Their relatively tall drivers permitted a 60 kph (37 mph) maximum speed.

Although Wikipedia sums up their design as one that "did not work out", they proved durable enough to serve for decades before being assessed as worn out and retired in 1952.

Class VIII (Locobase 21283)

Data from "MAV VIII" in Wikipedia at [], last accessed 28 November 2025. Works number was 268 in 1879.

When Anton Elbel created the ONWB 401 in 1879 and demonstrated the value of a small hybrid, single driving axle locomotive and baggage compartment (Locobase 21282), the Hungarian State Railway went to the same Viennese builder of a sextet of similar, but somewhat larger engines.

After a thorough trial on Croatia's Vrpolje-Samac railway line, Wikipedia notes, the first of the class acquired two more for that service and thre for the Aranyosgyéres-Torda line in Transylvania.

By 1907, all six gave way to more powerful designs. The Croatian locomotives wound up on three Budapest workshops (-Istvantelek, Temesvár, and Debrecen) as shunters. The other three were pulled from service in 1912.