The MÁV Class 22 steam locomotive, affectionately nicknamed 'Nyalóka' (Lollipop), is regarded as one of the most successful Hungarian steam locomotive types ever built. Designed in the late 1920s to replace railcars on secondary lines, this compact tank locomotive quickly proved far more capable than its original brief suggested.
Built at the MÁVAG works in Budapest, the two-cylinder, superheated locomotive was engineered for lightweight branch lines with strict axle-load limits. Between 1928 and 1940, 148 units were built for MÁV and 13 for Yugoslav State Railways, with the Slavonski Brod works in Yugoslavia producing a further 22 under license. Today, preserved locomotive No. 275,034 (formerly 22,034), restored by MÁV's Landler Jenő workshop, has been running heritage services since 1985, offering a genuine taste of Hungary's golden age of branch-line railways.
How to get thereFun fact: the nickname 'Nyalóka' comes from the locomotive's neat, rounded silhouette, and the class is still celebrated today as one of Hungary's finest branch-line steam engines.