Short history of the MÁV Class 326 engines

Part #2

The Class IIIe (later Class 326)

After 12 years of service of the Class III engines MÁV decided to let develop by MÁVAG a similar engine with increased power. This was the Class IIIe, later Class 326, the #13 loco type of MÁVAG. It was built in two lots, the first 158 pieces between 1882 and 1886, the second lot between 1888 and 1897, which became another manufacturer's type number, #28. When the last examples were built in 1897 for MÁV, the Class already became obsolete. Neverthless additional locos were built for private companies up to as late as 1912!

The manufacturer did not change much on the construction of the earlier Class III engines. They increased the boiler sheet thickness by one millimeter, allowing this way an increased pressure of 10.0 Bar. They introduced improved boiler staybolts, that were better equipped for the thermal dilatation. The rodding was redesigned for "I" cross section (fluted) rods. They redesigned the cab, with side windows, and a sliding window behind. This is the spotting feature that the easiest distinguishes the Class IIIe (later Class 326) from its predecessors.

Most components were however the same as those of the other engines, like tubing, valves, injector and other fittings. The wheels are also the same as those of the Class III (later Class 335).

Other railway companies also purchased from this type of engine. Some ordered exactly the same design, some other companies let the manufacturer make small changes, resulting in very similar locomotive, but not exactly the same ones. A typical loco of this type is the BPV engine, that became later, after the nationalization of BPV, the MÁV Class IIIk (341), or the GySEV locomotives #16 and #17. The GySEV #17 is still active member of the GySEV museum stock.

During an experiment a few examples of the first lot of Class IIIe were retrofitted with long, "American" type smokebox, and later most of them was retrofitted with this feature. The engines of the second lot was built with this feature already from the beginning, but also other parts were slightly redesigned. It was equipped with a flat steam dom lagging, without the brass rings of the predecessors. It was built with a sand dome instead of the sandbox of the earlier engines. Later some of locos of the first lot were also retrofitted with these features, thus in the later times one could see an interesting mixture of the loco equipment.

In 1911 MÁV reclassified and renumbered all locos. The Class IIIe thus became Class 326. There was no distinction between the engines of the first and second production lot, except the series number - above 326,158 for the members of the second production lot..

Before the WW1 two locos of the Class 326 were rebuilt with Brotan boiler to perform trials with this technology. This was still the original Brotan boiler, not the later adopted Brotan-Defner design. The steam reservoir was quite high here, above the longboiler, and it was not covered by lagging sheets, thus these engines had a really weird appearance. They were rebuilt to normal engines in the '20 though.

In the 1890's the Class IIIe slowly became obsolete. There were already stronger and faster engines available. That time all new locomotives in Hungary were built as compound engines, as those were much more economic. The Class IIIe and its older sisters were only used on branchlines and they drifted to switching service. Until the WW1 they replaced most older switchers.

Originally the 326s and her sister engines were only equipped by hand brakes. Even this acted only on the tender, the loco herself had no brake rigging at all. The handbrake crank was on the left side front of the tender, and it was operated by the fireman. In the 1920s the Class was equipped with Westinghouse air brakes. Also these acted on the tender only. The air pump was mounted on the right side of the loco smokebox and the air reservoirs were usually fixed to the footplates, close to the cab.

After the WW1 319 engines of the 496 should have been given to the neighbour countries as war reparation. The remaining locos worked as switchers and survived the WW2 too. Many of them remained active until the late 1970s, usually as switchers on small and medium size stations, often sharing the job with diesel engines.

Most of these popular steamers were scrapped in the late '60s and '70s . Two of them is on plinth, one in Debrecen and the other in Bátaszék. It is supposed that some of them are stored somewhere for rebuilding them as museum locomotive. The MÁV "Nostalgy" stock however does not contain any of the original Class 326s, just one Class 335 and one Class 341.

Abbreviations

Railway Companies

Manufacturers

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This page was updated last time on 25th July 1998
© János Erö