Index – National – Summit of the Ancients Iron

Ikarus and Malév – two brands that have now become a concept, it is true, we no longer have a national airline and our bus production only exists in traces. The total annual production of the current national production is of the order of one hundred, while in the heyday of Ikarus, 13,000 buses rolled off the assembly line, that is, annually. Of course, it didn’t happen from one moment to the next.

Today, none of those who worked in Imre Uhri’s workshop in 1895, that is, in the predecessor company, to make the first Hungarian wooden wheelchair live. Of course, the advent of motorization also revolutionized the activities of small smithies. Although the owners weren’t happy with some of the changes, such as post-WWII nationalization, the fact that the creation of the CMO, which is now a forgotten concept, meant a huge market that disappeared with the disintegration of the system socialist world cup. In the bygone era, Hungary took responsibility for bus production, with vehicles made here reaching everywhere from South America to Africa, and a Model 436 even crowded the White House lawn when President Clinton hosted Prime Minister Gyula Horn in 1994.

Thanks to brigade races and the Stakhanovist movement, the norm for a bus was lowered to 3,800 hours, and in 1948, in honor of the new people’s democracy, workers pledged to make a bus a day for just 2 florins.

From the glorious past, you can now see nearly fifty buses, the syringes of Anvil volunteer firefighters, and the airport vehicles from the Aviation Cultural Center at Ferihegy Airport.

Among them, for the first time, the general public can see the ICS 695 deck hinge, which was designed to bring passengers directly from the city center to the plane, from where they could have immediately walked onto the plane using a bridge. passenger opening from the bus.

The build was good, but Malév went off the system for security reasons. Passport and Luggage Together (PALT) should have been subject to passport and customs control, which in the 1980s seemed like a pretty bold idea.

László Szedlmajer, deputy general manager of BKV, said that specialists from the transport company will help renovate the special vehicle.

We promised to take you to a workshop where we would provide you with a complete condition survey, deficiency list, material requirements, and an estimate of work hours. We can make the chassis, and the mechanics will be available from a 280 superimposed

Said the head of the Bus and Trolleybus Operations Directorate.

Of course, the Transport Museum is also represented by a remarkable large iron. Miklós Merczi, the institution’s chief museologist dealing with urban transport, revealed that the bus on display here is just the first drink in the museum’s planned fleet.

We brought our Ikarus 311, but the restoration of the farm engine we found, which is one of the last ten Ikarus 66s, is progressing well too. In addition to these two, a third Icarus is in the process of being acquired, but that we are not yet public.

The transport historian said many suspicions.

Regardless, the current event is the first this year, so it’s no wonder it drew crowds. One of the organizers, Tibor Tildy, who also runs the former Ikarus site, said it was the first joint meeting.

The Icarus meeting planned for Tapolca was ravaged by the epidemic, and the annual meeting on the river next to Polgár was canceled after the organizers agreed to coordinate the three occasions: Western Hungary in every even year and Eastern Hungary in May of every year. odd. will host the program, while each autumn the Aeropark in Budapest will host the event.

At the wheel of the nostalgia bus, the Ikarus-tudor told Index that, in addition to PALT, two special vehicles arrived: a 250 from Nyírség, which has only fifty this year, and an Ikarus 955, which was the last to be manufactured by the Mátyásföld factory. his tour bus and as such, riding the retro wave that was alive at the time, he was driving towards the legendary butcher.

Tibor Tildy then said goodbye to us, because he started the procession to the surrounding settlements, and also transported those who bought tickets for the unusual bus. And while we waited for the bus parade, we saw an army of vintage license plates, whose owners, they say, are there for every old vehicle, not just their own, which is well cared for and well maintained. Among them was an old Volkswagen Beetle, as well as a rounded Moscow and even a Skoda from the Czechoslovakian era, and even a Chrysler Neon with a real non-OT license plate.

At the event, we learned that the Chinese team named after Ikarus will soon have a type license for their electric bus. And that could be a huge weapon if a national value-added electronic bus really becomes a reality.

(Cover image: Isza Ferenc / Index)