Hungarian State Railways class 424

The MÁV series 424 was a 4-8-0 mixed traffic locomotive that wasn't only a success in Hungary, but also in other countries. It was based on the Südbahn class 570 and also had a high boiler that had enough space for a large grate. With a driver diameter of 1,610 mm and a top speed of 85, later 90 km/h, it was also suited for the express trains in Hungary. Due to its good acceleration, it could reach high average speeds on lines with many stops. But it was also powerful enough for heavy passenger and freight trains. On an incline of 0.5 percent, it could reach 70 km/h with a train of 1,150 tonnes.

Although it had only been built by MÁVAG, the production spanned 34 years in total. In 1924, 26 had been built for the MÁV and only one followed in 1929. In World War II, the need for a powerful locomotive that can haul various military trains led to 216 more being built between 1940 and 1944. Production even continued after the war, so 122 more had followed by 1958. So in total 365 had been built for the MÁV, but when the last were built, many others had already been given to other countries. The MÁV modified some locomotives for example with Kylchap exhausts and only retired them between 1972 and 1986. Today, 424.009, 247 and 287 are operational with more being preserved in a non-operational state.

More had been directly delivered to other countries. Between 1942 and 1944, the Slovak SŽ had ordered 15 which became part of the ČSD after the war. Together with others they got from Hungary, the ČSD soon had 51 in their inventory and designated them class 465.0. The last ones were operated until 1973. In Yugoslavia, 13 former Hungarian locomotives were used as class 11 and three of them had been assigned to Tito's train. More had been built for China and North Korea, what brought the total number to 514.