Várnagy Zoltán: Urban Transportation - Our Budapest (Budapest, 1994)

pal property. Electrification was implemented in 1929. The engines used today were purchased by BKV (Budapest Public Transport Authority) from the Austrian firm SPG BBC.

The original length of the cogwheel railway was 2883 metres, and the track’s sharpest incline is 10.25%. The first operating permit stipulates that trains are not to run in the event of ice appearing on the lines. The gables of the Városmajor lower terminus building were decorated with the inscription “Svábhegyi vaspálya” (Sváb Hill Railway) and frescos depicting scenes of a vine harvest. The facade bore the Latin motto Per ardua ad astra- steep is the way to the stars. The building still exists and is worthy of being protected as part of the country’s architectural heritage.

The method of transporting freight by cogwheel railway to the rural Sváb Hill of the late nineteenth century would be modern even by present-day standards. The waggon, together with the horses pulling it, was driven on the flat car of the train specifically designed for these purposes, and rolled off the car on arrival at the hilltop to continue on its way to its destination. That is exactly how today’s containers are transported by rail from border to border all over Europe as well as within Hungary.

The children’s railway is a pecciliar feature of the city.

Construction started in 1948, and it was opened as the Pioneers

Railway in the summer of 1950.1 was a privilege of pioneers doing

WELL AT SCHOOL TO MAN THE LINE UNDER THE SUPERVISION OF ADULTS.

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