Before the mainline of the Hungarian State Railways north from Budapest to the Czech border was electrified, steam power handled most trains well into the 1970s. The most prolific of all Hungarian designs was the 324 class 2-6-2, nearly 1,000 of which were built--mostly during the period of the two World Wars. The break-up of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and World War II resulted in many of them going to Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, and Rumania. Some, such as No. 324.1546, charging up the Danube Valley on December 4, 1970, lasted until the end of steam, in the mid-1980s.
