The age of steam preserved by rail enthusiasts

Описание: (24 Sep 2013) A small band of train enthusiasts is struggling to keep the age of steam on track in Hungary.
The eight volunteers are key to keeping more than a hundred steam engines rolling into town.
STORYLINE:
The age of steam - preserved in 21st century Hungary.
The Hungarian Railway Museum is home to more than a hundred old trains and steam locomotives.
Each year the museum organises the 'Central European Steam Locomotive Grand Prix'.
The event, which pays tribute to George Stephenson, the founder of the first railway line between Liverpool and Manchester in the UK in 1830, attracts thousands of visitors every year.
They are mostly families with young children who are obsessed of the steam locomotives, while their grandparents might even remember them in use. Steam locomotives were in service in Hungary until the early 70s.
The most famous is, perhaps, the '424', the legendary steam locomotive of the Hungarian Railway Company. More than 500 of them were produced in the country after the WWII.
This model was a multi purpose locomotive serving both intercity and cargo trains.
It was produced until the early 60s. Many of them were scrapped decades ago, but some are on display, like the only blue one, which served the Yugoslav leader, Tito. It still rests in front of Belgrade's main railway station.
But today only one '424' is still in use. Today it's being operated by Vilmos Sipos, who started as a locomotive engineer in 1976 at the same garage where the railway museum is based today.
Sipos is very proud to be associated with the engine:
"We are on a locomotive '424'. This was a great product of the Hungarian heavy industry. In the past, this model was both loved by travellers and engineers. This unit was rebuilt, just finished a couple of days ago. It was a great work, but finally it's done."
But despite the passion these icons of a bygone era arouse, the sad fact is that it is hard to find the money to rebuild and maintain the trains.
"We really hope that these locomotives won't disappear, because this is a great tradition" says Aniko Magyar, the manager of the Hungarian Railway Museum.
Step up the enthusiasts.
Every morning at dawn, the foot steps of eight men echo through a massive locomotive repair shed on the outskirts of Budapest.
Just a couple of blocks from the railway museum, there's a workshop, where nearly 2,000 workers once kept hundreds of steam engines in service around the country before they were replaced by cheaper-to-run diesel and electric locomotives.
Today this band of eight men _ mostly retirees _ are left to carry on the repair work at the Hungarian State Railways' steam engine workshop.
The trains are displayed at the railway museum and can be used for novelty trips by tourists.
Despite opposition from the state railway company's management, this group of dedicated enthusiasts try to save as many of the steam trains as they can. The oldest dates from the 1880s. But the future of the old workshop and the steam locomotives is uncertain.
Every year, there's less money to rebuild these legendary machines, while the train enthusiasts find the work harder and harder to do.
One engineer, Mihaly Jankovics, says:
" The heart of every member of this team beats for the steam locomotives."
Many young engineers don't want to start their career in the dirty repair shed where the past of the Hungarian railway is still present - a place where Lenin and Stalin still grace the careworn walls.

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