Budapest's vintage freight trams celebrate 100 years in service

Budapest is keeping century-old freight trams running to do the work that modern passenger trams cannot, plowing snow and hauling broken-down vehicles

BUDAPEST, Hungary -- With the toot of a horn, the ring of a bell and the hiss of air brakes, an unusual rail vehicle pulls out of a depot in Budapest to serve the Hungarian capital's public transit system, a job it has done for a century.

The so-called freight trams, known as mukis, run on electricity provided by overhead wires and travel on Budapest's vast tram rail network, one of the busiest in the world. But unlike the hundreds of iconic yellow trams in the passenger fleet, they don’t carry commuters.

Acquired by the city in 1926, the wood-sided trams were initially products of necessity: They brought goods and raw materials to and from Budapest's factories after much of the local freight infrastructure had been destroyed during World War I.

"Engineers at the time designed an electric drive system mainly using parts from vehicles damaged in the war, as well as parts from vehicles that had already been designated for scrapping,” said Ádám Zadravecz, the head of tram vehicle development and technology at Budapest's public transit company BKV.

“Their primary purpose was freight transport, but after World War II, these vehicles were also used for removal of the war ruins," he said.