HUNGARY: Balancing beer and freeing chained women is all part of the international steam engine races in Budapest

Several rare steam engines competed at the fifth Central Europe Steam Engine Grand Prix that took place in the Railway Museum in Budapest on September 17-18. The competing teams arrived from the UK, Ireland, Austria, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Serbia, and Hungary. The competition included some tricky tasks such as driving the engine so smoothly that the beer can that was placed on the wheel stick should not fall off. If it fell off another can had to placed before the engine could continue driving. In another task a team member had to fill a bucket with water from the engine and put out a fire on the platform, then run and free a woman who was captured and chained, and drive her off in a hand-car. Apart from these tests of dexterity and fastness, the engines had to accelerate in the short distance of 200 meters then slow down fast to stop at the finish line. All this in front of the judges who monitored every move. In the big engines category, the UK team got third place, Serbia came second, and Slovakia won the first place. Slovakia has won the race three times before. "Steam engines are also popular in Slovakia but not as much as in Hungary where each year there are more and more people coming to this race," Vanko Libovje, the Slovak team leader said. After the races visitors had a chance to have a close look at the engines. The Hungarian Railway Museum opened in 2000. It is Europe's first interactive railway museum displaying over a hundred railway vehicles and equipment of varying ages on a site of over 70,000 m2. The museum has been very popular drawing train enthusiasts from across Europe. John Points came all the way from England to see the race and the exhibit. "I think this is unique in terms of size and scope and what it does, it really is exceedingly impressive," he said. Many believe the success of the museum and races like the Grand Prix lies in people's attraction to the past. "People are hungry for nostalgia, that's why they come here. Only the older people have seen steam engines before, the young ones see these here for the first time," Hungarian team member Karoly Mojzos said. His fellow team member, Laszlo Cseke, used to drive steam engines himself when he first started working. "I started on a steam engine and worked on all types from the steam ones to the end, so it's nostalgia for me too. Those who didn't do it can't know what it's like really," he said. One of the special rarities at the race was the 464.202 steam engine. It was manufactured in the Skoda factory in 1956 and it drove the train in which Soviet leader Nikita Hruschov travelled to meet with US President John F. Kennedy in 1960 in Vienna.

ITN Source | September 23, 2005

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