Hungarian State Railways series V43

The V43 is a universal electric locomotive that the 50 c/s Group developed for the Hungarian State Railways in the early 1960s. The first seven locomotives were built in Germany by Krupp, while a further 372 were built in Hungary by Ganz-MÁVAG. Because of their silicon rectifier they were nicknamed “Szili”.

As part of the line electrification, they were distributed throughout Hungary with 25,000 volts and 50 Hz and played a large part in replacing steam locomotives. From 1999 some locomotives were modernized, becoming V43.2. During further modernization from 2007, the V43.3 was created, which, in addition to further improvements in the area of electronics, also has push-pull control. This was needed to operate the control cars purchased from Germany.