Hi Lew, hi all,
this is very nice thread, thank you. I also used to run some rather low end JEP trains, hence the autumn photo with the barrel cars. I'd also like to refine the naming explanation regarding the Hungarian PV trains.
So PV is an abbreviation for Mint. It was assigned to the State Mint in the 50s to produce toy trains, hence this naming. You know, those were very different, Soviet oriented times. Sometimes it used to be written as PéVé following how we used to say it, but on the trains only PV has been printed.
PV had 2 lines of trains, the "Elöre" which was the greeting of the Pioneers actually. The Elöre line consisted of the 4 wh. electric and the 4 wh. cars. A coach, a mail, a gondola, a tanker and a flat. The Elöre electrics were mainly green, but also a few dark red version exist. The mail cars and the coaches had various colors, depending on production stock.
The more advanced line was called "Pannonia", which was the Roman name of the western half of today Hungary, which belonged to the Roman Empire back then. The Pannonia line consisted of the 8 wh. electric, the 8 wh coach and the Elöre freight cars put on trucks in a "rude way", in order to look as 8 wh. cars too. An 8 wh. mail car was planned too, prototype photo is known, but it was never produced unfortunately. The Pannonia electrics were all green and the coaches were red, green or blue.
Regarding the similarities of the Pannonia and JEP coaches, the other photo shows a homemade conversion of a JEP combine into a PV-like combine. Trucks and buffers have been replaced.
Best, Sandor
