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FAÜ ITC Series
An ITC Series city bus in Budapest's 14th district (Zugló) in 1965
Overview
Type	city bus/intercity bus/trolleybus series
Manufacturer	Fővárosi Autóbuszüzem (FAÜ) Fővárosi Villamosvasút (FVV) MÁVAUT Budapest (today Volánbusz) Miskolci Közlekedési Vállalat (MKV)
Also called	FAÜ házi csuklósok (FAÜ home-made bendies)
Production	1960 (FAÜ prototype) 1961–1967 (FAÜ)
Assembly	Budapest, Hungary (FAÜ's Imre Sallai Main Workshop; MÁVAUT's Szabolcs Street and Béke Square workshops) Miskolc, Hungary (MKV)
Designer	Béla Szini
Body and chassis
Class	puller type articulated buses and trolleybuses
Body style	high-floor
Powertrain
Engine	ITC buses: 8.2 L I6 Csepel D-614 (diesel)
Electric motor	ITC trolleybuses: Dinamo DK-202B DC 600 V
Dimensions
Wheelbase	ITC 600: A-B: 5,000 mm (196.9 in) B-C: 5,800 mm (228.3 in)
Length	ITC 600: 15,000 mm (590.6 in) IC 622: 16,500 mm (649.6 in)
Width	ITC 600: 2,500 mm (98.4 in)
Height	ITC 600: 2,880 mm (113.4 in)
Chronology
Predecessor	Ikarus 60 Ikarus 66 "Booty" Ikarus 620
Successor	Ikarus 180 Ikarus 556 Ikarus 557

The FAÜ ITC Series (also known as the FAÜ "home-made" bendies; Hungarian: FAÜ házi csuklósok) was a series of articulated city buses and intercity buses built primarily by Hungarian mass transit operator Fővárosi Autóbuszüzem ("Capital City Bus Works"; FAÜ). Most of the ITC Series vehicles were made in FAÜ's Imre Sallai Main Workshop in Budapest between 1960 and 1967. The peculiarity of these buses was that all were made by joining already existing vehicles, initially not even of the same model. The ITC project's purpose was to satisfy the growing capacity requirements of the Budapest transit system. There are no known surviving examples of ITC buses.

Background

In the 1950s, Budapest's transit network experienced increasingly heavier demands for multiple reasons. For one, the city's population grew by one and a half times and its area enlarged by two and a half times when 23 neighboring municipalities were annexed to it on 1 January 1950. By 1953, the tram network – then operated by FAÜ's sister company Fővárosi Villamosvasút; FVV – essentially ceased to operate due to the restrictions put on the electrical distribution grid in order to repair the infrastructure damaged in the Second World War. Starting from 1954, FAÜ tried alleviating transit capacity problems by employing bus trailers. These trailer cars were either custom-made units converted by FAÜ itself from pre-war MÁVAG N26/38 "Catfish" or post-war Ikarus 30 buses, or Type 406 units manufactured by Székesfehérvár-based Általános Mechanikai Gépgyár ("General Mechanical Machine Factory"; ÁMG). However, this solution was inadequate owing to maneuverability, safety and efficiency concerns, and trailers were relegated to relatively "straight" bus lines in outer districts.

In the spring of 1960, after witnessing the test run of a 4-axle articulated trolleybus prototype in Moscow, Kálmán Tapolczai, director of FAÜ, assigned the role to a team to design articulated buses for the company. The team comprised of young engineer Béla Szini, technical director László Rózsa, and operations manager Gábor Lassú. Building upon the FAÜ crew's experience in making trailers out of buses, they set out to construct "new", higher capacity vehicles out of the company's aging rigid bus fleet. At the time, FAÜ had numerous buses that were either destined to be scrapped or refurbished.

After years of development and testing, Ikarus introduced the Ikarus 180 model in 1964, which was the first articulated bus built by the Hungarian automotive industry. This signalled the end of demand for FAÜ's efforts.

Design and manufacturing

Overview

The design process of the first ITC prototype vehicle started in May 1960. The ITC project team comprised of young engineer Béla Szini, technical director László Rózsa, and operations manager Gábor Lassú. The team's goal was to enable FAÜ to construct puller-type articulated buses using their Ikarus 60s as traction units and their obsolete MÁVAG Tr5s as trailer units. The Tr5's chassis has been built by Ikarus; they were already similar to the Ikarus 60. The mechanical articulations used the same bearings as used in the Dutra 3500 Frak-B1/Frak-B2 swing-boom loader/dump trucks made by Vörös Csillag Traktorgyár ("Red Star Tractor Factory"). The project was proven to be successful, so it continued when FAÜ ran out of its Tr5 stock; further models were made by joining solely Ikarus models, generally 60s. Eventually the company converted all of their Tr5 and 60 buses.

The company also built articulated coaches for the intercity/long-distance operator AKÖV (also known as MÁVAUT or Volán) companies on contract. Buses were also made to fulfil orders by the transit companies of other Hungarian cities, such as Miskolci Közlekedési Vállalat ("Miskolc Transit Company"; MKV) of Miskolc, Szegedi Közlekedési Vállalat ("Szeged Transit Company"; SZKV) of Szeged, and Pécsi Közlekedési Vállalat ("Pécs Transit Company"; PKV) of Pécs. MKV also aquired the blueprints and built a number of articulated buses in their own workshop.

A number of new devices developed by the Hungarian automotive industry were used for the first time in the ITC project, among these were Rába's 7.5 ton rated front axle assemblies which replaced the Tr5's rear axle, and one of JÁFI's (Járműfejlesztési Intézet, "Vehicle Development Institute") 165 hp, 6 cylinder prototype engines.

The following models were built by FAÜ:

Model name	Prod. years	Prod. numbers	Registration codes	Service years	Component vehicles (traction+trailer)	Notes
ITC-600	1960 1961–1963	147	GA-12-00		Ikarus 60+MÁVAG Tr5
ITC-601	n.a.	n.a.	n.a.		Ikarus 601+MÁVAG Tr5
IC-620	1962–1967	1+53	n.a.	1962–1968 (F)	Ikarus 620+Ikarus 620	built for intercity bus operator AKÖV companies
IC-622	1961(?)	1	n.a.	1961(?)–1968	Ikarus 620+Ikarus 620	prototype, 4-axle
IC-630	n.a.	n.a.	n.a.		Ikarus 630+Ikarus 630
IC-660	1963 1966–1967	Bp: 170	n.a.	1967–1973 (M)	Ikarus 60+Ikarus 60
Ikarus 60T articulated trolleybus bodies	1961 1962–1964	1 53		1961–1976	Ikarus 60+Ikarus 60	built for tram and trolleybus operator FVV

(Annotations:
(M) = Miskolci Közlekedési Vállalat (MKV) of Miskolc)

Sources differ on production numbers and production years, and there is some confusion regarding the types. According to Magyar Nemzet Online (MNO), 267 "FAÜ bendies" were made, Origo states 317 "articulated Ikarus 60s" were made, while Index claims nearly 400 were made of "the ITC 600 model and other FAÜ-built variants". Origo gives 1967 as the final year in which the "company's [FAÜ's] main workshop made bendies", while Totalcar.hu states that the IC 660 model's final production year was 1974. According to Index, overall production ended in the mid 1970s.

ITC 600

The first prototype vehicle in the series, designated as model ITC 600, was assembled without a detailed blueprint, as workers used charcoal sketches drawn onto the workshop's wall which were based on Szini's paper sketches. When mass production started, FAÜ and the Budapest University of Technology made a contract to have the prototype documented in a professional manner: the work was headed by József Takács and György Dezsényi, and it involved university students of the Faculty of Transportation Engineering and Vehicle Engineering in illustrating the mechanical parts. The vehicle entered service on November 5, 1960, with registration code GA-12-00 on the now-defunct Line 1. The operating costs turned out to be 10% less compared to Ikarus 60s running with trailer cars.

IC 622 and IC 620

As the ITC team learned about experiments in other European countries involving four-axle bus prototypes, they set out to build a similar prototype themselves using two Ikarus 620s. This became model IC 622, an articulated bus with one drive axle (in the middle) and three steering axles (one in the front and two in the rear).

Ikarus 60T articulated trolleybus bodies

An articulated Ikarus 60 trolleybus in 1967 on Line 75

As the ITC project went on, FAÜ made a number of articulated trolleybus gliders (vehicles without a powertrain) for Fővárosi Villamosvasút (FVV), who then installed most of the powertrain and miscellaneous systems themselves, generally from their scrapped MTB-82s.

Influence and legacy

The ITC Series is credited with starting a new chapter in both Budapest's mass transit history and in the history of Hungarian bus manufacturing. FAÜ became the second company in Europe to start operating articulated buses in general public service.

As the ITC buses all kept their winged Ikarus emblems when FAÜ introduced them, the public erroneously linked the image of the new articulated buses with Ikarus, despite its lack of involvement in the project. The buses also led to the widespread public belief that the articulated bus is a Hungarian invention.

The four-axle IC 622 prototype won the Fair Grand Prize at the 1962 Budapest International Fair.

Despite their status as historical and industrial milestones, from all the ITC buses built, there are no known surviving examples as all were eventually scrapped.

See also

• Ikarus 180
• Ikarus 280
• Ikarus 60
• Ikarus 620
• MÁVAG Tr5
• FVV CSM Series – sister company FVV's project to build articulated tramcars

External links

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