Pelion Railway

Volos – Milies
Train with Tubize steam locomotive "Milies"
Route length:	28 km
Gauge :	600 mm ( narrow gauge )
Maximum slope :	30  ‰
Minimum radius :	30 m
Top speed:	20 km / h
Legend from Larisa (standard gauge) from Kalambaka (standard gauge, ex meter gauge) depot 0.0 Volos beginning of the four-rail track 3m port Koleti Orminiou Filellinon Vlachava end of four-rail track 2.9 Anavros Hairpin 8.3 Agria 23m Vrychonas Bridge 10.9 Kato Lechonia 12.4 Ano Lechonia 75m Hairpin depot Kalorema Viaduct 18.8 Ano Gazea 20.3 Ag. Triada 23.4 Pinacates 28.2 Milies 450 m

The Pelion ( Greek Τρενάκι Πηλίου Trenaki Piliou ) is a narrow-gauge railway with 600 mm gauge on the Pilio -Halbinsel in Thessaly , Greece .

history

Train in Agria Station (2006)

Construction work on this line of the Thessalian Railways began in 1886. The first section of the line Volos – Agria was completed in 1892. In 1896 the line reached Ano Lechonia. In 1904, the work on the last section to Milies was completed and from then on the route connected the mountain village in the heart of the Pelion Peninsula with the port city of Volos . The builder was Evaristo de Chirico (1841–1905), the father of the painter Giorgio de Chirico . The route led through two tunnels and over nine bridges. A steel bridge, which is still called the “De Chirico Bridge” today, crosses the Taxiarchis Gorge in a tight U-shaped curve.

The entire railway is built on a single track with passing points in all stations and stops outside of Volos. The section within Volos was designed as a four-rail track, so that trains from Larissa (standard gauge) and Kalambaka (meter gauge) could run to the Vlachava stop on the outskirts of Volos. Water cranes were erected in Agria, Ano Lechonia (still available) and Milies. There are turntables in Volos and Milies, the latter was replaced by a larger one after the Schöma locomotives were acquired. In Agria and Ano Lechonia there is a track triangle for moving the locomotives.

The narrow-gauge railway between the stations of Volos Hbf and Anavros also served as a tram until the 1950s . In 1951 the "Greek State Railway (SEK)" took over the operation of the line.

Cessation of operations

After the dissolution of the SEK on December 31, 1970, the management of the line went to the newly founded " Greek Railway Organization OSE ". The railway line was shut down immediately for economic reasons, but not removed. Parts of the route were paved over in the following years, for example the through-roads of Volos (Dimitriados Street) and Lechonia and on those sections of the overland route between Agria and Ano Lechonia, where the route runs directly on the coastal road. The vehicles remained parked on site.

Museum train

Pelion Railway carriage

In 1985 the railway was placed under monument protection and the mountain route from Ano Lechonia to Milies was reactivated by the "Association of Greek Railway Friends". Since 1996 there has been regular museum traffic for tourists on this section . In the summer months, the train runs every Saturday and Sunday, in the morning from Ano Lechonia and back in the afternoon from Milies.

The coastal line between Anavros on the outskirts of Volos and Agria was back in operation from 2004. This section of the route was severely damaged in a storm in 2007 and has been closed since then.

Since 1999, two new Schöma diesel locomotives have been available for the historic trains , which are externally designed as "steam locomotives". The remaining operational steam locomotive is used for groups on request from Ano Lechonia.

vehicles

The following vehicles were or are in operation on the railway line

Type	number	Manufacturer	Construction year	Switched off	Whereabouts	photo
0-8-0T	3	Weidknecht	1892	unknown	unknown
0-4-0T	1	Weidknecht	1892	unknown	unknown
0-4-0T	2	Decauville	1912	See whereabouts	one at the Frankfurt Feldbahnmuseum, the other unknown
2-6-0T 101 "Milies"	1	Tubize ( Génerale d'Exploitaton des Chemins de Fer )	1909	1971	Stopped in the Volos workshop since the boiler was damaged in 2010
2-6-0T 102 "Pelion"	1	HSP	1909	1971	scrapped
2-6-0T 103 "Jason"	1	HSP	1909	1971	not rollable parked in the depot Volos
4-6-0T	1	Baldwin	1917	1950	after being used as the “Elli” mine locomotive, it was not able to roll and was parked in the Volos depot
A1, A2	2	Schöma	1999		A2 at the Ano Lechonia A1 depot in Agria

literature

• Hans-Bernhard Schönborn: Narrow Gauge Railways in Greece . Edition Ergasias, 1997, ISBN 3-909221-32-7 .
• George Nathenas, Militsa Karathanou: The Little Train of Pelion . Militos Editions, Athens 2006, ISBN 960-8460-68-9 .
• Organ, J. (2006): Greece Narrow Gauge . Middleton Press., ISBN 1-904474-72-1 .

Web links

Commons : Pelionbahn  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Photographic route description of the PelionBahn
• Historical photos of the Greek narrow-gauge railways
• The Pelion Railway, episode 298 of the Railway Romanticism , SWR of June 20, 1998

Individual evidence

1. ^ Thessaly Railways. In: gwrarchive.org. Restoration & Archiving Trust, accessed April 2, 2019 . 
2. ↑ I. Zartaloudis, D. Karatolos, D. Koutelidis, G. Nathenas, S. Fasoulas, A. Filippoupolitis, A .: Οι Ελληνικοί Σιδηρόδρομοι (Hellenic Railways) ( Greek ). Μίλητος (Militos), 1997, ISBN 960-8460-07-7 , pp. 264-275.
3. ↑ Information page about the Pilion Railway (in Greek) ( Memento of the original from June 26, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
4. ^ The Railways of Volos. In: internationalsteam.co.uk. Retrieved April 2, 2019 . 
5. ↑ vehicles. In: feldbahn-ffm.de. Frankfurter Feldbahnmuseum eV, accessed on April 2, 2019 .