The Restoration & Archiving Trust
The photo galleries for Greece are divided by track gauge, one for all OSE standard gauge lines and the other covering the various narrow gauge systems
By European standards railways came late to Greece with the first section of line between Athens & Piraeus not being opened until 1869 and it was into the early years of the 20th century before there were any significant additions with the completion of the standard gauge line from Athens to Larissa. The extension of this to complete the main to Thessaloniki did not open to traffic until 1918.
The map to the left and pictures that follow are taken from an article entitled
'The Last Link in the International Railway of Europe' published in 'Cassell's
Railways of the World' in the early 1920s. A large part of this article describes the
section through the Assopos gorge in the mountains midway between Athens & Larissa,
whilst the picture below shows the station at Livadia, now Levadia; a little to the
south of the mountain section. Below this is another station scene this time
described as 'Train at Skimitari station, a few miles south of Chalkis', presumably
taken on the branch from Inoi, although no station of this name appears on the current
railway map. The trains standing in both pictures could well be hauled by one of the
Batignolles 2-6-0Ts supplied at the time of the line's opening, one of which is
preserved in Athens Railway Museum
Levadia station
Skimitari station
Finally shown below are a couple of pictures of the Batignolles 2-6-0Ts, one at work in the early years at some unspecified location and a view of the preserved member of the class in Athens museum
Former Hellenic Railway Co. Ea class 2-6-0T number 204, built by Batignolles,
stands in Athens Railway Museum 23/4/1980.
Photo Norman Glover
