3 days in Greece October 1994 "It's a long, long way to Katakolo"
As Colin would say "Short trip - Long Report!"
A "normal" holiday was required by her indoors "Let's go to Greece" she said. No problem but rather than go to an island with no railways I booked two weeks in Glyfada, a tourist resort south of Athens on the mainland. It's mainly used by the Greeks themselves with a nice beach, it has good access to both Athens & Piraeus so good for day trips to the islands.
What to do for a fortnight? - you really only want to walk up that bloody hill to the Parthenon once I can tell you! I had a sneaky plan to abandon her for a couple of days to cover the lines from Diakopto to Kalavrita & Olympia to Katakolo. We made friends with another (Scottish) couple the first week who liked island hopping so I palmed her off on them & set off!
Saturday 01/10/94
In order to cover both lines I needed to depart Piraeus before the hauled turn this morning, a shame but needs must.
IC Unit Athens - Diakopto 0730 Piraeus - Patra 169km
Diakopto to Kalavrita is/was a steeply graded rack railway with the weirdest power system I've come across - 2 coaches with basically a Dumper truck engine stuck in a separate vehicle between them that made quite a racket!
3501# Diakopto - 2km!! 1052 Diakopto - Kalavrita 2km
3501 (returned to Diakopto) 2km
A Technical Issue is the normal term, we rolled back down into Diakopto - Bowled? No!
3504# Diakopto - Kalavrita 1052 Diakopto - Kalavrita 23km
(departed only 22 mins late!)
Many a tale had been told that if the locals wanted to wedge out these services the tourists would be turfed off! To this end I did no more than change ends and sat in the train waiting for the return run.
The Guard gripped before departure (well he couldn't walk through on route!) "am I staying on?"
Yes, he didn't even ask for my ticket he just relieved me of two of the sweets I was eating!
3504 Kalavrita - Diakopto 1215 Kalavrita - Diakopto 23km
Although the metre gauge Alsthom's had 1600hp compared with the 1350hp of the DL537 Alco's that also worked the route you couldn't compare them for enjoyment. Althsom's were Boo! & Alco's were Hellfire! So you've guessed it:
A9203# Diakopto - Aflios 0920 Piraeus - Kalamata 159km
I was booked to alight at Pirghos for the Katakolo service with a Mitsubishi loco & two coaches but when we arrived at Pirghos there was a Fitter on top of the engine with his spanners out - train Cape!
(The Poodle curse strikes again) so I continued to the leaping point for the next Athens service.
A9103 pulls into Aflios on the 1605 Kiparissia - Pireaus
First task was to accost the Fitter "How it's looking mate?" - no chance today but hopeful for the morning. This would mean Katakolo (1 train a day but none on Sunday) would have to wait but Olympia may still be on the cards.
I was looking to find a hotel room in Pirghos but unknown to me it was Election weekend (combined with a town festival?) with lots of people coming from miles around to vote or drink so there were no rooms at the Inn!
To be fair Pirghos isn't the greatest, little or no beer to be found even now. In later years we always stayed in Olympia & taxied to/from Pirghos. So I was left with little choice than to have a Hellfire sunset run behind A9107 to Patras to find a Hotel there.
A9107# Pirghos - Patra 1500 Kalamata - Patra 99km
This train conveyed me & traincrew only, they were more than happy for me to below out the front window as the sun went down - Fantastic Thrash! No problem getting a room in what would become in later years the "normal" hotel to use opposite Patras station.
The upside of staying in Patras was, as an international seaport, the choice of beers to drink was better than anywhere else on the Pelopennese. A good few tipples were had.
Sunday 02/10/94
An early start but again this train conveyed me & traincrew only, they were again more than happy for me to below out the front window as the sun came up - Fantastic Thrash!
A9107 Patra - Pirghos 0608 Patra - Kalamata 99km
On arrival at Pirghos the Fitter had failed in his mission, he indicated the loco required dragging to Patras depot for Repairs. Bowled again.
A9104# Pirghos - Zacharo 0655 Patra - Kiparissia 34km
A9104 at Zacharo on the 0655 Patras - Kiparissia
Please, please, please fail or something to give me a chance of an Alco!
Most of the route is single line with passing loops in stations, for some reason we came to a stand outside Gastouni - I looked out and saw an Alco coming the other way on a Freight, please swop the locos round or something...…. then "Clunk". Clunk - surely not - the Alsthom ran forward to the loop alongside the freight, then the Alco detached & ran onto the front of our train, then the Alsthom came back to clear the points & dropped back onto the Freight! Heavens to Betsy "I Don't Believe it" (aka Froody RIP)!!
A9203 Zacharo - Gastouni 0800 Kalamata - Piraeus 66km
All was right with the world, assume the position for Thrash!
A9111# Gastouni - Elfesis 0800 Kalamata - Piraeus 261km
Some hours later the reason for this fortuitous loco swop became apparent - A9111 was somewhat poorly! You couldn't tell on the normal stretches but on leaving Corinth for the long climb up to the Canal bridge did she struggle - but VERY loud with it!
(Incidentally this is the only Alco to ever fail on me, some years later)
Then something only dreams are made of - they topped us from Elfesis for the climb into Athens with another Alco!
A9104# Pirghos - Zacharo 0655 Patra - Kiparissia 34km
Please, please, please fail or something to give me a chance of an Alco!
Most of the route is single line with passing loops in stations, for some reason we came to a stand outside Gastouni - I looked out and saw an Alco coming the other way on a Freight, please swop the locos round or something...…. then "Clunk". Clunk - surely not - the Alsthom ran forward to the loop alongside the freight, then the Alco detached & ran onto the front of our train, then the Alsthom came back to clear the points & dropped back onto the Freight! Heavens to Betsy "I Don't Believe it" (aka Froody RIP)!!
A9203 Zacharo - Gastouni 0800 Kalamata - Piraeus 66km
All was right with the world, assume the position for Thrash!
A9111# Gastouni - Elfesis 0800 Kalamata - Piraeus 261km
Some hours later the reason for this fortuitous loco swop became apparent - A9111 was somewhat poorly! You couldn't tell on the normal stretches but on leaving Corinth for the long climb up to the Canal bridge did she struggle - but VERY loud with it!
(Incidentally this is the only Alco to ever fail on me, some years later)
Then something only dreams are made of - they topped us from Elfesis for the climb into Athens with another Alco!
A9101#) Elfesis - Piraeus 0800 Kalamata - Piraeus 36km
A9111 in multi)
So a journey of doom behind an Alsthom turned into a right old thrash through to Piraeus with a massive pair of Alcos!! I took a few crap phots in the dark at journeys end overwhelmed with the excitement of it all - not that I know which box they are in as they were deemed to be not worth scanning into Flikr. (www.flickr.com/photos/cromptonboy/albums/Greece)
Thursday 06/10/94
A day trip to Corinth so She could see the canal, spending a day in Corinth where I do believe I found a bar selling draught Hoegaarden - so we didn't move far from there!
A9204# Athens - Corinth 0920 Piraeus - Kalamata 91km
Widely regarded as "bowl out" engines on the Peloponnese, the Alsthom's must have got through a lot of work over the years. I was "bowled" both ways. I can still remember the disappointment!
A9209 pulls into Corinth on our return train
A9209# Corinth - Piraeus 0800 Kalamata - Piraeus 99km
In the end a failed attempt to do Olympia to Katakolo. I eventually did manage Olympia to Pirghos on 11/03/2003 but Katakolo eluded me - even though I was once sat behind a Mitsubishi loco in Pirghos waiting to go there (I got off a pair of Alcos for this!) only for one of the Alco's to fail blocking our train in & causing it to be Cancelled!
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