The BeerTrain

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  0...

I had for many years attended the Weekly Wind Up, a weekly Thursday evening occurrence with about 70 like minded people working on the railway or LUL or Buses trying out varied venues in London & the Home Counties to drink Real Ale. At these events 2 things normally held true 1) I would drink more than the other 70 odd people present & get in the biggest mess & 2) conversations involving Portuguese Railways ALWAYS revolved around "Portuguese 50's, Portuguese 50's OR Portuguese 50's! (& an occasional class 20)". As I hold all class 50's in little (or No) regard that was enough to swerve Portugal for good. Until one evening when Rubble, fresh back from CP land cried out "I was bowled by a Shredder!". Tell me more - what do you mean they have a fleet of Alco RSC-2 / RSC-3 2000hp locos from 1948! and a fleet of MLW MX620's to boot. How come I've never been informed of this fact? Displeased as I was I had other fish to fry in G...