World's Most "Crazy" Train Ride... Katakolo Port - Ancient Olympia Part 3/3

An 'Indiana Jones' trainscape. A cab ride with OSE Class 4501 Swiss Stadler GTW - 2/6 dmu... fighting with the reeds.

An upgrade of this line has been decided recently which is going to take place within the next couple of years. So, have a ride before it's gone forever.

A distinguished research with a great number of photos of this 135+ years old railway line is presented in Mr George Nathenas' book: Trains around Olympia / O Σιδηρόδρομος στην γη της Αρχαίας Ολυμπίας, from which the following small summary was extracted.

“ … The prefecture of Ilia is one of the most beautiful and most fertile areas of the Peloponnese and the whole Greece. Together with a beautiful landscape dominated by the Mediterranean plantation with its tall pine trees, cypresses, poplars, plane trees, olives, junipers, vineyards and many others, it has endless sandy beaches that reminisce the Caribbean. The tourist potential of the area has been increased in recent years due to the significant tourist flow being transported by the cruise ships that approach from the port of Katakolo the world class site of Ancient Olympia, the cradle of the ancient Olympic Games.
The main reason for the construction of the railway line connecting Pyrgos, the capital of Ilia, with the seaport of Katakolo, was to facilitate the export of currant by vessels in the western European territories. The Pyrgos – Katakolo Railway operated as a stand-alone company (SPK) from 1883 until 1951, when it was absorbed into the SPAP system.
Between 1890 – 1892, the railway connection of Patras – Pyrgos together with the branches to Kyllini port, Loutra (SPA) of Killini and Ancient Olympia were completed… “

You may also like to watch the related parts:

Part 1/3: Driver's View... Train Ancient Olympia - Katakolo [ 1882 - 83 line construction ]...    • Driver's View... Train Ancient Olympi...  

Part 2/3: Ancient Olympia... Train Hunting - MSC MAGNIFICA Katakolo...    • Ancient Olympia... Train Hunting - MS...  

Music credits: Broken Elegance - Postmortem

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