The Railway Museum of Athens, Greece, was founded by the Hellenic Railways Organisation (OSE) in 1978.
It was located at 4 Siokou Street in Athens, but the collection has since been moved to the former MPR Depot site in Lefka, Piraeus in 2019 (not to be confused with the Electric Railways Museum of Piraeus. The museum has a collection of items related to the history of rail transport in Greece, it is now (2022) closed for public.
The rolling stock in the museum's collection includes the following: [1] [2] [3]
Three industrial locomotives from Eretria Chrome Mines:
In poor condition, the following 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) EIS/ISAP rolling stock is in open air storage awaiting renovation:
A narrow-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge narrower than 1,435 mmstandard gauge. Most narrow-gauge railways are between 600 mm and 1,067 mm.
The War Department Light Railways were a system of narrow gauge trench railways run by the British War Department in World War I. Light railways made an important contribution to the Allied war effort in the First World War, and were used for the supply of ammunition and stores, the transport of troops and the evacuation of the wounded.
The Hellenic Railways Organisation or OSE is the Greek national railway company which owns, maintains and operates all railway infrastructure in Greece with the exception of Athens' rapid transit lines. Train services on these lines are run by Hellenic Train S.A., a former OSE subsidiary, Rail Cargo Logistics Goldair, Pearl and Grup Feroviar Român.
The Athens–Piraeus Electric Railways, commonly abbreviated as ISAP, was a company which operated the Piraeus - Kifissia line from 1 January 1976 to 17 June 2011. Piraeus - Kifissia line was the oldest urban rapid transit system of Athens metropolitan area. The line opened in 1869 as a suburban railway line connecting Athens with its port of Piraeus and it was gradually converted to full rapid transit operations, making it one of the oldest metro lines in the world. The line which ISAP S.A. operated evolved from the older Athens & Piraeus Railway and Lavrion Square-Strofyli railway.
Hellenic State Railways or SEK was a Greek public sector entity which was established on 18 March 1920 by the law 2144/20 and operated most Greek railway lines until 1970.
Decauville was a manufacturing company which was founded by Paul Decauville (1846–1922), a French pioneer in industrial railways. Decauville's major innovation was the use of ready-made sections of light, narrow gauge track fastened to steel sleepers; this track was portable and could be disassembled and transported very easily.
The Froissy Dompierre Light Railway is a 600 mm narrow gauge light railway running from Froissy to Dompierre-Becquincourt, through Cappy, in the Somme department, France. It is run as a heritage railway by APPEVA and is also known as P'tit Train de la Haute Somme. It is the last survivor of the 600 mm narrow gauge trench railways of the World War I battlefields.
The Lavrion Square–Strofyli railway was a 1,000 mm metre-gauge railway line that ran from Lavrion Square in downtown Athens to the northern suburb of Kifissia and its local neighbourhood of Strofyli.
A trench railway was a type of railway that represented military adaptation of early 20th-century railway technology to the problem of keeping soldiers supplied during the static trench warfare phase of World War I. The large concentrations of soldiers and artillery at the front lines required delivery of enormous quantities of food, ammunition and fortification construction materials where transport facilities had been destroyed. Reconstruction of conventional roads and railways was too slow, and fixed facilities were attractive targets for enemy artillery. Trench railways linked the front with standard gauge railway facilities beyond the range of enemy artillery. Empty cars often carried litters returning wounded from the front.
Rail transport in Greece has a history which began in 1869, with the completion of the then Athens & Piraeus Railway. From the 1880s to the 1920s, the majority of the network was built, reaching its heyday in 1940. From the 1950s onward, the railway system entered a period of decline, culminating in the service cuts of 2011. Ever since the 1990s, the network has been steadily modernized, but still remains smaller than its peak length. The operation of the Greek railway network is split between the Hellenic Railways Organisation (OSE), which owns and maintains the rail infrastructure; GAIAOSE, which owns the building infrastructure and the former OSE rolling stock, Hellenic Train; and other private companies that run the trains on the network. Greece is a member of the International Union of Railways (UIC). The UIC Country Code for Greece is 73.
Athens–Lavrion Railway was a 1,000 mmmetre gauge railway line connecting downtown Athens with Eastern Attica and the mining town of Lavrion in Greece.
Thessaly Railways was a private railway company in Greece, which owned and operated the metre gauge railway network of Thessaly and Pelion railway from 1884 to 1955, when the private company was absorbed by the Hellenic State Railways state-owned company. Today the term usually refers to the section of mainline between Domokos and Rapsani and its two branches, the West Thessaly branch to Kalambaka and the Volos branch.
Pelion railway is a 600 mm narrow gauge railway line of Thessaly Railways private-owned company in Greece, connecting the city of Volos with the town of Mileai on Pelion.
The Piraeus-Perama light railway was a standard gauge suburban light railway line in Greece which connected Piraeus with Perama and Salamis Naval Base. The line was owned by the Hellenic Electric Railways private company and operated from 1936 to 1977.
A number of private industrial railway lines were constructed in Greece for exclusive use by major mining operations and by extensive industrial facilities. There were also a few temporary lines, used for the construction of major public works. Most of them were either metre gauge or 600 mm narrow gauge.
The South African Railways Class NG1 0-4-0T of 1900 was a narrow-gauge steam locomotive from the pre-Union era in Transvaal.
Europe inherited a diversity of rail gauges. Extensive narrow-gauge railway networks exist in Spain, Central Europe and Southeastern Europe.
Urban Rail Transport S.A., commonly abbreviated as STASY, is a Greek public transport operator of the Athens Metro and the Athens Tram. It is the metro and tram subsidiary of Transport for Athens, and is responsible for the operation and maintenance of the metro and tram network, including rolling stock, 59 tram stops, and 62 of the 66 metro stations.
Electric Multiple Units (EMU) are powered on the metro network of Athens, with five or six coaches. EMU-5s are of a former type and are limited to Line 1. On Lines 2 and 3, routes are only operated with EMU-6s. The trainsets were put into operation by STASY in 2011, with its establishment.
The Hellenic Electric Railways was a private owned company member of British company "Power and Traction Company Ltd" which operated and extended the present Line 1 of the Athens Metro, from 14 April 1926 to 31 December 1975.
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