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Thessaly Railways


Thessaly Railways (Greek: Σιδηρόδρομοι Θεσσαλίας) was a railway company in Greece, which owned and operated the metre gauge railway network of Thessaly and Pelion railway from 1884 to 1955, when the company was absorbed by the Hellenic State Railways. 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.

Note 1: Eretria Chrome Mines railway,
600 mm (1 ft 11 58 in) gauge.

The network of Thessaly Railways consisted of the following lines:

Construction started in 1882 under the general management of chief engineer Evaristo de Chirico. The section from Volos to Larissa, 61 km long, was inaugurated on 22 April 1884 by King George I. The 142 km section from Velestinon to Kalambaka was completed on 16 June 1886.

Thessaly railways used 46 metre gauge steam locomotives of various types: All of them were tank locomotives, without tenders.

In addition, three Breda railcars of a different type were transferred to Volos from Messolongi-Agrinion line in 1976. Three Linke-Hofmann DMU-2 were transferred in 1978 from the Peloponnese network.

Four class 9401 Mitsumbishi diesel locomotives (numbers 9416 to 9419) were also used in Thessaly after 1973 and were used for shunting and as a replacement of steam locomotives for freight trains.

The Hellenic State Railways (OSE) absorbed Thessaly Railways in 1955.

In 1960 the line from Larissa to Volos was converted to standard gauge and was connected at Larissa with the mainline from Athens to Thessaloniki. For the section between Latomeio and Volos the standard gauge line follows a different route with an additional halt at Melissiatika. The standard gauge line is physically connected to the Athens-Thessaloniki mainline, allowing OSE to run through services to Volos from Athens and Thessaloniki. Volos station was converted to dual gauge, in order to accommodate trains of the two branches. Parts of the station and the track towards the city center were at this period of a unique triple-gauge system: standard gauge for Larissa trains, metre gauge for Kalambaka trains and 600 mm gauge for Pelion trains.


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