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| Morning coffee, central plaza, Tripolis, Greece (Moto G5 digital file) |
In this short article, I want to continue exploring the former train stations of the Piraeus, Athens and Peloponnese Railways (the
Chemin de fer du Pirée-Athènes-Peloponése), which was founded in 1882. It owned and operated the 1 m (3 ft 3⅜ in) (metre gauge) railway system connecting Piraeus and Athens to various destinations in the Peloponnese region of Greece. The center of communications in the Peloponnese was Tripolis, the largest town of the nome of Arcadia and a busy agricultural and manufacturing hub. The railway connection with Athens, completed in 1892, was a major boost to trade, and Tripolis experienced rapid development.
Tripolis is a cheerful place, and I stopped for a coffee at a cafe in the main plaza near the cathedral during my summer 2019 trip.
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| Map of Tripolis from ArcGIS Online |
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| 1890 main train station, Al. Soutsou 2, Tripoli 221 00, Greece (Moto G5 digital file) |
The handsome 2-story train station was built in 1890. This and other original railroad buildings throughout the Peloponnese shared an architectural design with rock facing, stucco, and clay tile roofs - very appropriate to the locale.
The building is is good condition and is used for something, but there were no occupants the day I was there. The platform was clean and not marred with graffiti. The doves cooed in the trees, all quite sleepy. It looked like the afternoon train from Athens might trundle in any minute.
The water tanks for filling steam locomotives have been preserved. A similar complicated triple tank arrangement is in the coastal town of
Myloi.
This little shed shares the same stone facing and arched doorway as the main station.
South of the passenger station, a rail yard contained a lot of rolling stock. Unfortunately, a guard service was on duty and I could not go too far. Note the unused new track on near bundles.
This graveyard (or parking place) for old rail stock was off limits behind a fence. I took this frame while standing on a step leading up to a porch.
The next article will follow the rail line downhill to the east towards the coast. Most of these photographs were from Fuji Acros film exposed in my Leica M2 rangefinder camera. I used a yellow filter on some frames to darken the sky.
