Rack & Pillion Train...

As Kalvryta was always a tourist village and, in our days a skiing base during the winter season, back in 1889 Greek authorities decided to construct a train line from the coast (Diakofto) up through the mountains to the village. Initially it was pulled by a coal engine but since 1965 it has been driven by a diesel engine.

Today it is extremely popular with the tourists and in some cases more favoured than the twisting road which winds its way some metres above. Although the train line is shorter than the road route at 22km, the 750mm wide track still takes a leisurely 15mins longer to weave pass the mountains and the raging river below.

The rack is a centre double track with grooved teeth which allows for a cog wheel (beneath the train) to grip against, for the purpose of pushing / pulling. The train only uses the rack at the steepest parts of the journey.

Today we enjoyed the comforts of first class (front seat of the carriages) from which we had uninterrupted views of the sights unfolding in front of our eyes. Personally, I found the trip to be very peaceful and fascinating.

Thinking there would be plenty of things to do at Diakofto, we opted for a 3.5hrs stopover in the coastal town. This wasn’t to be… After we spent an hour or so by the sea front we set out to find the main square of the village. Grigoria was looking for a church, as apparently all Greek villages have one!, which failed to materialised so after a while we gave up, decided that this was quite possibly one of the most boring towns ever and drowned our sorrows at a delightful ice cream parlour.

Before our return trip Grigoria’s Aunt Tina met us at the train station on her way back to Patras.

Thankfully the return trip up the mountain was a tad more exhilarating watching the train really working to pull the two carriages up the gorge and back into Kalvryta.