Railway Museum of Athens

The Railway Museum of Athens was established by Hellenic Railways (OSE) in 1978 and opened the following year. It occupies the former wagon works of the Peleponnese Railways alongside that company’s main line. It largely the creation of Christodoulos Christodoulou, chief engineer of OSE, who was responsible for starting the collection and was the museum’s first director. The museum occupies five galleries and has only limited space for locomotives and rolling stock, most of which are of 1000mm. The collection includes Tiryns, a Krauss 0-4-0T of 1884 made in Munich, Messolongion, an 0-6-0T built by Couillet of Charleroi in 1888, a 2-6-0T of 1890 by the same builder, a 2-6-0 by Société Alsacienne de Construction Mechanique of 1890, and a 2-4-0 by Henschel of Kassel of 1912. There is a royal saloon used on the railway from Athens to Piraeus and a selection of hand-operated permanent way trolleys. The only standard gauge locomotive is a 2-6-0T from which the cylinders and motion were removed enabling it to be used as snow plough.