Amherst Railway Society
March 20, 2007
Meeting Announcement

The next meeting of the Amherst Railway Society is Tuesday, March 20, 2007, 8:00 p.m. at the Amherst Middle School.

Railways of the Peloponnese Peninsula, Greece: Narrow, Narrower, And Spectacular!
By Sandy Ward & Ken Harstine

We will be presenting images of the meter-gauge Peloponnese railway system and the 750mm-gauge Diakopfto-Kalavryta Railway we rode in Greece in July 2007.

The Diakopfto-Kalavryta Railway runs up a very narrow, spectacular gorge, climbing from sea level to 2,500 feet with curves ranging from a radius 131 to 360 feet. It is a rack & adhesion railway built in 1896. Adhesion sections have a grade of 1.5-3.4% while rack sections have a 12-14.5% gradient. The train passes over 55 bridges and through six tunnels in its 14-mile run. During times of heavy snow the railway is often the only means of transport into and out of Kalavryta. It has been called the narrowest public rack railway in Europe.

The junction of the Diakofto-Kalavryta Railway in Diakofto is serviced by the meter gauge railway of the Peloponnese peninsula. Meter gauge extends to Athens although most meter gauge trains now terminate in Corinth where passengers transfer to standard gauge for the rest of trip to Athens.

Biographies: Ken has been fascinated by trains for as long as he can remember. His first train set arrived when he was two, he's been told. Sandy and Ken have traveled on trains together in many countries, including USA, Germany, Serbia, Montenegro, China, and Greece. Sandy loves to document trips with the digital camera Ken gave her in 2005 as a retirement gift.

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