RECENT MONUMENTS - TRAIN OF PELION

It concerns a miniature railway line 0.60 m wide having as a starting point the city of Volos and ending at Melies (28 Km distance) with stations and stops at the most important villages along the journey. The journey includes big technical works for the time such as bridges, tunnels, bestions etc. well attached to the physical environment of Mount Pelion. The stations are of big architectural interest and the rolling-stock, which is still at a very good state, is unique in the whole of Greece.

The construction of the railway started in 1881. The first part (Volos-Lechonia) was opened to the public in 1896 and the rest (Lechonia-Melies) in 1903.

The engineer in charge of the works was the Italian Ernesto de Chirico, father of the famous painter Giorgio de Chirico.

The functionning of the train contributed a lot to the development of the villages using it. It went on functionning untill 1971.

In 1985 they started making efforts to refunction the train. It needed repairing especially of the traffic material -which has been already done-, conservation of the railway and buildings which is still going on.

In 1985 the train was characterized as a preserved historical monument.