Kalamata's Railway Park

The Municipal Railway Park of Kalamata is the only open-air museum in Greece and is known to all railway friends around the world.

It was founded in September 1986, but due to the devastating earthquake that struck the city, its completion took place in 1990.

The space chosen to create this open museum – showroom was the  'Kalamata - Limin/Port' Old Station and the neighbouring area of OSE ( Hellenic Railway Agency), which at the time of the steam was a coal warehouse space.

The Municipal Railway Park of Kalamata occupies 54 acres in one of the most central parts of the city. OSE granted the 24.6 acres.SA, which included the two-storey building of the 'Kalamata-Limin/Port' Old Station and a water tower. Twenty-eight acres were given by the municipality of Kalamata and 1.4 acres by the Agricultural Bank of Greece.

The Museum's exhibits include the station and its surrounding area, with a two-storey station building, four boarding platforms with an entrance kiosk, the water tower, three locomotives pumps and steering wheels, a metal footbridge with a length of 28m along with the axis of the central station, as well as micro-organisation tools of the railway station (change keys, lamps e.t.c). There are seven locomotives and one diesel wagon exhibited, one manual crane (1890), three first-class passenger vehicles, five first-class (1885), eight trucks of different types (1885-1947).

All rolling stock belongs to OSE, SA (from the network of the Peloponnese and Thessaly), apart from the train of ISAP ( Athens & Piraeus Electric Railways), which has been granted to the municipality of Kalamata with loan status. The park is located just 5 minutes from the main square of Kalamata, following Aristomenous Street towards the port.

The park area is delimited from Macedonias Street to Kritis Street near the port and from the two vertical streets, Aristomenos and Psaron. In addition to its rail exhibits, the park has a basketball and volleyball court as well as other facilities for children's entertainment.

Various associations such as the Association of Friends of the Railway of Messinia (SFSM) are also housed in the area, either in railway vehicles of the park or in its buildings.

It is worth noting that the main park building is the restored station of 'Kalamata Limin/Port', where, today, a snack bar is housed on the ground floor, and the first floor has been granted to the Railway Club and OSE.SA.