Inside the Drama Train Museum and Its Orient Express Carriages

In an old goods shed by the railway station, the Drama Train Museum revives the romance of rail travel.

Every train journey once followed a ritual. Passengers bought a ticket at the counter, then waited on the platform and boarded as the whistle blew.

Then the conductor punched each ticket with special pliers so nobody could use it again. After that, travellers could simply watch scenery they might never reach by car or on foot.

Trains no longer pass through this city in eastern Macedonia. Even so, the Drama Train Museum keeps their whistles alive through rare objects, some collected with care and others donated with love.

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How the Drama Train Museum began

Opened in May 2024, the museum occupies the former goods warehouse at the city’s railway station. The site also holds many memories for locals, and its story dates to the late 19th century.

Panagiotis Makropoulos heads Hephaestus, the local association of railway workers and friends of the railway. He explained how the station came to be.

“Work to prepare the site for the railway station began in 1893, and it opened in 1896. At the time, everyone talked about the great prospects the new rail link opened up for the region’s trade, and for the city’s connection with Thessaloniki and Alexandroupoli and, through them, with Vienna and Constantinople.”Panagiotis Makropoulos, Hephaestus association president

According to Makropoulos, the station covered 198 stremmata, or 19.8 hectares. It was also one of the most beautiful and largest in Greece.

A third-generation railwayman with roots in Smyrna, he said the Drama Train Museum was “born from our love for the railway”. It honours the dozens of trades whose workers kept the trains on the rails.

Inside the old goods shed

The Drama Train Museum tour starts at a discreet sign among the open-air railway buildings. Inside, the display shows how each railway service once worked, from track and traction to the infirmary and the stationmaster’s office.

Suitcases, in turn, fill the recreated passengers’ waiting room.

Among the first exhibits is a miniature train made from sheet metal, even old tins, soldered or slotted together. Its crew wear painted uniforms, while painted tin passengers cling to the windows.

Other displays also cover ticket counters, workers’ lanterns, old routes and family tickets for staff. In particular, a 1936 book at the Drama Train Museum records the history of the Greek railways.

It also includes parliamentary minutes of the disputes between Theodoros Deligiannis and Charilaos Trikoupis. Many consider Trikoupis the father of the Greek railway.

Old photographs show local stations now listed as industrial monuments, while others capture the opening of the Greece–Bulgaria rail link.

Typewriters and a carpentry bench hold a special place at the Drama Train Museum. As Makropoulos put it, “the railway was a self-sufficient organisation that made everything it needed”.

A scale made in Paris in 1890 recalls the aromatic tobacco that Drama exported to Europe. By contrast, a ‘No spitting’ sign dates from years when tuberculosis was rife.

Asked about the oldest exhibits, Makropoulos named a telegraph circuit limiter from 1890 and three bronze telegraphs from the late 19th century.

An Orient Express dining car

From the warehouse, visitors then cross the open ground between the rails to the engine shed. Here the Drama Train Museum keeps a dining car, a sleeping car and two steam locomotives, Lb 962 and Kg 877.

Built in 1926, the dining car became a restaurant car in 1932. From 1933 it ran on the Orient Express, serving the long route between London and Athens.

During the Second World War, it ended up at a station somewhere in Europe. In 1962 Hellenic State Railways (SEK) bought it, and about 30 years later it left regular service.

Following tourist trips from 1998 to 2005, it stayed at the Drama depot. It moved to the engine shed in 2018 and underwent a rebuild about four or five years ago.

Inside the Orient Express carriage, the kitchen leads to the restaurant, with green seats, lamps and solid brass. A doll in Belle Époque costume completes the scene.

A sleeping car from France

Made in France in 1949, the sleeping car also ran on Orient Express services. It stayed in regular use on foreign and Greek railways until 1998, covering millions of kilometres.

Each compartment holds numbered beds. Travellers also had a washbasin with hot and cold water, a radiator, a ladder to the upper berth and room for suitcases.

Santa’s Hephaestus Express at the Drama Train Museum

Since 1983, the dining car and a steam locomotive have brought Santa Claus to Drama every year. On each visit, he hands out presents to children.

As a result, the back of the carriage reads ‘North Pole – Drama’. This year, the Hephaestus Express will again arrive full of gifts at noon on 31 December.

The tradition links the charm of the train with the festive season. For romantics seeking an authentic journey, the Drama Train Museum, one of the few museums in the city, delivers exactly that.

Source: travel.gr

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