People
Ernest Rolin
Belgian contractor of the Myloi–Kalamata railway
Director-general of the Société Internationale de Constructions et d'Entreprises de Travaux Publics. He won the contract of 1888 for the line from Myloi, was greeted by the king on the landing stage at Myloi in 1891, and lost the concession when his company collapsed in December 1891.
Also written: Ερνέστος Ρολέν, Ernest Rollin, Ρολλέν, Ρολὲν
Events
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12 May 1888
Contract signed: a railway from Myloi, with a pier and a workshop
Trikoupis and Lomvardos signed the contract with the Belgian consul Louis Rosseels, acting for Ernest Rolin of the Société Internationale de Constructions et d'Entreprises de Travaux Publics. The line was to start at…
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10 July 1888
The pier is planned as a pier on piles
The company's budget set aside 290,000 francs for 'a pier (estacade) and workshops at Myloi and Kalamata'. An estacade is a pier standing on piles, not a solid stone harbour wall. The whole line was budgeted at 21.6…
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26 December 1889
Rolin takes on a second line
A new contract gave Ernest Rolin, contractor of the Myloi–Kalamata line, the branch Karytaina–Megalopoli–Leontari as well. His agent Louis Rosseels had to found a Greek company within 30 months, and the rolling stock of…
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June 1890
The Southern Greece Railways (ΣΜΕ) are founded
A new company was set up to run the line from Myloi: the Company of the Southern Railways of Greece, with the banker Andreas Syngros as chairman. Rolin transferred his rights to it.
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13 January 1891
The Belgian engineer Couzin goes home; Rolin takes charge
Victor Couzin, who had directed the works on the Myloi–Kalamata line for two years for the firm Couzin–Génis, had gone back to Belgium with his wife. The original contractor, Ernest Rolin, now took over the direction of…
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6 July 1891
King George I lands at Myloi to open the line to Tripoli
At 6 in the morning the royal yacht Sfaktiria sailed into Myloi with King George I, the princes Nikolaos and Andreas and Prime Minister Deligiannis, greeted by cannon fire as she passed Nafplio. At 8 the king stepped…
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8 July 1891
An illustrated report: portraits of the builders, and Myloi as km 0
The Athens daily To Asty printed engraved portraits of Ernest Rolin and Louis Rosseels, 'the founders of the Myloi–Kalamata company', and a large engraving of a bridge near Achladokampos. Its description of the line…
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8 July 1891
Opened, but no trains yet
Two days after the opening the paper Akropolis wrote that services would not start at once, probably in about 15 days, because the staff was not yet complete. On the opening day an agreement had been signed handing the…
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September 1891 – October 1891
Works halted: hundreds of unpaid, hungry workers
In the autumn of 1891 the works on the line beyond Tripoli came to a halt. Hundreds of workers, most of them Italians and some French, were owed their daily wages; the papers spoke of 900 to 2,000 men, and of workers…
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1892
Italian workers and suppliers register their claims
In 1892 the Italian legation in Athens called on Italian 'piece-workers, labourers and food suppliers of the Myli–Calamata line' to register what they were still owed. An Athens paper wrote that Rolin's bankrupt company…