Among the many short railway trips Kris and I have experienced over the last month was a journey on Irish Rail’s Cork Suburban service from Kent Station in Cork to Fota Island, and then to the port town of Cobh on 29 February 2024. (Cobh, pronounced ‘Cove’ was at one time known as Queenstown.)
We have traveled this route before, but on this visit we got off at Fota to visit the Fota Wildlife Park. This spacious zoo features dozens of exotic animals and made for a wonder rail-based adventure.
In the afternoon, we visited Cobh for a late lunch and a walk around the waterfront to make photos.
I’ve included a selection of images made with my Lumix LX7 and Nikon Z7-II digital cameras.
Cobh train on Platform 2 at Kent Station, Cork.View from the Fota footbridge of a Cork bound train from Cobh.View from the Fota footbridge of a Cork bound train from Cobh.Cork-Cobh train arriving at Fota. Lumix LX7 photo.Cobh station.Cobh.Cobh. Photographed with N7-II with 70-200mm lens using the ‘Carbon’ color profile.Departure board at Cobh.The 1600 Cobh-Cork train on the platform at Cobh.Interior view of Irish Rail 2605.Suburban trains at Ken Station, Cork.
Over the years I’ve made countless photos at Islandbridge Junction in Dublin.
Last month, Kris and I revisited my old spot at ‘the box’ over looking the Junction, just west of Heuston Station.
I found this place much changed from my earlier views. Not only have modern buildings sprouted up but so has the lineside vegetation.
Compare these photos from 17 May 2005 and 18 February 2024. In both views, I show Irish Rail 201-class General Motors diesels leading Dublin-Cork passenger trains.
On 17 May 2005, Irish Rail 213 leads a down Dublin-Cork train at Islandbridge Junction. Notice the old barracks at the far left.
On 17 May 2005, Irish Rail 213 leads a down Dublin-Cork train at Islandbridge Junction. Notice the old barracks at the far left.
On 17 May 2005, Irish Rail 213 leads a down Dublin-Cork train at Islandbridge Junction. Notice the old barracks at the far left.
Tracking the Light Wishes you a Happy St. Patrick’s Day from Ireland!
The magnificent curved train shed at Cork’s Kent Station makes for a classic environment to photograph modern trains.
Irish Rail runs frequent services from Kent Station, with an hourly scheduled service to/from Dublin, most of which serve platform 4 below the train shed.
During our recent travels around Cork, Kris and I paid several visits to Kent Station and were offered tours by our friends at Irish Rail.
Working with my Nikon Z7-II, I made these photos at the station aiming to make the most of the curved Victorian train shed, both as subject and setting.
Dublin end of Kent Station.
Dublin end of Kent Station.
Dublin end of Kent Station.
Irish Rail 201-class diesel 228 wearing the modern Enterprise livery arrives at Kent Station with the 1300 x Dublin train.
Irish Rail 201-class diesel 228 wearing the modern Enterprise livery arrives at Kent Station with the 1300 x Dublin train.
Irish Rail 201-class diesel 228 wearing the modern Enterprise livery arrives at Kent Station with the 1300 x Dublin train.
Over the years I’ve made numerous visits to Irish Rail’s Glounthaune station in County Cork. But only rarely, I have I made night photos here.
This was one of several photos exposed on the down platform using my Nikon Z7-II mounted on my old mini-Gitzo tripod during our brief visit to Glounthaune a couple of weeks ago.
On our nocturnal tour of Irish Rail’s Cobh Branch with our friend Will, Kris and I paused at the station at Little Island, where we photographed the 2100 (9pm) Cork to Cobh train making its scheduled station stop.
Since my last vist to this suburban railway station, Irish Rail has erected a huge modern footbridge over the tracks. This was not yet open to the public, so we made our photographs from the old iron footbridge.
I had my Nikon Z7-II mounted on a mini-Gitzo tripod to allow for a slower shutter speed with relatively low ISO.
During our week-long visit to County Cork, we took many photos and became re-acquainted with the area’s railways.
I made these views at Woodhill on the Cobh Branch of Irish Rail’s 830pm train from Cobh to Kent Station. To minimize the motion of the passing train, I set the ISO on my Nikon Z7-II to 25600.
After a week in London, Kris and I returned to Dublin. Upon arrival at Dublin Airport we took the 782 bus directly to Heuston Station and bought tickets for the first available through train to Cork.
Although, Irish Rail wasn’t having the best day, and our train was a Hyundai-Rotem built Intercity Railcar (Known as an ICR) instead of one of the locomotive hauled CAF-built Mark 4 train sets, we had a good train ride.
As soon as the train was anounced we proceeded directly to the boarding platform and secured places for our luggage and ourselves on-board the train. Irish rail’s InterCity trains are very well patronized, and our train, which had just five cars, was essentially full departing Dublin.
The train departed within 30 seconds of the advertised and ran express to Portloaise under sunny skies. We arrived in Cork ahead of schedule!
I made all of these photos using my Lumix LX7. The images were recorded as RAW (RW2) files and then adjusted in post processing using Lightroom.
There’s been some big changes at Dublin Heuston since my day’s living near here. A four story control center was built on the site of the Guinness sidings and locomotive 218 has been converted to run on bio-fuel and painted to advertise this feature.
There’s been some big changes at Dublin Heuston since my day’s living near here. A four story control center was built on the site of the Guinness sidings and locomotive 218 has been converted to run on bio-fuel and painted to advertise this feature.
There’s been some big changes at Dublin Heuston since my day’s living near here. A four story control center was built on the site of the Guinness sidings and locomotive 218 has been converted to run on bio-fuel and painted to advertise this feature.
For reasons known only to Irish Rail, our train made a scheduled stop at the remote station at Ballybrophy, which is probably the least used station on the Dublin-Cork route. For the record, a passenger got off the train here.
For reasons known only to Irish Rail, our train made a scheduled stop at the remote station at Ballybrophy, which is probably the least used station on the Dublin-Cork route. For the record, a passenger got off the train here.
For reasons known only to Irish Rail, our train made a scheduled stop at the remote station at Ballybrophy, which is probably the least used station on the Dublin-Cork route. For the record, a passenger got off the train here.
After the station stop at Mallow—where passengers can change for the route to Killarney and Tralee, our train was about half empty.
After the station stop at Mallow—where passengers can change for the route to Killarney and Tralee, our train was about half empty.
After the station stop at Mallow—where passengers can change for the route to Killarney and Tralee, our train was about half empty.
We traveled on the Bakerloo Line from Paddington to Charing Cross. Upon arrival we exited the Underground via the Subway (foot passage) to Trafalgar Square, which is among London’s iconic public spaces.
I made these views of the famous square using my Nikon Z7-II with 24-70mm Z-series zoom. I set the ISO to 5000, the aperture to f4.0, and allowed the camera to select the shutter speed. I adjusted the highlights and shadows in post processing to improve detail and reduce contrast.
Although the shutter speed was about 1/13th of a second, all the photos in this sequence were made hand-held with the aid of in-camera image stabilization.
South Kensington is a busy station on the District and Circle Lines of the London Underground. These are among the oldest routes of the Underground network and were built using cut and cover construction.
The platforms on the District/Circle Lines at South Kensington are largely open air with tunnel entrances at both ends and classic canopies covering the platforms which makes for a classic railway environment.
At rush hours train enter and leave the station about once a minute.
In the maelstrom of acitivity and the roar of passing trains I made these photos with my Lumix LX7.
Enter the exhibit ‘Making the Modern World’ and you will find some gems of 19th century railway technology.
This includes Puffing Billy—the oldest preserved locomotive, and a variety of other full-size equipment and vintage scale models.
One of my favorites is the 1870s model of a broad gauge Erie Railroad 4-4-0, which has been in the science museum’s collection since 1880.
Photos expose in February 2024 using my Lumix LX7.
Model of the Firth of Forth railway bridge.
Model of the Firth of Forth railway bridge.
Model of the Firth of Forth railway bridge.
Puffing Billy
Columbine.
This period model of a 6-foot gauge Erie Railroad 4-4-0 has been at the London Science Museum since 1880.Model of a Norris locomotive built in Philadelphia.Model of the famous Rocket of 1829. The real Rocket is presently on tour elsewhere in the UK.
On our visit to Britain’s Spa Valley Railway last month, we laid over at the intermediate station of Groombridge, and made photos of the excursion train returning from Eridge.
Part of this exercise was to document the token exchange as the locomotive passed the platform.
In traditional fashion, the Spa Valley Railway is divided into manual block sections. Permission to pass each section is authorized by a specific token that is released from the electrically interlocked token-aperatus and passed by an authorized member of station staff to the locomotive crew. I detailed the concept of a token exchange in my first book on railroad signaling.
I made these photos using my Nikon Z7-II with 70-200mm lens.
Our friend Hassard Stacpoole met us in London and escorted Kris and I for the day on a tour of the Spa Valley Railway.
This charming preserved railway operates a short branch on the old Southern Railway network that connects Tunbridge Wells West with Eridge.
We took a Southeastern Trains electric multiple unit from Charing Cross to the Network Rail station at Tunbridge Wells, then walked for about 15 minutes to Tunbridge Wells West, where the Spa Valley has a small station, gift shop and locomotive shed (shop). Several fine looking locomotives were being maintained at the shed.
Although it was overcast, the cool weather made for some effluent displays of steam locomotive exhaust. The operational steam locomotive du jour was a handsome BR standard 2 type 2-6-0.
I made this selection of photo at Tunbridge Wells West using my Nikon Z7-II (with 70-200mm lens). I was just getting warmed up! We bought day passes and went for a spin to Eridge.
London’s Paddington Station offers the extreme contrast of very modern trains in a Victorian setting.
I highlighted Paddington Station in my book Brian Solomon’s Railway Guide to Europe, published by Kalmbach Media in 2018:
Paddington is one of the most impressive London stations, built by Victorian master engineer Isambard K. Brunel for his broad gauge Great Western Railway (built with tracks just over 7 feet wide). It opened 1854 to replace GWR’s original but cramped station located a short distance to the west. Paddington’s great shed was originally a three span wrought iron roof (one of the first train sheds inspired by Joseph Paxton’s Crystal Palace of 1851) . . . The old shed was augmented in 1914 by a forth span constructed from steel and glass, yet retaining the spirit of the original roof . . .
Kris and I paid several visits to this grand theatre of British Railways during our February 2024 trip. The most visually impressive was on the return from Oxford on a Saturday evening, when the blue glow of dusk fascilitated added charm. Recent restorations of the train shed included some stunning lighting of the iron work, which is made most impressive during the transition from day to night.
I made these photos with my Nikon Z7-II.
This statue of I. K. Brunel honors the genius that created the original Great Western Railway
This statue of I. K. Brunel honors the genius that created the original Great Western Railway
This statue of I. K. Brunel honors the genius that created the original Great Western Railway
We made a brief visit to the famous university town of Oxford on 24 February 2024.
It had been a quarter century to my first visit here. In February 1999, I traveled by ferry and train from Dublin to visit a friend who was studying at Oxford’s Jesus College. Over the next few years, I made a number of trips centered on Oxford. I have many fond memories and lots of Fujichrome slides from these adventures. My last visit was in the Spring of 2007.
On our February 2024 visit, I made this selection of photos of trains using my Nikon Z7-II, my first digital images at the Oxford station.
We had rich and changeable wintery light, which lent to exposing some interesting back lit and side lit images of the passing trains at Oxford station. I modified the Nikon NEF RAW files in post processing to make the most of the light.
Among the places we visited in Oxford was the Ashmolean museum, where I photographed artifacts with my Lumix LX7.
I made these photos of the English country-side with my Nikon Z7-II from the window of our train on the way to and from Oxford.
In post processing, I adjusted the camera’s NEF RAW files to help compensate for the effects of the tinted window glass.
Generally, I got my best results when I kept the camera lens pressed against the window with the aperture wide open (f4.0) and the shutter speed set very high. In some situations, where I angled the camera to better capture the scene, I caught some reflections from the lights inside the train.
At peak times, London Underground trains on the Circle/District Line run about every two minutes. We were waiting for an anti-clockwise (counter-clockwise) Circle Line train.
With a roar and a blast of musty air trains entered the station.
Using my Lumix LX7, I made these photos at Embankment in the heart of central London. One of the benefits of working with digital photography in the Underground is the ablity to get good white balance.
Last Saturday, Kris and I traveled from London Paddington to Oxford on aboard Great Western Railway Class 800 Hitachi-built dua-mode passenger train.
The 800 Class train is multiple section railcar powered by both overhead electric and on-board diesel engines. On our trip, it worked off overhead catenary between London and roughly Didcot Parkway, where it switched to diesel power for the remainder of the run to Oxford.
The seating is largely airline style, but with some seats arranged in quads facing each other across a hard table, and train is slightly more roomy than most commercial planes and features large windows. The ride quality was very good. Top speed on the run was 125mph.
We bought our tickets just a few minutes before departure and boarded the train as soon as the platform was announced. This proved to be a wise move because on deptured the train proved to be very well patronized with almost all the seats in our car occupied.
I’ve enjoyed the run over I.K. Brunel’s famed Great Western route on many occasions, but this was my first traveling on a Class 800.
I’m taking a leap forward in this extra post for 29 February 2024.
The Irish Leap Card is a transit fare storage card roughly equivalent to the London Oyster Card.
This gives you a nominal fare discount and allows for an easier way to pay for transit fare on buses/trams/sububan trains in Dublin and on local trains and buses in Cork.
I bought my first Leap Card back in 2014. I have a collection of these now. When we arrived at Dublin Airport, I checked the balance on two of my cards and found that I had more than 25 Euro stored there.
Since today was Leap Day, Kris and I leaped on Irish Rail’s Cork-Cobh service, which puts this post ahead of many of the earlier posts that will follow over the coming days.
To set the record straight, tomorrow, I’ll resume with a more-or-less chronological review of our Irish-UK adventures.
We took a brief journey on the Elizabeth Line, London’s newest suburban service, which made its debut less than two years ago.
Key to the Elizabeth Line is the newly constructed underground Cross Rail link. This connects the Great Western route with the Great Eastern route via central London.
We traveled a short section of the Cross Rail section.
The subway section is very clean and looks new.
A safety feature are platform doors that line up with train doors. This makes photography of the train underground challenging.
The route was named for Queen Elizabeth II and color chosen for the Elizabeth line is a royal purple.
A week ago, Kris and I traveled from Dublin to London on British Airways. From Heathrow Terminal 5, we traveled on the Heathrow Express to Paddington.
There are a variety of rail options from Heathrow. We chose Heathrow Express largely because of convenience. Between us we had three checked bags and two carry on and the prospect of navigating the tube with so much luggage made the tube/Elizabeth Line options unappealing.
Upon arrival at Paddington we made a few photos then took a taxi to our hotel.
One minor difficulty was a signalling fault on the Great Western Railway route that resulted in a minor delay to our train, and subsequently caused the cancellation of some subsequent Heathrow Express trains. We were lucky that we arrived when we did!
Dublin’s LUAS tram system opened twenty years ago.
I recall photographing the original construction of both Green and Red Lines.
The Red Line extension through the Docklands to the Point opened in 2009, which makes this route 15 years old.
Last week, Kris and I stayed near Georges Dock (on the Docklands extension), and made several trips on the LUAS around the city.
The original 3001-series trams are beginning show their age. It’s fascinating for me to have witnessed the maturing of the trams and the growth of the system. I’ve been photographing LUAS trams since before the system opened, with some of my eariest images dating back to 2002, when the trams were were stored without numbers at the Red Cow depot.
Kris and I traveled on the DART from Dublin Connolly Station to the northern extent of the DART service at Malahide where we spent the afternoon wandering around.
We returned via a 22K series Intercity Railcar (ICR).
I made a series of photos of the station, its trains and environment. The station facilities include a classic former Great Northern Railway (of Ireland) station building. This is constructed of yellow brick and retains its traditional Victorian era canopy.
LX3 photo.Nikon Z7-11 with 24-70mm lens.
Nikon Z7-11 with 24-70mm lens.
Nikon Z7-11 with 24-70mm lens.
Nikon Z7-11 with 24-70mm lens.Nikon Z7-11 with 24-70mm lens.Nikon Z7-11 with 24-70mm lens.
Nikon Z7-11 with 24-70mm lens.
Nikon Z7-11 with 24-70mm lens.
Nikon Z7-11 with 24-70mm lens.Nikon Z7-11 with 24-70mm lens.
Nikon Z7-11 with 24-70mm lens.
Nikon Z7-11 with 24-70mm lens.
LX3 photo.
Photos exposed using Lumix LX3 and Nikon Z7-II digital cameras. All images were exposed as RAW files and processed using Adobe Lightroom.
Dublin Area Rapid Transit is an electrified suburban service focused on Dublin’s Connolly Station. This shares routes with diesel powered trains and provides a regular interval passenger service.
The oldest of its cars are the German built 8100, 8300 series units that date to beginning of the service in the early 1980s. I first photographed the DART in 1998.
I made these photos on Satruday using a Lumix LX3. Kris and I were on our way to Malahide, which is the northern extremity of the DART service.
Following its recent re-introduction to my camera arsenal, I’m continuing to experiment with a Lumix LX3, after nearly a decade since my original LX3 failed following more than 65,000 exposures. The LX3 was my first digital camera.
Last week, Kris and I traveled from Lancaster, Pa., to Dublin, Ireland for the first stage in an epic trip.
This is our first overseas journey since moving to Lancaster. We explored a variety of airline options, and ultimately setted on a rarely traveled path.
American Airlines operates a connecting bus from the Lancaster Airport to Philadelphia. So we booked a through round trip ticket from Lancaster to Dublin. My railroad acquaintances may wonder why we didn’t opt to take Amtrak to Philadelphia and then SEPTA Airport train to th airport.
We considered Amtrak, but the connecting bus offered a variety of practical advantages:
1) Since it was a through ticket, we could check our baggage in Lancaster and collect it in Dublin, thus saving the luggage schlep between trains at 30th Street in Philadelphia. This also cut out a train change, which would be especially problematic on the return leg.
2) The bus is operated by American Airlines, so if anything went wrong with the connection, it was on the airline to make it right. With the rail connection we were at the risk of the railroad’s not performing as planned.
3) The bus only carried a few passengers so we had plenty of space.
4) Bus connection passengers are afforded a special security option at Philadelphia that was much less taxing than having to deal with the main queue of people at security.
Although we didn’t travel by train, we did see a SEPTA Silverliner V at the airport.
We traveled on Boeing 787 Dreamliner, which was a very comfortable way to cross the big pond.
Photos were made with a Lumix LX7.
American Airlines airport connection bus at Lancaster Airport.
American Airlines airport connection bus at Lancaster Airport.
American Airlines airport connection bus at Lancaster Airport.
Not my finest Silverliner V photo, but at least we saw a train during the trip.
Not my finest Silverliner V photo, but at least we saw a train during the trip.
Not my finest Silverliner V photo, but at least we saw a train during the trip.
Forty-two years ago I regularly listened to the radio program Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy adapted from the books by Douglas Adams and presented by BBC.
My father had bought a Grundig portable radio that received shortwave among other frequencies. In the wee-hours, this allowed me to tune in this exotic program from across the pond.
One of the themes of Hitchhikers was the number 42, which was the answer to the ultimate question of the Life, the universe, and everything.
During this same time, I took a photography class at the Wilbraham & Monson Academy taught by Mark Bistline. Among other things, Mark introduced me to Ilford HP5 black & white film. Until that time, I’d largely only used Kodak films.
My father drove me to the Central Vermont Railway yard in Palmer, Massachusetts. I exposed my roll of HP5 with my Leica 3A rangefinder, making a series of images of CV’s Alco RS-11 number #3614 that was idling there.
I also made a recording of the locomotive. I don’t know what became of the recording, but the HP5 negatives still remain in my collection 42 years later.
Parkesburg, Pennsylvania was once an important interlocking where the Enola Low Grade cutoff (Atglen & Susquehanna Branch) joined the Main Line (now Amtrak’s Harrisburg Line) via a grade separated junction.
Today, a vestige of the old low grade survives to serve local industries, but the remants of the interlocking, the town and Amtrak’s former Pennsylvania Railroad station seem like shadows of another era.
This remains a station for Amtrak’s Keystone service, but the station facilities are minimalistic and a contrast to most stations on Amtrak’s Northeast electrified routes.
Last week, Kris and I timed our arrival at Parkesburg to coincide with the late-running Pennsylvanian. This is the through train that connects Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and New York City.
It typically runs with a diesel between Harrisburg and Philadelphia, but on this day diesel power was swaped for an electric at Harrisburg.
I made this sequence of images using my Nikon Z mirror-less digital cameras.
For my birthday, my father had given me a roll of Fujichrome Provia 100F.
More than 40 years earlier, he would often provide a roll of Kodachrome (with Kodak mailer) on my special day. I still have many of those slides in my collection, most of subjects long since gone.
While visiting Cape Cod, I finished the Ektachrome that had been in my Nikon for months and loaded up the lone roll of Fujichrome Provia.
Among the film photos I made on the trip was this view of Mass-Coastal’s ‘Energy Train’ passing the harbor at Buzzards Bay on its return from Rochester, Massachusetts.
I received this processed film back from the lab last week. I was delighted! Almost every color slide was a winner!
Fujichrome Provia 100F color slide exposed at Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts on Novemeber 24, 2023. Processed in February 2024 and scanned a few days ago for presentation here.
Fujichrome Provia 100F color slide exposed at Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts on Novemeber 24, 2023. Processed in February 2024 and scanned a few days ago for presentation here.
Fujichrome Provia 100F color slide exposed at Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts on Novemeber 24, 2023. Processed in February 2024 and scanned a few days ago for presentation here.
Back on November 17, 2023, Kris and I had paused at Reading & Northern’s Pittston Junction yard.
It had been months since the last time I exposed a color slide.
I had my Nikon F3 with me because we were on our way to Cape Cod, and I anticipated wanting to make a few slides of our trip.
So after making a variety of photos with my digital cameras, I dusted off the F3 and made two Ektachrome slides of Reading & Northern 2535, in what appeared as a classic railroad scene.
Why just two slides? Well, this was because after I exposed the second photo the battery in the camera died. That is one of the dangers of infrequent camera use.
When we final got to the Cape, I replaced the battery and finished off my roll of film.
Exposed on Kodak Ektachrome 100 using a Nikon F3 with 35-70mm Nikkor zoom. Slide scanned using a Nikon LS5000 slide scanner.
The high cost of the film and processing, combined with the burden of carrying extra camera equipment, has limited my film usage to just a few rolls per year.
Last week, I received several processed rolls back from the lab, which accounted for the majority of the film photos I made during 2023.
Among these were a few photos I made on January 24, 2023 during a trip with Conway Scenic’s Snow Plow Extra that cleared to Mountain Junction and then east on the Redstone Branch in North Conway, New Hampshire.
These were exposed on Kodak Ektachrome 100 using a Nikon F3.
Conway Scenic crews clear the switch at Mountain Junction on January 24, 2023.
Conway Scenic crews clear the switch at Mountain Junction on January 24, 2023.
Conway Scenic crews clear the switch at Mountain Junction on January 24, 2023.
Plow Extras are very rare on the Redstone Branch. I wanted to make sure this was recorded for posterity, so I made a few color slides of the move. I’d traveled on the train as far as Mechanic Street, then walked along the North-South road in North Conway to get this image. Until 2022, I lived around the corner from this location.
Plow Extras are very rare on the Redstone Branch. I wanted to make sure this was recorded for posterity, so I made a few color slides of the move. I’d traveled on the train as far as Mechanic Street, then walked along the North-South road in North Conway to get this image. Until 2022, I lived around the corner from this location.
Plow Extras are very rare on the Redstone Branch. I wanted to make sure this was recorded for posterity, so I made a few color slides of the move. I’d traveled on the train as far as Mechanic Street, then walked along the North-South road in North Conway to get this image. Until 2022, I lived around the corner from this location.
