Here are a few photos from a roll of 35mm B&W film that for all intents and purposes has never seen the light of day until now. Why? Back when I exposed them, the trains pictured were the most mundane-sort to be seen in Ireland. Really, it was just the routine parade of passenger trains that arrived and departed Dublin’s Heuston Station every day. The light wasn’t especially good, and at the time I was primarily experimenting with my Nikons using some telephoto lenses. I was just playing around, and I didn’t deem the pictures sufficiently interesting to print. After processing, they went directly into the file without second thought. I came across them only today while searching for some views I made in Dublin on Christmas Day 1999 for use as a Christmas card. In the interval, over the last ten years, the Irish Rail passenger scene in Ireland has completely changed, so what were dull and routine now look pretty interesting to my eye. I’ve scanned some choice images on my Epson V600 for presentation here.
My choice of film was Fuji Neopan 400, which I processed in Agfa Rodinal Special (not to be confused with ordinary Afga Rodinal) which was a highly active developer sold in liquid form, difficult to obtain in the U.S. When working with this developer I tended to use a relatively dilute solution that allowed me a 3.5 minute development time with the film rated as recommended by the manufacturer.