Irish Rail’s lofty Boyne bridge spanning the river and valley of the historic Boyne at Drogheda poses a visual conundrum.
This prominent span rises high above Drogheda. It is a very impressive bridge.
But it’s difficult to adequately picture a train on it. Feature the bridge; the train is lost. Feature the train; the bridge gets cropped.
Look up at the bridge; and the train is marginalized.
Stand back to take in the whole span of the bridge and the train becomes insignificant.
Place the train at the center of the bridge and it become lost in the iron work.
Complicating matters, the only regularly scheduled trains with locomotives are the cross-border Belfast-Dublin Enterpriseservices, and on these train the locomotives always face north.
Last Sunday, I made these views of up and down Enterpriseconsists at Drogheda.
The best of these photos successfully portrays the relationships between travel, commerce, industry, and transportation. Sometimes we railfans forget that there is a scene around our narrow viewfinder and, especially in urban environments, that scene helps to contextualize the equipment that only we see as important.