It’s become a tradition to visit Kildare on Good Friday. This day has a history of seeing a good number of freights as well as passenger trains.
Kildare offers a good place to photograph freights running between Waterford and Ballina, since trains need to reverse direction here owing to the lack of a direct connection in the westward direction at Cherryville Junction.
On Good Friday, April 3, 2015, there was the added bonus of a locomotive exchange for the laden timber. Locomotive 071 (the class leader) had come down from Inchicore in Dublin and waited for the arrival of the timber from Ballina (with engine 078).
Although the weather wasn’t the best, I had ample opportunity for photographs. All of these images were exposed between 10:48 and 12:08 am using my Fuji Film X-T1 digital camera.
A Dublin bound ICR takes the passing loop at Kildare at 10:48 am. A down ICR is making its station stop. Engine 071 waits on the up main.The down ICR accelerates away from Kildare.At 10:57 am Irish Rail 075 passes with the down IWT liner (Dublin to Ballina).Irish Rail 071 pulls forward to run through the crossovers at the west end of the station to allow the laden timber to pull into the station.The laden timber was holding west of the station waiting for the light engine to pull forward.Here the timber is pulling forward at 11:03 am. Locomotive 071 will couple on to the Waterford-end of the train.At 11:21 the up Mark 4 from Cork approaches Kildare.At 11:29 locomotive 221 with the 11 am Dublin-Cork Mark4 passes Kildare. The laden timber holds on the up-road waiting for a path.An up-road ICR takes the loop at 11:31 am.Telephoto view of the same up-road ICR.Finally, after the passage of several more passenger trains, the laden timber departs Kildare, taking the crossover from uproad to downroad. The time was 11:58 am.Locomotive 219 leads the up IWT liner at 12:08 pm.
Tomorrow: Good Friday highlight, a freshly painted locomotive in freight service at Cherryville Junction.
