On August 10, 2015, David Hegarty and I visited Drogheda, where Irish Rail’s Navan Branch meets the Northern Line.
It was our second visit in two days.
In recent years, I’d been dismissive of the Northern Line as being bland. But, I’ve seen the error of my ways.
In just a couple hours we were treated to a steady parade of trains, and this offered just about the best variety of equipment as anyone can expect to see in modern day Ireland.
The highlight of the day was the arrival of the weed-spraying train, which needed to run around, and the propel back to access the branch.
Shortly after we arrived, a laden Tara mines train pulled into view at the end of the branch. The electric DART cars were at the depot for servicing.29000-series railcars take the switch for platform 3.Hooray! The weed-spraying train as arrived from Dundalk.Engine 074 has cutoff and will run around its train in preparation for a run to Navan on the branch.A Dublin-bound set of 29000 railcars in the new livery has just departed the station.The sun came out as the weed-spraying train reversed.Irish Rail 233 leads the down Enterprise toward Belfast. The weedsprayer waits to crossover.The chevrons on the front of 074 have been a trademark of the weedspraying train for decades.The sprayer is doing its thing as it heads toward Navan.Fresh bit of sun on the railcar depot.Eventually that Tara train will have to move.
Our vantage point was the lightly travel road bridge south of the railway station. During our visit there were more dogs across the bridge than cars.
Drogheda is nicely oriented for sun-lit photography through out most of the day. This is the location of a railcar depot (maintenance facility), so in addition to mainline moves, there was considerable activity at the depot, which include the washing of trains.
As with many busy places, the action seemed to come in waves.
Watching the railcars get washed provided a bit of entertainment.I like the new green livery. What do you think?More fresh green 29000s on the move.Finally! The sounds of an EMD 645 engine, and here’s the laden Tara mines train on the move. It carries zinc ore to Dublin port.Some NIR CAF-built 3001 series railcars are on their way back to Belfast.
Wow, that is a great place.. very cool shots. I love the green.. (even though I am colored blind…)
The ore train is very neat. The track arrangement is interesting.. the vantage point is also great for taking all those shots.
back to the track, it is interesting to see the switches and the track going off to the left and how close the switches are then the tracks fan out from there.. thus, still going the same way.. I also like the stub end track that is ‘in use’ till the switch to the main is aligned.. very cool. thanks for sharing.
Wow, that is a great place.. very cool shots. I love the green.. (even though I am colored blind…)
The ore train is very neat. The track arrangement is interesting.. the vantage point is also great for taking all those shots.
back to the track, it is interesting to see the switches and the track going off to the left and how close the switches are then the tracks fan out from there.. thus, still going the same way.. I also like the stub end track that is ‘in use’ till the switch to the main is aligned.. very cool. thanks for sharing.