Irish Rail’s Grand Canal Docks at Night and the Sperry Train.


—Some nocturnal views of Dublin suburban operations—

Working in the gloom of night has its challenges and benefits.

It’s especially challenging when the camera I intended to make film photos was suffering from a flat battery, again (so I thought).

One of my Nikon F3s was again showing signs of no electricity. Changing out the batteries on an railcar, I began to suspect something else . . .

Anyway, last week Paul Maguire, Jay Monaghan and I arrived at Pearse Station as a potential location to picture Irish Rail’s Sperry train that was making its run to Bray to inspect rail conditions.

We decided to try the next station down the line, and traveled on a DART electric train to Grand Canal Docks. With my Nikon dead in the water, I opted to work with my Lumix LX7 and FujiFilm digital cameras instead. This changed my perspective as I’d hope to make black & white film photos.

Grand Canal Docks viewed from Irish Rail’s station of the same name. Lumix LX7 photo.
DART at Grand Canal Docks. Lumix LX7 photo.
Irish Rail 29000 series CAF-built diesel train. Lumix LX7 photo.
A Howth-bound DART at Grand Canal Docks, FujiFilm XT1 photo.
Irish Rail 086 leads the Sperry detection train at Grand Canal docks. FujiFilm XT1 with 90mm f2.0 prime telephoto.

As we waited on the platforms for the Sperry train. I made photos of the DART and suburban diesel railcars, which dominate operations on this route.

Diesel haulage is the attraction of the elusive Sperry train; and on this evening Irish Rail 086 did the honors.

Tracking the Light Posts Daily!

Oh yeah, about the F3T’s battery problem. Later, I discovered that the plastic cartridge that holds the batteries appeared to have developed a short. Luckily, I have a spare F3 and swapped out the cartridge solving this difficulty.

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