#Abandoned railway | Tracking the Light

The old Beechers Falls Branch was a vestige of Maine Central’s foray into Quebec that survived on Maine Central’s system in later years as a truncated appendage accessed by trackage rights over Boston & Maine and Grand Trunk lines.

After Maine Central gave up, various short lines had operated the trackage. Today the line to Beechers Falls, Vermont is a trail.

Beechers Falls itself is a curiosity on a narrow strip of land wedged tightly between New Hampshire and Quebec.

On Saturday (May 23, 2020) Kris Sabbatino and I explored this abandoned line.

I made these photos where the Branch crossed the upper reaches of the Connecticut River at Canaan, Vermont.

Working with a Nikkormat FT with an f2.8 24mm Nikkor lens, I exposed Ilford HP5 400 ISO black & white film.

Although I intended to process this in Ilford ID11, yesterday, I realized that I was all out of that developer, so instead I worked with Kodak HC110, which I mixed as ‘dilution B’ (1-32 with water). Before my primary process, I mixed a very weak ‘presoak’ (1-300 with water and Kodak Photoflo) and soaked the film for five minutes, then introduced my primary developer for 4 minutes 30 seconds.

Last night Kris and I scanned the negatives using an Epson V500 flatbed scanner with Epson’s provided software.

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The old Youghal Branch is still there if you know where to look for it. It’s a vestige from another time, which makes it all the more fascinating to me.

A few years back Irish Rail rebuilt and reactivated the line from Cobh Junction to Midleton, Co. Cork, but beyond there the line is dormant. The last move east of Midleton, occurred in 1988. And prior to that trains were—at best—infrequent.

Earlier this month, Ken Fox gave me a detailed tour of the old railway, much of which is now heavily overgrown.

To the untrained eye (no pun intended) there’s little to see in most places. You could easily miss the railway altogether.

Yet, below the weeds, bushes and detritus are rails and sleepers. It more than just track; signal cabins still stand at Killeagh and Youghal, as do the old stations at Mogeely and Youghal.

Mogeely has been cleared, and there’s plenty to explore around the old station area.