Next up in my 20 year retrospective featuring the Irish Rail 201 class is Irish Rail locomotive 217!
Is this anyone’s favorite engine?
I have many images of 217 over the years, and I’ve selected these three for presentation here.
Details in the photos below.
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Tonight (Monday 3 October, 2016)- I’ll be presenting a variation of my slide program Irish Railways Looking Back Ten Years to the Cork Branch of the Irish Railway Record Society at 8pm in the Metropole Hotel in Cork City.
During 2005 and 2006, I exposed thousands of colour slides of Irish Railways. Fear not, I will not attempt to present all of these slides this evening!
Among my out-takes is this sequence exposed in summer 2006 of Irish Rail 201 diesels with passenger trains at the top of Ballybrophy Bank.
Tracking the light will be on ‘Autopilot’ for the next couple of days, but will continue to display new material every morning.
Among the features of Irish Rail in 2006 were two new paint liveries that had been introduced the year previous.
I preferred the yellow-face scheme on the 201 class diesel. This photographed better than either the older predominantly orange livery, or the new two-tone green and silver (such featured in yesterday’s post).
The brighter ends proved visually especially advantageous in situations such as this one where the front-end was shadowed.
On 10 March 2016, I will present a feature length illustrated talk to the Irish Railway Record Society in Dublin; my topic, Irish Railways in 2006.
This will begin at 7:30 pm at the IRRS Dublin premises near Heuston Station, Dublin.
It was a typical late summer’s day at the top of Ballybrophy Bank on Irish Rail’s Dublin-Cork mainline in 2006.
I was expecting a procession of passenger trains down road (toward Cork). At the time there was still a good variety of intercity passenger stock and Irish Rail’s 201s were working in four different liveries. This was an opportunity to show the passage of trains.
Here, I’ve presented variation on a theme. I’d mounted my Nikon F3 with 105mm lens on Manfrotto 190PRO tripod. I kept the essential framing the same for each passing train, while making necessary changes to exposure reflecting the changes in light.
Notice how the quality of light and the position of the train changes the scene.
Normally when photographing moving trains, I’d adjust my framing, angle and the focal length of the lens to reflect changes in lighting, length of train, and the colour/shape of the leading engine as it specifically relates to background and foreground elements.
The effects of sunlight and contrast make a significant difference in the end result.
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Views of Action and Architecture
Ballybrophy is a rural station on Irish Rail’s Dublin-Cork main line. It’s probably the smallest community on the route to retain an active passenger station and survives as result of it being the connection to the Nenagh Branch.
Most trains blitz the place at track speed. A few miles east of the station is a summit known as the top of Ballybrophy Bank. Here a lightly used road crosses the line on a bridge which offers a nice view for Cork trains.
I’ve made many visits to Ballybrophy over the years, both to ride the Nenagh Branch and to photograph trains on the mainline.
These images were exposed on an unusually sunny June 3, 2006 using my Contax G2 rangefinder.
The classic old stone railway station at Ballybrophy is a treasure. There’s plenty of time between trains to study the architecture. Contax G2 with 45mm lens.
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