Tag Archives: #Ballybrophy

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Fast Trains Converging at Ballybrophy

It was the afternoon on 7 April 2007. Up and down trains on the Dublin-Cork mainline were converging on Irish Rail’s rural station at Ballybrophy. I stood poised on the old iron foot-bridge with a Nikon F3 loaded with Fujichome and fitted with my Nikkor f2.8 180mm lens.

The up-train passed first with Irish Rail 205 leading a set of Mark III carriages. Notice that 205’s driver had switched off the headlight to avoid blinding his counterpart on 204. Seconds later 204 raced by in the down direction. 

I referenced the photo of 204 on Monday’s TTL and I thought I’d run it again here, although it was previously featured.   http://briansolomon.com/trackingthelight/last-light-of-an-april-day/. You can see the back of the up-train in the distance. Both trains were hurtling along at 90 (+/-) mph.

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Irish Rail 201 in Fresh Paint

Irish Rail’s EMD-built class 201 diesels made their debut in 1994—30 years ago.

On the evening of 27 April 2006, a few miles from the top of Ballybrophy bank, I made this Fujichrome color slide of the class leader wearing a fresh coat of paint as it raced download from Dublin to Cork.

Exposed on Fujichrome Sensia II (100 ISO) using a Contax G2 rangefinder with 45mm Zeiss lens.

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A Moment of Sun Near Ballybrophy—2 slides.

It was a dull Friday afternoon in mid June 2005, when DH and I were exploring locations along the Cork Road (Dublin to Cork) between Mountrath, Co Laois and the top of Ballybrophy Bank.

We’d stopped in sight of the tracks on a lightly traveled dirt road, and were cleaning the car, when off to the east we heard the distant drumming of a class 071 in Run-8 (full throttle).

Irish Rail’s class 071s are mid-1970s era EMD diesel-electrics, built with Dash-2 technology and powered with 12-cylinder 645E3 (turbocharged) engine. Their sound is distinctive.

I grabbed my Nikon F3 loaded with Fujichrome Sensia II (100 ISO). As the Friday-only ‘Down Kerry’ (Dublin Heuston to Tralee) came into view, the sun peaked out from a thick overhead cloud-bank. Irish Rail 072 was driven by Irish Rail’s Ken Fox, who recognized us and gave a few friendly blasts of the hooter (horn).

As the train passed on its ascent toward Ballybrophy, the sound intensified—a characteristic of the doppler effect. We could hear the aged EMD until Ken shut off at the top of the bank—several miles distant.

I scanned these slides a couple of weeks ago.

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