Tag Archives: Carlow

Irish Rail at Carlow—21 DEC 2003,

May 4, 2019 brian solomon Leave a comment

A visit to Irish Rail’s Carlow station on the shortest day of 2003, yielded some classic black & white photos, including these two views. The Cravens were working a scheduled service from Waterford to Dublin.

Working with a recently acquired Rollei Model T (the third such cameras I’d used over a 30 year span), I exposed a single roll of 120-size Fuji Neopan 400. The Rollei made a large square negative, which I really liked.

At the time my choice process for this film was using Agfa Rodinal Special (R09) at a ratio of 1 to 31 parts with water for about 3 mins 45 seconds. In this case I selenium toned the negatives for improved highlight detail.

Final presentation here included scanning using an Epson V750 flatbed scanner and some minor adjustments to contrast and cropping with Lightroom.

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Magnificent Vestige at Borris, County Carlow.

October 12, 2018 brian solomon Leave a comment

The Borris Viaduct is an impressive vestige of the closed Irish railway line from Bagenalstown to Palace East.

Ken Fox, Donncha Cronin and I explored this old bridge, which has been converted into a hiking trail with easy public access.

Photos exposed using a FujiFilm XT1 digital camera.

Notice the effect of selective focus and soft light.

This similar view has greater depth of field.

This old milepost is measured from Dublin and is located immediately south/east of the big bridge.

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Six Vintage 201 photos: Spring with Irish Rail 213!

May 30, 2018 brian solomon Leave a comment

Years past, I made many colourful photos of Irish Rail 213 River Moy on bright Spring days.

One of my first encounters was in May 1998 at Carlow. I’d arrived by bus (Shhh!!) and made photos of the down train (Dublin to Waterford) at Carlow station using my Nikon F3T loaded with Fujichrome Sensia 100.

View through the fence from the road using a 135mm lens.

213 side-on as it approaches the down starting signal at Carlow in May 1998.

Seven years later, in the Spring of 2005, I was keen to catch 213 on the move, since this was the first Irish Rail class 201 to wear the revised orange livery with bright yellow front end.

I saw this as a big improvement over the original 201 livery.

On 8 April 2005, I photographed 213 in fresh paint with my Contax G2 and 28mm lens on Velvia slide film.

Close up of 213 at Cork’s Kent Station using my Nikon N90S with telephoto lens and Sensia 100 film.

A month later on 8 May 2005, I made this view of 213 light engine at Heuston Station in Dublin. Anyone need a cheap shoe?

And because it fits the theme, I’ve also included a view from April 2006, of 213 descending Ballybrophy-bank racing toward Dublin.

It was on the evening of 17 April 2006 when I caught 213 with Mark3 carriages on the up-Cork passing milepost 62 1/2.

213 hasn’t turned a wheel in many a Spring now. It waits its turn in the sun in a deadline at Inchicore.

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Steam to Kilkenny, August 25, 2013—Part 4

September 4, 2013 brian solomon 2 Comments

Irish Rail Vignettes: Trains From the Train.

RPSI Kilkenny excursion — Approaching Carlow. Canon EOS 7D Photo.

Traveling by special train allows unusual perspectives of otherwise ordinary operations. It allows for images of technological contrasts and angles not normally possible.

The RPSI’s vintage Cravens are ideal rolling platforms from which to make photos because the windows open. Also, since the train travels at more conservative speeds, you have more time to absorb and record the passing scenes.

I’ll often work with a zoom lens and fast shutter speed (1/500^th of a second or higher) as to quickly frame an image and stop the action.

Other opportunity for photos are when the train stops for water, to collect or discharge passengers, and other long pauses at station platforms. All of these images were exposed during the The Marble City express excursion on August 25, 2013.