Tag Archives: #Cherryville Junction

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Sudden Deluge at Cherryville Junction

April and May were weedspraying season on Irish Rail. Back in the day I was pretty familiar with this program.

The Irish Rail weedspray train was something of a tradition and I made countless photos of it working around the network.

On 14 April, 2009, I exposed this telephoto view on Fujichrome of the weedspraying train working up-road at Cherryville Junction in the midst of a torrential deluge. It was well worth getting wet. It was one of the last times I saw a pair of Irish Rail Bo-Bos (small General Motors diesels, classes 141 and 181) working on the main line.

I made this scan of the slide on 30 April 2009 using my then-new Epson V500 scanner. This was my first scanner and it served me well for more than a decade. Approximately six months later I bought my first digital camera, a Lumix LX3—a model recommended to me by Eric Rosenthal. I made more than 65,000 exposures my original LX3, but that story was still in the future.

Just a little while earlier the sun had been out. While the rain made for a dramatic image, I wonder about the effectiveness of the weedspray in this weather.

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20 Years ago: Sugarbeet at Cherryville

Twenty years ago, during November and December I would focus my photography on Irish Rail’s Sugar Beet campaign.

This was an intensive and fascinating operation that focused on the movement of sugar beet from the loading point at Wellingtonbridge, Co. Wexford to the sugar processing factory in Mallow, Co. Cork. The trains were typically hauled by a variety of Irish Rail’s 1960s and 1970s-era General Motors diesels and used a fleet of antique vacuum-braked four wheel beet wagons.

Over the years, my friends and I got to know many of the players in this magnificent stage show, which often added a personal element to watching and photographing the trains in action.

Ireland in November: chilly with low midday sun, the ground perpetually damp and an agircultural scent in the air.

The 2003 beet campaign had an unusual twist. Earlier in the year, an accident at Cahir, Co. Tipperary on the Waterford-Limerick Junction line had damaged a key bridge, as a result the sugar beet trains were diverted northward to Cherryville Junction (on the Dublin-Cork line) and to Kildare where the locomotive would run around, and then toward Cork via Limerick Junction.

On November 27, 2003, my friends and I were set up at Cherryville Junction. Irish Rail class 071 No. 081 had been holding at the signal as trains passed on the main route. Then when traffic cleared, the 081 with 750 tonnes of sugar beet got the signal to crossover and head ‘up-road toward’ Kildare. The locomotive was roaring away as it snaked through the Cherryville crossover.

I exposed this view on Provia 100F (RPD-III) using a Nikon F3 with 180mm Nikkor telephoto.

Much has changed in the intervening years, but I still carry the 180mm lens and Irish Rail 081 is still on the roster. The sugar beet trains are but a memory.

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Good Friday at Cherryville Junction. Five Photos!

And it’s a was a very good Friday too. Years ago, Good Friday was a busy day on Irish Rail and there was lots to garner a photographer’s attention.

In addition to Railway Preservation Society of Ireland steam excursions, and ‘extra’ Friday-only passenger trains, Irish Rail tended to operate a lot of daylight freight.

So on the morning of March 29, 2002, Hassard Stacpoole and I joined Paul Quinlan at Kildare for a foray to Cherryville Junction (where the Waterford Line joins the Dublin-Cork mainline) and spent the day rolling by the parade of trains.

I made most of my photos on Fujichrome slide film, but also exposed a roll of Fuji Neopan 400 black & white film in my Contax G2 rangefinder with a yellow filter.  I processed this in Agfa Rodinal Special (mixed 1-32) for 3 minutes 45 seconds at 20c.

Then after 18 years in an archival box, yesterday I decided to scan a few of the photos for presentation here.

Irish Rail class 201 number 226 pushes a Mark3 push-pull working the up Waterford.
Irish Rail 087 with down Waterford.

Class 201 number 219 works the up ammonia.
Trailing view of the up ammonia.
Railcars running toward Waterford (or Carlow?) at sunset.

What may have passed as ordinary in 2002, now looks fascinating.

More to come from that day soon!

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