Tag Archives: Dublin

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Irish Bog Railways—Part 3, March 2, 2013

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Bord na Mona trains
A pair of Bord na Mona laden peat trains revese upgrade on temporary track near Annaghmore, County Longford. To maintain adhesion, sand is applied to the rails.

Saturday, March 2, 2013, some of my Dublin friends and I made another foray to County Longford to explore Bord na Mona’s Lanesborough/Mountdillon narrow gauge railway network. As I mentioned in Irish Bog Railways; Part 2, this is one of several extensive Bord na Mona narrow gauge railway systems. This one primarily serves the Lough Ree Power Station along the River Shannon. (Last autumn, we explored Bord na Mona’s network focused on the Edenderry Power plant, see Irish Bog Railways; Part 1)

Bord na Mona
A coupled pair of laden Bord na Mona trains struggles upgrade, laying sand down as they ascend a short steep grade on the run back toward Mountdillon. This is the same stretch of track pictured in Irish Bog Railways–Part 2.

Unlike Irish mainline railways, Bord na Mona operates on very lightly built track. Temporary spurs are laid out on the bog for loading trains with harvested turf. While these temporary tracks may only stay in place for weeks or months, Bord na Mona main trunks are well established, with some in place for five decades. Key routes are built with broadly spaced double-track The nature of the operation requires that trains are run cautiously, and rarely exceed 15 mph. Typically peat trains operate in pairs to assist with loading and reverse moves. At times these may be coupled together. In addition to trains of peat gather rakes, Bord na Mona also runs a host of maintenance trains, including fueling trains used to supply machines working in harvesting areas.

Bord_na_Mona_hedgerows_double_track_Lanesborough_IMG_0444
A bustle in the hedgerow; near Lanesborough on March 2, 2013.

The railway’s setting ranges from bucolic rolling woodlands to other-worldly landscapes consisting of heavily harvested bog lands. Trains announce their presence by a distinctive clattering that pierces the relative serenity of the bog. The combination of diminutive locomotives, track panels with steel sleepers, short trains and sections of hastily built temporary track, makes the whole operation seem like a vast, but delightful model railway.

Irish narrow gauge turf railway.
Gatekeeper gives a laden train a wave on March 2, 2013. Catching the flashing lights on the gates requires a bit of practice. Exposed with a Panasonic Lumix LX-3.

Saturday began dull and misty, but brightened toward the end of the day. I made several hundred images with my digital cameras, while exposing more than a roll of Fuji Provia 100F with my Canon EOS 7D. Our conversations with Bord na Mona staff, found them hospitable and knowledgeable. We returned to Dublin, happy with our day’s efforts while formulating plans for our next adventure on Ireland’s elusive 3-foot gauge railways.

Bord na Mona bridge at Mountdillon.
Bord na Mona bridge at Mountdillon.
Train driver holds recent issues of the Irish Railway Record Society Journal. This compact magazine covers contemporary and historical Irish railway topics including Bord na Mona operations. It is available through membership of the IRRS.
Train driver holds recent issues of the Irish Railway Record Society Journal. This compact magazine covers contemporary and historical Irish railway topics including Bord na Mona operations. It is available through membership of the IRRS. See Irish Railway Record Society
Bord na Mona
Empty train negotiates a tight curve on the double track Bord na Mona line between Lanesborough and Mountdillon on March 2, 2013. Exposed with a Canon 7D.
Lough Rea Power Station
An afternoon view finds soft light on the Lough Ree Power Station at Lanesborough, County Longford. Bord na Mona’s operations on its Lanesborough railway network are largely focused on delivering peat to this plant. Other activities include operation of an ash train that takes away waste ash from the plant.
Some blooming gorse adds a splash of color to a bleak landscape. Loading areas on the bog, offer open views of the trains in an austere otherworldly environment.
Some blooming gorse adds a splash of color to a bleak landscape. Loading areas on the bog, offer open views of the trains in an austere otherworldly environment.
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Two views of Broadstone, Dublin

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Broadstone_Dublin_Jan_3_2000
Broadstone Station, Dublin greets the new millennium. Rollei Model T with f3.5 75mm Zeiss Tessar lens.

Broadstone Station was the Dublin terminus of Ireland’s Midland & Great Western Railway. This enigmatic railway was built west from Dublin parallel to the suffering Royal Canal, and Broadstone Station was located adjacent to the existing Royal Canal basin in the north city center. M&GWR was among lines consolidated as Great Southern Railways in 1924, a move that sealed the fate of Broadstone; it was closed as a passenger terminal in 1936 (although tracks remained for freight services into the 1970s). The buildings survive as a Dublin Bus depot (garage). The old canal basin  was filled in many years ago and is now car park. The canal bridge that once spanned the road adjacent to the station is remembered in period photos on the walls of neighborhood pubs. Soon rails will return to Broadstone in the form of a LUAS light rail extension.

Broadstone Station is a vestige of Irish railways long gone. The station was executed in an Egyptian revival style and completed in 1850. I find the building fascinating, yet difficult to photograph because it is hemmed in by the five inhibitors of urban railway photography: pavement, walls, fences, wires and unkempt brush. On a weekday, cars and buses surround the old structure, which lend to ironic images of a grand decayed station encircled by transport modes that contributed to its redundancy. Making a simple image that captures the grandeur of the station isn’t easy. Here are two of my efforts: one was made with my old Rollei Model T on 120 size black & white film on January 3, 2000. I exposed the other digitally last Tuesday afternoon (February 19, 2013) using my Canon 7D and 40mm pancake lens.

Dublin's Broadstone Station, February 19, 2013. Exposed with Canon 7D fitted with 40mm pancake lens.
Dublin’s Broadstone Station, February 19, 2013. Exposed with Canon 7D fitted with 40mm pancake lens.
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White Tram Prowls Dublin’s LUAS

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LUAS tram
White tram at Bus Aras, Dublin. February 19, 2013. Canon 7D with 40mm pancake lens.

 

White tram near Bus Aras, Dublin. February 19, 2013. Canon 7D with 40mm pancake lens.
White tram near Bus Aras, Dublin. February 19, 2013. Canon 7D with 40mm pancake lens.

The majority of trams on Dublin’s LUAS network are dressed in light silvery lavender with yellow safety strips around the body of the cars roughly at headlight level. The yellow stripe was added after the 2004 LUAS start up. Every so often, a single tram is decorated in an advertising livery. Last autumn (2012) there was an attractive blue tram advertising a cable television service. The other day, I noticed an all white tram advertising a phone service. This is like the one red jellybean in a bag of black ones. It’s something to watch out for and relieves the monotony of an otherwise uniform fleet. For photography it opens up opportunity to catch something a little different. After all, what can white do that silver cannot?

LUAS tram Dublin
Ordinary LUAS tram catches the glint at Bus Aras, Dublin. February 19, 2013. Canon 7D with 40mm pancake lens.
See: http://www.luas.ie/
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LUAS Tram, Dublin
White tram at Connolly Station, Dublin. February 19, 2013. Canon 7D with 40mm pancake lens.

 

Tram in Dublin
White tram on Benburb Street Dublin. February 19, 2013. Canon 7D with 40mm pancake lens.

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Irish Rail at Clondalkin, February 21, 2013

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Irish Rail passenger train
An Irish Rail six-piece Intercity Railcar works down road at milepost 4 1/4 near Clondalkin. Canon 7D with 100 f2.0 lens. ISO 200 1/500th second at f5.6.

 

This morning (February 21, 2013), Dublin dawned frosty and dull. On Thursdays, Irish Rail runs a pair of intermodal freight liners between Dublin port and Ballina, County Mayo for shipping company IWT (International Warehousing and Transport). Today, the first of the two IWT Liners (as the freights are generally known) departed the yards at the North Wall just after 9:31 am. As it was led by a common 201-class diesel and the weather remained especially dull outside, I opted to let it pass undocumented, as I’ve often photographed this train in nice light. The second train, however, was running with Irish Rail 074, one of the 1970s-era General Motors-built 071 class diesels, which is of greater interest to me. So this afternoon, my friend Colm O’Callaghan and I went to a favored spot near Clondalkin in the western suburbs at milepost 4 ¼ , where we waited patiently in Baltic conditions. While the temperature was a balmy 3 degrees Celsius (about 37 Fahrenheit), the biting wind and general dampness made it feel much colder. Just ten days ago I was out in much colder conditions at Palmer, Massachusetts (USA), where it was about -17 degrees Celsius (1 degree Fahrenheit), and it hadn’t felt so bad. There’s nothing like a raw Irish day to cut through you.

IWT Liner
Irish Rail 074 leads the second Dublin-Ballina IWT liner near Clondalkin on February 21, 2013 at 1:20 pm. Canon 7D with 40mm pancake lens; ISO 200 1/500th at f5.0.

Clondalkin is on the short stretch of quad-track mainline between Cherry Orchard (no cherries near the place!) and Hazelhatch that was expanded from the old double-line at the end of the Celtic Tiger-era boom years. The slight curve at the end of a long tangent in an area of industrial estates makes for an interesting setting to capture trains on the roll. However, it isn’t the nicest place to stand around exposed on a cold day. Complicating photography are high palisade fences and other fencing on the bridge that requires some creative solutions to overcome. While waiting for the down IWT liner, we witnessed the usual parade of passenger trains, all running to time, on the new Irish Rail time table.

The mildly overcast conditions encouraged us to make a cross-lit view of the liner from the north side of the line, rather than the more traditional three-quarter angle from the south side. I like the north side view on a dull day because it offers a better angle on the quad track and signaling.

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photography, Tips and Technique

More Secrets on Pan Photos

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LUAS Tram Dublin
A Dublin LUAS tram hums along Benburb Street heading toward Heuston Station. The Easter-like colors on the tram make for a cool comparison with those in the background on the Museum of Decorative Arts & History in the old Collins Barracks. Canon 7D with 40mm pancake lens. ISO 200 f18 at 1/60th second. (Full frame without cropping or post processing adjustment except scaling for internet viewing.)

Practice panning. I’ve found this increases the ratio of success. Trams are good subjects for practicing. They come by a frequently and at regular intervals. They operate in urban environments with interesting backgrounds. If one set of pans isn’t satisfactory, no problem, there’ll be another tram along shortly. Also, trams tend to be double-ended, allowing opportunities for panning coming and going.

Dublin is blessed with a modern tram system. The LUAS is well suited (and aptly named— translated from the Irish roughly means ‘speed’) for panning. LUAS Citadis trams built are by Alstom, and are a standard European model. I find these reasonably photogenic, so far as trams go and they glide along smoothly. Over the years I’ve made a variety of LUAS pans. I exposed this pair of tram pans yesterday afternoon (February 18, 2013) along Dublin’s Benburb Street using my Canon 7D fitted with 40mm Pancake lens (which as result of the 7D’s smaller sensor size provides a 35mm film camera equivalent of about 60mm lens)

Here’s a few tips for making clean pan photos:

1) Use a 50mm lens or short telephoto. (Making pan photos with wide-angles and long telephotos is much more difficult)

2) Manually select a shutter speed between 1/15th and 1/60th of a second. (the longer the shutter is open, the greater the effect of blurring, but the harder it is to obtain a clean pan).

3) Make a series of experimental photos to practice the panning motion.

4) Pan by pivoting the entire body.

5) Pick a point in the frame to line up with the subject; try to hold the subject to that point during the entire pan.

6) Begin panning well before the subject is photographed and plan to continue panning until well after the shutter is released. Don’t stop suddenly.

7) If using an SLR/DSLR, plan on making a single frame and not a series of motor drive exposures. (The mirror flapping up and down is distracting and may simply result in a series of badly blurred images instead of a single sharp one).

8) Pay careful attention to the background and how it relates to your subject.

9) Repeat steps 1 to 8 as often as is practicable.

 

I’ll divulge a few more panning tricks in a later post.

 

A LUAS Tram passes the Millennium Bar on Benburb Street. This was the location of the well-publicized tram crash on September 10, 2012, that I featured in a post on that day. See: LUAS Tram Crash on Benburb, Street Dublin. Canon 7D with 40mm pancake lens. ISO 100 f18 at 1/15th second. (Full frame without cropping or post processing adjustment except scaling for internet viewing.)
A LUAS Tram passes the Millennium Bar on Benburb Street. This was the location of the well-publicized tram crash on September 10, 2012, that I featured in a post on that day. See: LUAS Tram Crash on Benburb, Street Dublin.
Canon 7D with 40mm pancake lens. ISO 100 f18 at 1/15th second. (Full frame without cropping or post processing adjustment except scaling for internet viewing.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Irish Rail Intercity Railcar Panned; February 18, 2013

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Irish Rail ICR near Islandbridge, Dublin, February 18, 2013. Canon 7D with 40mm pancake lens; ISO 200, f11 at 1/30th second.
Irish Rail ICR near Islandbridge, Dublin, February 18, 2013. Canon 7D with 40mm pancake lens; ISO 200, f11 at 1/30th second.

Here’s a panned view of an Irish Rail intercity railcar near Islandbridge, Dublin that I exposed a little while ago (February 18, 2013). A pan of a 22K-series ICR? No, this isn’t a litany of complaint regarding the common Rotem-built Irish Rail intercity vehicle. Rather, it’s an example of one of my favorite techniques for showing motion. I learned to pan from my father, who used the technique to compensate for slow speed Kodachrome film. In the early 1960s, he made some stunning rainy-day images of Pennsylvania Railroad’s Baldwin ‘Sharknose’ diesels working the New York & Long Branch. Check my Vintage Diesel Power by Voyageur Press to view some of these photos.

The trick to making a successful pan is to manually select a moderately slow shutter speed (1/15th to 1/60th of a second), then follow a train with the camera, gently releasing the shutter at an appropriate moment. I find that pivoting my whole body helps makes for smoother motion. Key to this exercise is planning to continue the panning motion after the shutter is released. Stopping too soon may result in unplanned blurring of the main subject. Also, I usually pick a fixed point in the frame to follow the front of the train. My Canon 7D has lines on the viewfinder screen that aids this effort. I’ll discuss the panning technique in greater detail in a future post.

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Featured in Springfield Republican’s METRO EAST January 9, 2013

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Today's (January 9, 2013) Metro East. See the Springfield Republican for full story and photos!
Today’s (January 9, 2013) Metro East. See the Springfield Republican for full story and photos!

There’s a front page write up about my Irish photography and my Ebook for Apple iPad Dublin Unconquered in today’s Springfield (Massachusetts) Republican’s Metro East section. Pretty neat! I wasn’t expecting that!

 

 

photography, Tips and Technique

Dublin’s Harcourt Street at Dusk

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Dublin's Harcourt Street
Harcourt Street looking north on a rainy March 1998 evening; Nikon F3T with 50mm Nikkor Lens, Fujichrome 64T slide film. Exposed manually with aid of a Sekonic Studio Deluxe hand-held light meter. This image appears on pages 184-185 of my book Dublin, published by Compendium in 2008.

There are very few places where I my memory predates the railway. However, Dublin‘s LUAS tram system (opened in 2004) offers one example. I made my first photos of Harcourt Street in March 1998. It was a rainy evening, and I was experimenting with some tungsten balanced Fujichrome to enhance the blue twilight glow.

LUAS on Harcourt St IMG_0887©Brian Solomon
On November 3, 2010, a LUAS Green Line Tram bound for St. Stephens Green navigates Dublin’s Harcourt Street. Canon 7D with 28-135mm lens set at 130mm, ISO 1250 1/40th sec f5.7.

Moving a dozen years forward, on November 3, 2010 I was interested in replicating the effect of my earlier efforts (without any attempt at precisely recreating the scene; my 1998 photo was made from the south-end of the street looking north, while the 2010 image was from the north-end, looking south). The image of the tram was made with my Canon 7D with the 28-135mm lens. Here, the tungsten color balance was accomplished in-camera using the ‘light bulb’ white balance setting. (See: Steam at Dusk, December 15, 2012) . This image was made during the final glow of daylight, and rather than neutralize the bluish light by using the auto white balance setting, I opted to enhance the effect while offering adequate compensation for the warm-balance street lamps. I was particularly drawn to reflections in the street and the repeating window frame patterns in the Georgian buildings above the tram. The pedestrian silhouettes seem apropos for the time of year; here past meets present.

 

 

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Gallery Post 4: Dublin’s LUAS on Harcourt Street

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Wearing a freshly applied advertising livery, LUAS tram 5008 works southward on Harcourt Street in Dublin on November 2, 2012. Photo by Brian Solomon

On the afternoon of Friday, 2 November 2012, I was only my way up to John Gunn’s Camera on Wexford Street in Dublin to buy a few rolls of film. (Yes, I still do that sort of thing). Gazing down Cuffe Street toward St Stephen’s Green, I noted a Green Line LUAS tram in a new advertising livery heading to its terminus. While most of Dublin’s Alstom-built Citadis tram fleet are painted in a metallic lavender with yellow safety stripe, from time to time LUAS dresses a tram or two in a full wrap advertising. In recent months, an attractive blue tram has been frequenting the Red Line route advertising a television service. Friday’s sighting caught my attention, since it’s the first time I noted this new livery. Sometimes these advertising trams can be very short lived, and I like to catch them on camera when I can. Although I was a bit tight on time, I diverted via Harcourt Street, where the Green Line passes nicely restored Georgian terrace houses. Normally a tram will turn around in about 5-10 ten minutes from St. Stephen’s Green, so I knew I wouldn’t have long to wait.

Unfortunately, during my short wait, the wind kicked up, the sky darkened, and a deluge ensued; in other words it was a typical Dublin afternoon. I held my ground, despite the difficult weather, which not only dampened my day, but knocked my exposure down about 8 stops. As always, I carried my Lumix LX3 digital camera (see: Installment 3: Lumix LX-3—part 1  An Everywhere Camera). While normally I use its lowest ISO setting of 80, the gloom didn’t permit this, and I bumped up sensitivity to ISO 200. Within a few minutes the tram was whirring down Harcourt Street allowing me to expose a sequence of images. My favorite is this pan view made at f2.8 at about 1/60 of second. Since lighting conditions were rapidly changing, I used the camera’s built in ‘A’ (Aperture priority) setting, which allowed me to set the low f-stop. By panning the tram, I kept it relative sharp while putting the Georgian houses and street into a sea of blur. If time allows, I’ll try to catch LUAS 5008 again on a brighter day.

Reminder: Brian Solomon will be giving an illustrated talk titled Ireland  from an American Perspective 1998-2003 at the Irish Railway Record Society’s Heuston Station premises in Dublin at 7:30pm on Thursday November 8, 2012. Admission free.

Here’s the Apple iBookstore link to my iPad eBook ‘Dublin Unconquered’: http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/dublin-unconquered/id548794442?mt=11&ign-mpt=uo%3D4

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Irish Video

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For all interested, I’ve posted two new short videos to YouTube. One is a salute to Irish Rail driver Dan Renehan on the event of his final Railway Preservation Society Ireland (RPSI) steam run with locomotive Number 4 in December 2010. See: Dan Renehan Salute

The other depicts: the printing of the Irish Railway Record Society Journal.

Also see my LUAS video: A Tram Called Luas.

Both videos were filmed with my Canon 7D and edited with Apple’s iMovie.

 

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LUAS Tram Crash on Benburb, Street Dublin September 10, 2012

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On the morning of September 10, 2012, LUAS tram 4010 proceeding westward on Benburb Street toward Heuston Station in Dublin collided with a bin lorry (garbage truck) near the Croppies Park. This accident occurred on my virtual door step, so I reluctantly availed myself of the opportunity to make photos. I say reluctantly because I don’t relish railway accidents and I prefer to portray railways in a positive light. However, the proximity of the crash, and the fact I just completed my first LUAS video the previous day (September 9, 2012) encouraged me to make the ten minute walk to the crash site.

LUAS Crash on Benburb Street Dublin September 10 2012

When in Dublin, I routinely walk the route of the LUAS, and have passed this spot hundreds of times in the eight years since LUAS Red Line operations commenced. In fact, the Irish Railway Record Society Journal recently published a photo I made of LUAS at this location during the visit of Queen Elizabeth II in May 2011.

I regularly ride the trams as well. Normally LUAS is a pleasant, safe, and convenient means to travel into Dublin, which is why I chose to feature LUAS in my video: A Tram Called LUAS. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pn7HWp-KbAg&sns=em

These photos demonstrate the crash worthiness of the LUAS’ Citadis trams. Although the front was smashed, glass broken, and tram derailed, considering the impact, the vehicle survived in relatively good shape and appears to have protected people within as best as is possible in such circumstances.

Luas tram damaged in Dublin crash.
LUAS Crash on Benburb Street Dublin September 10 2012

I made these images with my Lumix LX-3, the camera I carry everywhere just for these types of circumstances.

Benburb Street LUAS Crash
photography

Sperry Train at Islandbridge Junction on August 30, 2012

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Tracking the Light posts new material every morning.

 

 

Irish Rail’s Sperry rail inspection train at Islandbridge Junction, Dublin August 30, 2012.

Camera: Canon 7D fitted with an EF 28-135mm zoom.

Every so often everything comes together nicely. Yesterday (August 29, 2012), I learned that Irish Rail would be running its Sperry inspection train up to Dublin for stabling at the sidings near Heuston Station. This suits me well, as I’m staying just a short walk from Islandbridge Junction, immediately west of Heuston. While I caught the train yesterday afternoon, the conditions were less than ideal, although typically Irish; it was heavily clouded and lashing rain. I racked up the ISO to 800 on my Canon 7D digital camera and popped off a few frames, which I was happy to get. In 14 years of photographing Irish railways it was the first time I caught the Sperry train on camera.

What’s a ‘Sperry train?’ In the early part of the 20th century, a hidden rail fracture caused a serious derailment on the Lehigh Valley Railroad in New York. This tragic incident inspired prolific inventor Elmer Sperry to devise a system of inspecting rails. This consisted of a magnetic induction profile. For many years self-propelled black and yellow ‘Sperry Cars’ have been seen making the rounds on American railways. In more recent years, Sperry Rail devised a testing system using ultrasonic equipment to reveal rail fractures. Today, Sperry provides rail-defect detection services in many countries. On today’s train, Sperry’s detection equipment is in the yellow container riding on a flat wagon immediately behind the locomotive. The yellow tank wagons are to assist with braking.

A perfect sunny day greeted me this morning. I’d heard the train was due to depart the old Guinness sidings at Heuston about 9 am, so I was in place at that time. For this exercise I used my Canon 7D fitted with a EF 28-135mm lens. This arrangement gives me great flexibility, produces high quality images, and allows me to post images very quickly after exposing them. Another benefit is the digital medium allows me to make test frames that I can analyze on site to check for proper exposure, adequate focus, as well as framing and etc. For this image, the famed Wellington Testimonial (located at the east end of Dublin’s Phoenix Park) is featured. I’ve made many photos here before, but sometimes with film I’ve inadvertently cropped the top of monument while focusing on a moving train. I tried to avoid this mistake today, and with digital I could check right away, and not wait days or weeks to find out. With the camera set manually (in ‘M’ mode) I made several exposures bracketing my crop and exposure. This one was made at f6.3 1/500th of second at ISO 200; lens set to about 35mm. I made two files in camera; a large Jpg and a RAW. I made no adjustments to this image, other than scaling the large Jpg to 1024 pixels on the long side and adding my name and copyright information.

I feel I’ve had a productive morning so far! Later, I also caught one of Irish Rail’s IWT Liners, an intermodal container train that runs from Dublin Port to Ballina, County Mayo. Today, this was led by one of Irish Rail’s 201-class General Motors diesels wearing the Enterprise livery. While not unheard of, it is a good catch to see one these in freight service.

Irish Rail’s IWT Liner passing Islandbridge Junction, Dublin, photo by Brian Solomon

For more Irish Rail Sperry Train photos see: Sperry Train-Under Clear Skies

Interested in learning more about Dublin? Check out my ePub for iPad: Dublin Unconquered, now available on iTunes for just 4.99.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/dublin-unconquered/id548794442?mt=11

 

Tracking the Light posts new material every morning.

Please share Tracking the Light!

http://briansolomon.com/trackingthelight/

 

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