Just a little while ago I was passing the usual place at Islandbridge Junction in Dublin. Although mostly cloudy, I took a glimpse over the wall. A horn hooted from the Phoenix Park tunnel and an Enterprise 201 eased out onto the Liffey Bridge.
As locomotive 206 approached, running light engine toward Irish Rail’s Inchicore Works, the clouds parted and brilliant morning sun illuminated the junction.
Lumix in hand, I made these photos!
Lumix LX7 photo 25 March 2019.
Irish Rail 206; Lumix LX7 photo 25 March 2019.
Travel Notice: Brian will be traveling over the coming days and weeks, so Tracking the Light notices and responses may become infrequent. However:
It was a bright overcast afternoon on 26 May 2005, when I photographed Irish Rail 077 leading an empty bubble cement train from Conyngham Road in Dublin looking toward platform 10 at Heuston Station.
I made this photo on Fujichrome slide film using my Nikon F3 with 180mm Nikkor ‘prime’ telephoto lens.
The telephoto compression has the effect of making the distant mountains seem closer while foreshortening the appearance of the cement train, which makes the individual four-wheel cement wagons seem even shorter than they were.
I had Velvia in my Nikon F3 and I was focused on the boats in the River Liffey, when the Saturday laden timber from Sligo rolled out of Dublin’s Phoenix Park tunnel and crossed the bridge in front of me.
On Monday, 8 October 2018 at 8pm (20.00), I’ll be giving a slide presentation to the Irish Railway Record Society in Cork on General Motors Diesel-Electric Locomotives in North America.
The talk will be held at the Bru Columbanus Meeting Rooms in Wilton, Cork City.
Conrail SD40-2s work as helpers on a loaded coal train at Mineral Point, Pennsylvania in October 1992. Exposed on Kodachrome 25 colour slide film.
I will show a wide variety of colour slides detailing General Motors Electro-Motive Division diesels at work.
This will cover numerous models on many different railroads, and feature some of my most dramatic locomotive photography.
Vintage EMD six-motor diesels lead New England Central 611 at Millers Falls, Massachusetts in 15 November 2017. Exposed on Fujichrome Provia 100F using a Canon EOS 3.
Irish Rail’s 071 class diesels are 40-year old work-horse locomotives that are now largely assigned to permanent way and freight trains.
Ten years ago, Irish Rail’s 071s still regular worked passenger services in addition to their other duties. I made a point of photographing the 071s on both main line and branch passenger trains.
Irish Rail 075 was still in relatively fresh orange and black paint when I made this detailed view at Ballina, County Mayo on 14 April 2006. Exposed on Fujichrome.
The class leader; engine 071 rests with the Ballina Branch train at Claremorris, County Mayo. Note the wisp of steam from the generator-van at the back. The 071s did not have provision for steam heat or HEP (head end power). Exposed on Fujichrome.
Before the headlight came into view, I could hear the 12-cylinder 645 diesel roaring away. Here an 071 is seen in ‘run-8’ (maximum throttle) as it leads a short Mark2 set from Limerick up Ballybrophy Bank on its way to Dublin. I made this vignette on 9 December 2006. Such scenes would soon become a memory.
Among the features of my presentation to the Irish Railway Record Society this coming Thursday (10 March 2016) will be my vintage images of the 071 at work.
The talk will begin at 7:30 pm at the IRRS Dublin premises near Heuston Station.
