In 1998 on a visit to the Irish Railway Record Society Dublin premises, I took a few minutes to photograph from the far end of platform five. I recall, that at the time, this area was accessible without the need to pass through the main station nor transit a ticket barrier. This was four years before construction of platforms six, seven and eight.
Working with a Nikon F3T fitted with an old non AI f2.8 135mm lens, I exposed this Fujichrome Sensia (ISO 100) colour slide of a two-piece 2600 ‘Arrow’ departing Heuston for Kildare.
The Spring evening sun was setting on the north side of the tracks and heavy particulates in the air made for a red-orange tint.
I exposed the slide for the highlights by carefully examining the overall lighting situation with my handheld Sekonic Studio Deluxe light meter and setting the camera manually. This prevented gross overexposure and loss of highlight detail, while making for a relatively dark slide.
Recently, I made a multiple pass scan using a Nikon Super Coolscan5000 operated with Vue Scan software, and then imported the high resolution TIF into Lightroom to adjust shadow areas for greater visual detail.
My intent was not to negate the effect of shadows, but simply to reduce the impenetrable inky effect and allow for better separation in the darker areas.
This is the scaled but otherwise unadjusted TIF scan file for comparison–converted to JPG for internet presentation.
On Tuesday, 26 February 2019, working with my FujiFilm XT1 with 90mm Fujinon telephoto, I made these digital sunset views from the windows of the Irish Railway Record Society near Dublin’s Heuston Station.
This evening 28 February 2019 at 730pm at these same IRRS premises, I’ll be presenting my traditional slide program General Motors Diesels in North America. Visitors are welcome!
JPG adjusted and produced from Fuji camera RAW file using Lightroom.Camera JPG scaled for internet presentation without adjustment.
In more than 20 years of photographing Irish Rail, 23 September 2018 was the first time I’d photographed a pair of 201s together on a train.
FujiFilm XT1 photo.
I’d been alerted by folks on the Cork-end of the railway that this unusual move was on it way to Dublin. Although the Cork – Dublin Mark 4 with 229 and 228 arrived after sunset, myself and Jay Monaghan documented this unusual occurrence at Heuston Station.
FujiFilm XT1 photo.
I made photos using my FujiFilm XT1 and Lumix LX7 digital cameras.
Successfully capturing unusual or unique events are among the challenges of the railway photographer.
Yesterday was a bright sunny morning in Dublin. I coordinated my walk to SuperValu at Heuston South Quarter to neatly coincide with the passage of Irish Rail’s IWT Liner.
I timed this well and only waited a few minutes at Islandbridge Junction. Rather than my normal angle from ‘the box’, I opted for an over the wall view a little further up.
Irish Rail 077 leads the down IWT Liner at Islandbridge Junction.
Continuing along St. John’s Road toward Dublin Heuston Station, I was surprised to hear another 071. I peered over the wall to discover that Irish Rail 073 (in heritage orange paint) had come down to shunt Belmond’s Grand Hibernian.
Hearing the distinct sounds of an EMD turbocharged 645 diesel tempted me to look over the wall as I walked along the St Johns Road toward Supervalu. This is what I saw; Irish Rail 073 moving down to shunt the Belmond cruise train. An ICR (InterCity Railcar) sits by the valeting plant.
Walking back from SuperValu, I made this view of 073 shunting Belmond’s Grand Hibernian consist.
Dashing to SuperValu, accomplished my shopping in record time, and returned trackside to catch 073 bringing the Grand Hibernianthrough the wash, and then stopped in front of me at Islandbridge Junction. As this was happening Paul Maguire sent me text to alert me that the elusive Sperry train was on its way over to me.
The view from the box of 073 shunting the Belmond train through the carriage wash. I’ve made slight enhancements to the image to make the most of the dramatic autumnal sky and lighten shadows.
Minutes later, Irish Rail 076 with Sperry came across to Platform 10 where it was scheduled to run around before heading to Bray.
Blocked by the Belmond! When one cool train gets in the way of another. Yet, the two trains together are the real story. I can’t say that previously I’d ever photographed the Belmond and Sperry train at the same time.
I walked around to Conyngham Road to catch the Sperry train on its way into the Phoenix Park Tunnel.
Not bad for a trip to the shops!
An Irish Rail ICR is working toward Connolly Station as viewed from the Conyngham Road. In the distance is the Sperry train opposite Platform 10 at Heuston Station. I’ve made slight enhancements to the image to make the most of the dramatic autumnal sky and lighten shadows.
Irish Rail 076 throttles up as it leads the Sperry rail testing train into the Phoenix Park tunnel. I’ve made slight enhancements to the image to make the most of the dramatic autumnal sky and lighten shadows.
Using my old battle-worn Nikon F3T (yeah, that one) fitted with a 1960s-era Nikkor f.14 50mm lens, I exposed a sequence of images in the evening light at Irish Rail’s Heuston Station in Dublin.
I was especially pleased with this view of one of Irish Rail’s Mark 4 sets beneath the train shed. Low light made for contrasty silhouette with lots of texture and exceptional dynamic range.
This was exposed on Kodak Tri-X (black & white negative film) using a fairly wide aperture.
During early October 2017, I processed the film using two-stage development, initially soaking the film in an extremely dilute mix of Kodak HC110 designed to begin development while allowing great shadow detail and greater overall tonality. For my primary development, I used Ilford ID11, diluted 1-1 with water for 8 minutes at 68 degree F. This was followed by a 30 second stop bath and two fixer baths, 1st rinse, hypo-clear batch, 2nd rinse, then 8 minutes in a weak bath of selenium toner (1 to 9 with water), 10 minute final rinse and drying.
I scanned the negatives using an Epson V500 flatbed scanner, with some very nominal final adjustment using Lightroom.
Although my digital cameras feature black & white modes, and I can easily de-saturate a digital file to make a monochrome image, I don’t feel that digital imaging would yield a completely comparable image to this one made the old fashioned way.
I’m traveling to Cork on Irish Rail’s 0830 Dublin-Heuston to Tralee scheduled train.
Tomorrow (Monday October 3, 2016.), I’ll be presenting a variation of my slide program Irish Railways Looking Back Ten Years to the Cork Branch of the Irish Railway Record Society in the Metropole Hotel in Cork City at 8pm.
Here are a few views exposed with my Lumix LX7 at Heuston Station and on the train-posted LIVE from the train thanks to Irish Rail’s WiFi.
Sunrise at Heuston Station exposed with my Lumix LX7. Where’s John Gruber’s nun?
Exposed at Heuston Station with my Lumix LX7.
Exposed with my Lumix LX7 from the train at Heuston Station.
Irish Rail ICR at Heuston Station on Sunday morning.
Crossing the Curragh in the fog, Lumix LX7 Photo.
The Medium is the Message—My laptop on the train as I’m producing this post-the file was downloaded directly from the card to WordPress.
There’s my Lumix next to the Apple. Exposed with my FujiFilm XT1 passing Templemore.
10:30am: Reflections at Limerick Junction That’s the Limerick-Limerick Junction shuttle that’s parked on the adjacent platform ‘out of service’.. Lumix LX7 Photo.
View near Killmallock, County Limerick. Lumix LX7 photo.
By the way, just in case anyone is curious; Irish Rail 071 in the retro ‘super train livery’ is at the yard in Portlaoise with a spoil train.
Tracking the Light is Daily!
Tracking the light will be on ‘Autopilot’ for the next couple of days, but will continue to display new material every morning.
I saw the wonderfully textured evening sky with hints of pink and orange. But what to do with this and how to best expose for it.
Working with my Lumix LX7, I exposed for the sky, controlling exposure using the +/- dial for overall ease of operation.
My intention was to retain detail in the sky, rather than risk blowing out the highlights, and then make adjustments to lighten the shadow area in post processing to compensate for an overall dark image.
Here I’ve displayed both the uncorrected file (converted from a camera RAW to a small Jpeg necessary for internet presentation) and my manipulated image.
Irish Rail 085 with a ballast train rests in the old Guinness sidings at Heuston Station, Dublin. This Jpg was converted directly from the Lumix camera RAW file. Other than necessary scaling and watermark, I did not alter the image. Under exposure was necessary to hold detail in the sky.
My modified file; using the Lumix camera RAW, I adjusted the photo in Lightroom. Specifically, I applied a digital graduated filter to the lower half of the image and used to this to locally lighten the image while manipulating contrast and color saturation. Once completed, I then made further global adjustments to contrast and exposure, focusing on lightening shadows. Despite these changes, my intent was to maintain the scene as closely as possible to how I viewed it.
A minor point: I’ve not ‘fixed’ these photos. Rather I applied a known technique to hold both sky detail and shadow areas, beyond what the in-camera Jpg is capable of delivering without adjustment. From the moment I released the shutter, I planned to make these adjustments.
LUAS trams at Heuston Station on 31 July 2005. Exposed on Fujichrome Sensia 100 with a Nikon F3 with 180mm lens.
Lately LUAS has made headlines in Ireland as the result of high-profile service disruptions owing to disputes with tram drivers.
Looking back more than ten years; I made this photo at Heuston Station when the LUAS Red Line was still a relatively new service. Back then the 3001-series trams were still in a short configuration.
From a photographic perspective, in their early appearance the trams seemed a bit naked, as the safety-yellow banding hadn’t been applied.
At the time of this image, the use of the center platform at Heuston was a relatively unusual occurrence.
This morning (31 March 2016), Irish Railway Record Society’s Peter Rigney in cooperation with Irish Rail launched an historical display focused on the role of the railway in the 1916 Easter Rising.
The display is located on platform 1.
Irish Railway Record Society’s Peter Rigney at 11:30am on Thursday, 31 March 2016. Platform 1, Heuston Station, Dublin.
Irish Rail’s Barry Kenny and Irish Railway Record Society’s Peter Rigney pose with the historical display on Platform 1 at Heuston Station. FujiFilm X-T1 digital photo.
Irish Rail ICR viewed from platform 1 at Heuston Station on 31 March 2016.
Here we have a variation on a theme. Previously I published photos on Tracking the Light of Dublin’s LUAS specially painted Sky tram, and on a different day a panned image of a LUAS tram crossing Kings Bridge (Sean Heuston Bridge) near Heuston Station.
The other night on my way over to the Irish Railway Record Society premises (where I’m doing a bit of research in the library), I noted the one-of-a-kind Sky painted tram working outbound.
I dug my Fujifilm X-T1 out of my back pack and made a series of panned images in ‘flutter mode’ of the tram crossing the bridge at dusk.
Exposed digitally using a Fujifilm X-T1 at ISO 6400 at 1/8 of a second at f7.1, 32.5mm focal length with a 18-135mm lens.
The Sky tram paused at Heuston Station. In just a few more minutes the last of the blue would fade from the evening sky.
Often, I build on past efforts, and this a good example of putting the pieces together. Visually, of course.
There’s only a few days during the year when the setting sun pierces deep into the darkness of the train shed at Heuston Station.
On the evening of September 20th, I made this image using my Lumix LX7 of the 7pm departure to Cork.
I had my camera set using the ‘A’ aperture priority mode, which automatically selects a shutter speed based on my manual selection of an f-stop. To compensate for the extreme contrast between the darkness shed roof and bright sunlight, I used the manual exposure over-ride to stop down (underexpose). This was necessary if the in-camera meter tries balances the scene it would have led to a total loss of highlight detail.
ISO 80 f2.8 1/80th of a second. RAW file manually adjusted to control contrast and exported as a scaled Jpg for internet presentation.
An alternative means to select the exposure, would have been to use the camera in ‘M’ mode and manually select both shutter speed and F-stop, but in this situation that would have taken too much time.
I had only a few moments to catch the Station Inspector with his arm raised to give the train the signal to depart.
To make the most of the information captured in this instant, I worked with the RAW file to make some contrast adjustments in post-processing. Using Photoshop, I adjusted contrast locally in highlight areas, while making some over all adjustments to the scene to best portray what I’d seen with my eye.
I wanted to retain the glint effect on the underside of the shed roof while making sure the relatively small silhouette of the Station Inspector wasn’t lost in the direct glow of sunlight.
After making my adjustments I export the file as a Jpg and then scaled this for internet presentation. The camera RAW file is 12.MB, much too large for presentation here, while my scaled image is just 737KB.
Tracking the Light posts new material every morning.
A railcar sunset? No, it’s not a metaphor, it really was a railcar at that time of day.
On April 15, 2014, I was passing the Heuston shed and notice that the soft orange light of the setting sun had illuminated this cavernous space. Lucky for me, there was a train approaching platform 4. (If it had been lined to any of the other platforms this photograph wouldn’t have worked.)
Using my Lumix LX3, I made this panned view. It captures the motion while helping to visually separate the front of the train from the interior ironwork. The low light allows for a pleasing glint effect without becoming overbearing or distracting.
Lumix LX3 photo; f2.2 1/50th ISO 80. Contrast and exposure adjusted in post processing.
Heuston Station departure board shows the 0735 Galway train with connections to Mayo. I was heading to Foxford, one of the smallest stations on the route. I used a slow shutter speed to capture the LED sign. My exposure was f2.5 at 1/40th of a second. LEDs are not a constant light source and flicker on and off many times a second. While this isn’t perceptible to the naked eye, when photographed at higher shutter speeds the lights may be caught instead of on, which makes it hard to read the signs.
On March 13, 2014, I bought a day-return from Dublin Heuston to Foxford, Co. Mayo, and traveled on the 7:35 am Galway train. My train was well patronized, but I had no difficulty finding a seat.
Rotem-built 22000 series Intercity Rail Cars are Irish Rail’s standard passenger consist for most services. On March 13, 2014, ICRs destined for Waterford and Galway were side by side on the platforms at Heuston Station. Lumix LX3 photo.
Another view of Rotem ICRs at Heuston. My train is the closest to the camera. Exposed with a Lumix LX3.
It was foggy in Dublin. Ensconced in my seat, I observed that my train departed Heuston precisely on time and soon was rolling down-road at track speed.
My train was a four-piece Rotem-built Intercity Rail Car, of the type that is now standard for most Irish Rail Intercity services.
Except for some rough spots west of Kildare, the ride quality was comfortable and smooth.
Interior of the Rotem ICR at Heuston Station. Exposed with my Lumix LX3.
At Portarlington, we diverged from the Dublin-Cork mainline and traveled on the single track branch toward Athlone. At Clara we crossed (met) an uproad train.
I changed trains at Athone. Here another four piece ICR was waiting to continue the journey toward Co. Mayo. At Castlerea we met the Ballina-Dublin IWT liner, a train I’ve often photographed.
It was as foggy in Athlone as it had been in Dublin. I changed to the ICR on the left. This was destined to Westport. Notice the LED display boards are impossible to read in the photo. This is an affectation of using a faster shutter speed. A few of the LEDs are on, but many are off. Lumix LX3 photo exposed at f2.1 1/500th. Since the trains are stationary, I probably should have manually set the shutter speed to about 1/30th to better capture the destination boards.
Upon reaching Manulla Junction, I again changed trains, this time for the 2800-series railcar that works the Ballina Branch. Years ago this would have been a single General Motors class 141/181 Bo-Bo diesel electric with a short Craven set.
When I arrived in Foxford I was met by my friend Noel Enright. We spent the rest of daylight photographing trains and visiting friends. I’ll post those adventures soon! Stay tuned.
Interior view of the 2800-series railcar I traveled on between Manulla Junction and Foxford. Lumix LX3 photo.
Foxford, County Mayo. This 2800 will terminate at Ballina, several miles to the north. Lumix LX3.
Sometimes Hollywood film makers have this trick where after rolling the credits they save one last scene that ties the whole picture together.
Ok, so after four tries to make a satisfactory photo of Dublin’s Heuston Station lit in the Spirit of St. Patrick’s Day, I’ve finally achieved a more acceptable result.
On the previous two evenings, I’d walked to Heuston with intent of catching the station lit in green with a hit of dusk in the sky. I’d come prepared with my tripod, and stood around in the chill of evening waiting in vain for the lights to come on.
No joy there, I’m afraid. In both instances, while I made fine images of the station in the evening light, I wasn’t rewarded with the seasonal lighting.
I’d arrived from County Mayo on this Irish Rail Intercity Rail Car (ICR), seen on the platforms at Heuston Station Station on the evening of March 13, 2014. Exposed with my Lumix LX3.
On Thursday March 13, 2014, I arrived at Heuston by train having traveled by train from County Mayo. My train arrived after 9:30 pm and a wafting fog had settled over the city.
On exiting the station I noticed that it was bathed in green light. Finally!
I set about making photos, although I was hampered by the lack of a tripod. To brace the camera, I used various existing structures, propping it up with coins to get the desired angle.
Having previously found that automatic settings, even when adjusted for nominal over exposure, tended to result in an unacceptably dark image, I opted to set the camera manually. I made a series of images, of which this one offered the best exposure and the greatest sharpness.
All things being equal, I’d preferred to have had the camera on a tripod and a twilight quality in the western sky, but I was happy with my Paddy’s Day Heuston.
This is the un-modified camera produced Jpeg exposed on the evening of March 13, 2014. Exposed using a Panasonic Lumix LX3; ISO 80 f2.0 shutter open for 1 and 1/6th seconds. Image stabilizer was set to ‘Auto’.
Working with the camera RAW File, in post processing I manually lightened shadow areas, controlled highlight contrast, and removed undesired flare from the sky, in a effort to replicate the scene as I remember it.
You see, I’m not so easily satisfied. Sure after four tries at this photo you’d think I’d be happy with what I just got. However, on March 15th I returned to Heuston Station one more time. I timed my arrived to allow for a hint of dusk in the western sky. And, I brought my tripod.
Saturday evening is a better time to make photos at Heuston. There’s less highway traffic and fewer people to get in the way.
I had my spots all picked out by now. I just had to go and execute the photos with the station bathed in green light. Significantly these photos are unmodified camera Jpgs. All I’ve done is scale them for presentation. It helps to have the light just right.
Heuston Station on March 15, 2014. Exposed with a Lumix LX3 at f 2.8 for 2 seconds ISO 80. Daylight white balance. Camera mounted on mini Gitzo tripod. Unmodified file.
Heuston Station on March 15, 2014. Exposed with a Lumix LX3 at f 2.8 for 1.6 seconds, ISO 80. Daylight white balance. Camera mounted on mini Gitzo tripod. Unmodified file.
. . . Camera, Action! Sorry, there, isn’t something missing? Really, you just couldn’t make this up!
On the evening of March 12, 2014, I was in position at Heuston Station just after sunset: my Lumix LX3 was positioned on a mini Gitzo tripod. I selected a nice view of the station headhouse and made test photos to gauge the lighting. And I waited. And waited. And it got colder, and darker. And after about an hour I gave up? Did you see yesterday’s post?
Dublin is a quiet place on Christmas morning. Almost everything is shut. The roads are relatively empty. The buses aren’t running. There are scant few people on the normally busy streets. And the railways are asleep.
Irish trains don’t run Christmas Day. And Dublin’s terminals are locked up tight. It’s a strange sight to see Heuston Station by daylight with nothing moving around it. This normally busy place is unnaturally quiet.
Heuston Station on Christmas morning 2004, exposed on Fujichrome using a Contax G2 rangefinder fitted with a 16mm Zeiss Hologon flat field lens. Exposure and focus were done manually.
Yet, what better time to make architectural views of the 1840s-built terminal?
There are no buses or LUAS trams to interfere with the station’s classic design. Cars are relatively few. You can stand in the middle the street to compose photos with little chance of being run over.
One of the peculiarities of the 16mm Zeiss Hologon is its flat field. When kept at a level with the subject this prevents vertical line convergence, however when not level, verticals suffer from extreme convergence; yet the lens doesn’t suffer from barrel-distortion, a characteristic of many wide-angle lens designs. It can be used to make distinctive architectural views.
Heuston Station (known as King’s Bridge Station until its 1966 renaming) is a multimodal transport hub. In addition to being one of Irish Rail’s primary long distance and suburban stations, it’s also an important LUAS tram stop (one of only a few with a turn-back siding) and a terminal bus stop for 145 and 747 buses.
Outbound LUAS tram pauses for passengers at Dublin’s Heuston Station.
I made this time exposure with my Lumix LX3 on Monday morning. Since I didn’t have a tripod, I set the camera on a waist-height railing and set the self timer for 2 seconds to minimize camera shake.
I had the camera set in its ‘Vivid’ color mode which enhances the blue effect of dawn while making red lights more prominent. To calculate exposure, I used the ‘A’ aperture priority setting with a +2/3 (2/3s of a stop over exposure to add light to the scene).
This override is a means of compensating for the dark background and dark sky combined with bright highlights from electric streetlight (which have a tendency to fool the camera meter).
Every so often the sun shines in Ireland. When it does, it helps to be in position to make photographs. As it happened, on Friday September 27, 2013, Colm O’Callaghan and I were at Stacumny Bridge, near Hazelhatch in suburban Dublin.
A six piece 22000-series Intercity Rail Car glides up road at Stucumny Bridge, September 27, 2013. Exposed with an Canon EOS 7D.
Our aim was to photograph the down IWT (International Warehousing and Transport) liner which had an 071 class diesel leading. Stacumny Bridge is a favorite location to catch down-road trains mid-morning because of the broad open view of the tracks and favorable sun angle. I’ve post photos from this location on previous occasions.
While waiting for the liner, we got word of an up road wagon transfer. And caught that a few minutes before the liner came down. Then we heard that there was a permanent way department (PWD or ‘Per way’) ballast train coming up road as well. This was one of the elusive high output ballast trains (HOBS) I’ve mentioned in other posts.
Irish Rail 071 class diesel number 079 leads a wagon transfer up road at Stucumny Bridge. Up road is toward Dublin, down road away. Exposed with an Canon EOS 7D and 40mm pancake lens.
Irish Rail 081 leads the down IWT Liner (International Warehousing and Transport container train Dublin to Ballina) approaching Stacumny Bridge near Hazelhatch on September 27, 2013. Exposed with an Canon EOS 7D with 28-135mm lens.
Irish Rail 0117-071 leads a High Output Ballast (HOBS) train up road at Stacumny Bridge on Septemeber 27, 2013. Exposed with an Canon EOS 7D with 28-135mm lens.
Although an annoying small cloud softened the light at Stacumny when the HOBS roared up road. We pursued the train up to Dublin and caught it again reversing into the old Guinness sidings at Heuston Station.
For the all hours scouring the countryside for photos on dull days, it’s rewarding to catch a clattering of interesting action in just over an hour on a bright day. This is down to watching the weather, combined with patience and persistence and a good bit of luck.
The engine has run around in preparation to reverse the HOBS into the old Guinness sidings at Heuston Station, Dublin. A Mark 4 set passes the train. September 27, 2013. Lumix LX3 photo.
Irish Rail HOBS at Islandbridge Junction near Heuston Station, Dublin. Lumix LX3 photo.
Irish Rail 0117-071 prepares to reverse the empty HOBS into the old Guinness sidings at Heuston Station. The locomotive will ‘hook off’ for work elsewhere, while the ballast train will remain stabled in the sidings over the weekend. Canon EOS 7D photo.
Tomorrow: Tracking the Light looks back 13 years at Stacumny Bridge. What a change!
Tracking the Light posts new material on a daily basis.
