Tag Archives: #Ireland

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Blast from the Past; Vintage Chrome at Manualla Junction

Part of the reason for our recent trip to Ireland was to retrieve my belongings that have been stored there since the Covid-19 pandemic.

This was our third trip across to Ireland since April 2022. This time around we filled several more suitcases with my things. This included an estimated 8,000 of my color slides, 1,000 hand made black & white prints, a tripod, a Nikon F3 camera and my prized Nikkor f2.0 35mm lens, plus some books, notes and memorabilia.

Since returning to Pennsylvania, I’ve made a project of scanning many of the slides that I brought back. Among the gems I collected is this view I’d exposed of the Ballina Branch train at Manulla Junction on 1 May 2006 with GM 071 class diesel number 075.

This photos made extra special for me because during our wanders around County Mayo in March we caught a sister 071 locomotive 074 leading a timber train at this same location. See: http://briansolomon.com/trackingthelight/2006-2024-changes-at-manulla-junction/

1 May 2006; Manualla Junction the way it used to look before the mini-CTC project of 2007 altered the track and signaling. Exposed on Fujichrome using a Nikon F3 with 105mm lens.

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Vestiges of Narrow Gauge in Donegal—a dozen new photos.

County Donegal was once served by narrow gauge railways that connected many of the larger towns and carried freight and passengers.

These were all abandoned long before my time. Vestiges of the old lines survive and there is considerable nostalgia for these lost wee railways.

In March, Kris and I spent several days in Donegal and photographed vestiges of the old narrow gauge, including the tracks maintained by the Fintown preserved railway.

I can’t help but wonder if the old Donegal narrow gauge railways had survived, today they would be Irish national treasures worthy of world attention and admiration.

Co. Donegal narrow gauge railway carriage at Corcreggan Mill, Dunfanaghy.
Ruins of the Owencarrow Viaduct.
Ruins of the Owencarrow Viaduct.
Ruins of the Owencarrow Viaduct.
Abandoned railway culvert near Fintown, Co. Donegal, Ireland.
Abandoned railway right of way near Fintown, Co. Donegal.
Tracks of the preserved Fintown Railway, Co. Donegal.
Vintage photo of Gweedore Station inside Fara Óg restaurant located near the site of th old station, Gweedore, Co. Donegal.

Click this link for a map showing the locations and routes of Donegal’s railways. [https://donegal.maps.arcgis.com/apps/Viewer/index.html?appid=29fffc213eb64cf69f3332e3558434c4#!]

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Heavy Surf on the North Atlantic.

I’m making this post out of sequence as a symbolic allusion to the journey that Kris and I are making today.

Last week, we spent several days making photos along the North Antrim Coast at a time when high tides and heavy surf made for spectacular conditions.

I’m happy that we are flying across the big blue Atlantic and not spending weeks sailing across it.

Photos exposed using a Nikon Z7-II with 70-200mm lens. The camera was set using the ‘carbon’ capture profile, which allows me to compose in a monochromatic mode. Images are saved as monochrome JPGs and as full colour NEF RAW files.

Tomorrow, I plan to resume with railway images from our trip across Ireland.

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West Clare Railway

On our drive around the West of Ireland in early March, we visited a variety of railway sites.

Following a trip across the Shannon Estuary on the Tarbert ferry, we paused for a few minutes at Moyasta, County Clare, which is home to the preserved West Clare Railway.

Although the site was a ghost town, there were a variety of railway relics on display, including former Bord na Mona three-foot gauge locomotives and some former Irish Rail five foot three inch-gauge locomotives and railway carriages.

I made these photos with my Nikon Z7-II, but also exposed some Ektachrome colour slides that I’ll have processed upon our return to the USA.

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Cork, Bandon & South Coast’s Chetwynd, Viaduct.

It has been more than six decades since the last train crossed the old Chetwynd, Viaduct in County Cork.

On our way toward Timoleague, Kris and I paused in the car park of the Viaduct Restaurant & Cafe, to make photos of this unusual former railway bridge that spans the N71 highway.

It was a bright morning and the lighting suited photography. I made photos using both black & white and color modes. In addition to these digital images, I also exposed a few Ektachrome colour slides using my Nikon F3T.

One of my tricks for photographing bridges is to crop out the ends of the span which has the visual effect of making the bridge seem longer.

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Victorian Train Shed

The magnificent curved train shed at Cork’s Kent Station makes for a classic environment to photograph modern trains.

Irish Rail runs frequent services from Kent Station, with an hourly scheduled service to/from Dublin, most of which serve platform 4 below the train shed.

During our recent travels around Cork, Kris and I paid several visits to Kent Station and were offered tours by our friends at Irish Rail.

Working with my Nikon Z7-II, I made these photos at the station aiming to make the most of the curved Victorian train shed, both as subject and setting.

Dublin end of Kent Station.
Dublin end of Kent Station.
Dublin end of Kent Station.
Irish Rail 201-class diesel 228 wearing the modern Enterprise livery arrives at Kent Station with the 1300 x Dublin train.
Irish Rail 201-class diesel 228 wearing the modern Enterprise livery arrives at Kent Station with the 1300 x Dublin train.
Irish Rail 201-class diesel 228 wearing the modern Enterprise livery arrives at Kent Station with the 1300 x Dublin train.

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The Lads at Maam Cross on Film.

I exposed a variety of slides during our visit to Maam Cross in October.

Jim Deegan and company were hard at work on the on their Midland Great Western restoration project when Kris and I arrived by coach.

Working with a 30-year old Nikon F3 loaded with Fujichrome Provia 100F, I made these slides of the lads.

The film was processed and mounted by AgX Imaging in Sault Saint Marie, Michigan. I scanned the slides with a Nikon LS5000 slide scanner powered by VueScan 9.7.08 software and processed the TIF files in Adobe Lightroom for presentation here.

For my digital photos at Maam Cross see: http://briansolomon.com/trackingthelight/2022/10/28/adventure-to-maam-cross/

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Enterprise at 75-Belfast to Dublin! Seven photos.

Kris and I traveled from Belfast to Dublin a week ago Wednesday (12 October 2022).

This was our third of three Enterprise journeys on our Irish travels.

Since 2022 marks the Enterprise‘s 75th year, I though it was appropriate to include some of celebratory signage at Belfast Lanyon Place and Dublin Connolly Station.

Photos exposed using my Lumix LX7.

First class seating on the Enterprise.

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Irish Rail at Islandbridge Junction—25 April 2022

Yesterday, I returned to my old location at Islandbridge Junction in Dublin for the first time since November 2019.

Although I’d made countless photos here over the years, it was nice to be back at this once familiar place again.

The procession of passenger trains was certainly down from pre-Covid times, but in the course of about half an hour I photographed five trains passing through the junction.

I made these views using my Lumix LX7 and processed the Lumix RAW files using Adobe Lightroom.

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Eight Years Ago on the Bog!

On March 8, 2014, photographer Dennis McCabe and I followed this Bord na Mona empty train compass west from the Edenderry Power Station to this rural level crossing near the village of Daingean, Co. Offaly.

The train was one of two heading out on the bog to a comparatively remote loading site to collect peat for delivery to the power station.

We had scoped out this location on an earlier trip, and at the time I was delighted to catch a train movement at this obscure location on the Irish Bord na Mona narrow gauge network.

Below are two variations of the same photo.

One was right out of my Lumix LX3, the other involves cropping the foreground and sky.

Uncropped Lumix LX3 photo.
This is my preferred cropping of the image.

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Blue Cement

We believe this was the second to last Wexford bag cement (also known as a ‘blue cement’ because of the covers on the four wheel freight wagons.)

Working with my old Contax G2 rangefinder, this was one of a series of black & white photos on Kodak Tri-XI exposed of the Irish Rail cement train on April 3, 2002.

Today, the single Bo-Bo diesel leading four-wheel wagons seems like a relic of former times.

How I miss those times.

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Irish Rail’s Class 121—The locomotive itself!

In October 2002, I exposed this black & white photo of Irish Rail ‘s class 121 that was in the dead-line at Inchicore in Dublin.

Although I have hundreds of photos of the 121 locomotives at work on Irish Rail, I never witnessed the first of the class at work.

This historic locomotive was cut up along with many other 121s in early 2003.

Exposed on black & white film using a Contax G2 with 28mm Biogon lens.

Brian Solomon is traveling ‘off the grid’ for the next few days.

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Views from the Train—April 10th, 2016.

Five years ago, I traveled on the second leg of a two-day Irish Railway Record Society diesel rail tour. We had laid over at Killarney, and in the morning a select portion of the group made a round trip to Tralee and back, before heading eastward for a circuitous trip back to Dublin.

It was a gray Irish day, raining and spitting snow.

Ken Fox was our driver from Killarney in the morning, and Class 076 was our locomotive.

Traveling on the Railway Preservation Society of Ireland Cravens carriages afforded me some great views from the train as we made our way through the lush Spring countryside.

These digital images were exposed using my Fujifilm XT1.

Departing Tralee, Co. Kerry for Killarney.
Approaching Farranfore, Co. Kerry it began to snow . . .
Looking west at Limerick Junction. This scene is much changed today, as a second mainline platform has been added along with a massive modern overhead bridge.
Approaching the home signal for Tipperary on the way to Waterford.
View from the the train near Clonmel, County Tipperary.

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Empty Branch Train—May 20, 2006

It was a lovely Spring morning in Claremorris, County Mayo, when I made this telephoto trailing view of the empty Irish Rail Ballina Branch train approaching the yard.

Finding a ‘mixed pair’ of 121/181 diesels on the passenger train was a rare event by 2006, and certainly worthy of my attention.

Irish Rail 075 that had been assigned to work the branch passenger train had failed at Ballina day or two previously, and the older EMDs were borrowed from their freight assignment to fill in.

I exposed this Fujichrome slide using my Nikon F3 with a short telephoto, probably a 105mm, from the road bridge west of the Claremorris Station.

Irish Rail 124 and 184 lead the Ballina Branch train.

I scanned the slide last night using an Epson V600 flatbed scanner set to 3200 dpi. Then I made nominal color/contrast corrections in Adobe Lightroom before scaling the image for internet presentation.

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Waterford July 2005

To my eye, this 400mm view at Irish Rail’s Waterford yard is more about the tracks and the signaling than about the timber train.

I made the photo using a Nikon N90S loaded with Fujichrome Velvia 100 and fitted with an old Tokina 400mm lens.

Backlighting accentuated the trackage while making silhouette of the signals and lighting polls. It also give the distant trees a dream-like pastoral effect.

I was standing on the platform at Waterford Station beneath the main road bridge over the tracks. Notice the wires and rods used to control semaphores and switch points.

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Cherryville Junction—March 29, 2002 Part 2.

As a follow up to yesterday’s post, here are a few more choice photos from Good Friday 2002, when I visited Cherryville Junction, Co. Kildare.

Effectively unseen for more than 18 years. The other day, I scanned this roll of Fuji Neopan 400 that I had neatly stored in an archival binder.

All the photos were exposed using my old Contax G2 rangefinder that I’d fitted with a 28mm Zeiss Biogon lens. I had four lenses for the camera, of which the 28mm was probably the most useful.

This lens offer a characteristic look and exceptional sharpness. I still have the camera and the lens, but the body stopped working back 2007, more than five years after these photos was made.

Down 1205 liner to Cork with locomotive 216 at Cherryville Jct.
1205 liner clatters through Cherryville Jct.
Irish Rail 133 and 159 lead the up bulk-bogie cement at Cherryville Jct.
Irish Rail 133 and 159 lead the up bulk-bogie cement at Cherryville Jct.
Down push-pull.
Sunset at Cherryville Jct with an up train headed toward Dublin.

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Bord na Mona—October 2019

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October is my favorite time of year for photography. Relatively low sun with rapidly changing weather, and rusty foliage help make it a continually changing canvas. It is a time of change, when summer fades and winter begins.

I was reviewing my photos exposed just about a year ago on a visit to the Irish narrow gauge Bord na Mona with photographers Mark Healy and Aidan Vickers. This was one of several autumnal explorations of the peat hauling railways in the boglands of Ireland last year.

On this one day I made photos on both the Lanesborough and Shannonbridge networks.

At the time the Bord na Mona was enjoying an Indian Summer. We caught a variety of trains on the move, but the writing was on the wall for these once very active industrial lines.

Photos exposed using my FujiFilm XT1.

Mount Dillon, County Longford.
Empty train at Lanesborough, County Longford.

Dredging boat in the Royal Canal with Bord na Mona bridge north of Killashee ,County Longford.
Old Bord na Mona locomotive at Blackwater, County Offaly.
Old Bord na Mona locomotive at Blackwater, County Offaly.
Crossovers near Shannonbridge, County Offaly.

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Cobh Branch October 2014

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Working with my Canon EOS7D, on October 7, 2014, I made these photos of a Cobh-bound Irish Rail 2600-series railcar pausing at Rushbrook, Co. Cork.

Irish Rail’s Ken Fox was giving me a detailed tour of the line.

I made my first visit to the Cobh Branch in 1999. The same 2600-series railcars worked it then, but in a bright orange, black and white livery.

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Foggy Morning at Wellingtonbridge.

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On the morning of 23 November 2004, I exposed this photo of a pair of Irish Rail bo-bos (class 141/181 General Motors diesels) shunting sugar beet wagons at Wellingtonbridge, Co. Wexford, Ireland.

This was a typical scene made a bit mystical by a thick layer of fog.

To accentuate the effect of the fog and compress the elements in the scene, I worked with a 180mm Nikkor prime telephoto lens fitted to a Nikon F3 camera.

My film choice of the day was Fujichrome Sensia II (ISO 100).

I scanned this slide yesterday using a Nikon Super Coolscan5000 digital scanner and processed the hi-res scan with Lightroom to scale the image for internet presentation and make minor adjustments in the color balance and contrast.

All is quiet at Wellingtonbridge today.

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Irish Rail Weedspraying Train at Limerick Check.

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Between 2000 and 2007, I made more than 1,000 images of the Irish Rail weedspraying train on its annual campaign around the system.

In my early days focusing on this one of kind train (there have been many weed spraying trains, but this one was unique!), I aimed to catch it in unusual places.

On this day in April 2000, I was traveling with intrepid photographer Mark Hodge, and we drove cross-country from Tipperary to County Limerick to intercept the train on the then rarely-traveled Foynes Branch.

Later in the morning, I caught the train coming off the branch at Limerick Check.

The day was wet and dark, but I’m very glad I exposed these photos, despite the fact that over the coming years I made numerous sunny day views of the train.

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Sunshine at Mount Dillon—Two Views in County Longford.

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Here’s two digital photos exposed last week: coming and going: One oriented in the portrait format and one in the landscape.

Working with my FujiFilm XT1 and 90mm prime telephoto, I made this view of an empty Bord na Mona narrow gauge train returning to the bog for reloading.

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This view shows the pair of empty trains at Mount Dillon.
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Limerick Junction—5 October 2019.

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Arriving on Railway Preservation Society of Ireland’s  Cobh Rambler,  I photographed four trains at Limerick Junction during the train’s brief pause.

The weather was dire, but that’s all part of the challenge.

New footbridge at Limerick Jct.

More photos from the Cobh Rambler soon!

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