Aer Lingus has a neat direct flight from Hartford, Connecticut to Dublin.
I made a view with the Lumix LX7 looking down on the old New Haven Railroad bridge across the Connecticut River at Windsor Locks from my window seat above the wing.
And just a few hours later (and only minutes ago), I caught Irish Rail 082 leading the down IWT Liner from my standard fall-back location at Islandbridge Junction. Also with my Lumix.
Tracking the Light Does Jetlag!
Monday on Tracking the Light, I posted my foiled attempts at picturing Irish Rail’s heritage painted 071 on Belmond’s Grand Hibernian.
Persistence pays off. Well, that coupled with a bit of luck.
A few minutes ago (12 September 2018), I returned on spec to my oft-photographed location at Islandbridge Junction for the down International Warehousing & Transport container train (Irish Rail’s IWT Liner that runs Dublin to Ballina, Co. Mayo).
I expected locomotive 234, which has been working this run for a while. Instead, I was rewarded with 071 in glossy orange paint. The clear sunny morning was an added bonus.
Here are two versions. One is the in-camera JPG using the FujiFilm ‘Velvia’ colour profile. The other is an adjusted file from the camera RAW, where I’ve lightened shadows and adjusted saturation and contrast. You can like one or both.
If these don’t work for you, I also made a Fujichrome Provia 35mm colour slide using at 40mm lens that takes in the whole scene.
For more about IWT see: http://www.iwt-irl.com
I was traveling with Denis McCabe.
‘So where do we go?’
‘Try Cherryville first,’ I offered.
It was a bit brushed in and completely backlit. But we knew that.
‘How about Monasterevin? If we go to the bridge over the Barrow the sun will be side on.’
And so it was. We caught a the parade of Saturday morning passenger trains (I posted one of these yesterday). But then it clouded over.
‘Not much use here when there’s a white sky.’
So we moved up to the station.
We didn’t wait there long before the headlight of an 071 appeared.
In short order we caught the IWT Liner passing on its way to Ballina, County Mayo.
After exposing a few colour slides, I made a burst of digital images using my FujiFilm XT1.
For the last week, Irish Rail class 201 number 231 has been working the International Warehousing & Transport Liner (Dublin North Wall to Ballina, Co. Mayo) with IWT identification marks on the Ballina-end and the sides of the loco.
Photographically this is a boon because it positively distinguishes the IWT liner from other trains.
While last week, I’d either been busy or out of position when 231 worked the train; but this morning I made the effort to catch it from my usual location at Islandbridge Junction in Dublin.
Do I have too many photos from this spot? Undoubtedly, but it’s better to have a publishable image of a distinctive train from an identifiable location, than not to have a photo of the train at all. So, for the sake of a 5-minute walk, I’ve got the IWT Liner looking the part.
For more on IWT see: http://iwt-irl.com
Thursday, February 26, 2015: Today Enterprise 8209 wearing a new livery (or rather what appears to be about half of the new Enterprise livery) worked Irish Rail’s Dublin (North Wall) to Ballina IWT Liner.
Irish Rail operates container trains for International Warehousing & Transport most weekdays, however it is unusual to find this locomotive working the train. The 201 Class are General Motors-built locomotives technically similar to the F59PHI used in North America.
Yesterday, I featured locomotive 206 working the Ballina to Dublin IWT Liner which featured a more complete variation of the new paint scheme. At least today, I had the sun, fickle as it may be!
I was lucky because the train was blocked at Islandbridge Junction, giving me an opportunity to expose a few colour slides and then hoof it up the road for another angle.
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