Ten years ago today, I held my Canon EOS 7D fitted with a 40mm pancake lens and aimed it east toward Irish Rail’s approaching IWT Liner running from Dublin’s North Wall to Ballina.
It was a bright day at Donamon in the west of Ireland, and we could hear the 071 leading the Liner as it accerated away from Roscommon station several minutes before the train came into view.
Locomotive 086 was one of several of the 071 class locomotives painted in black, silver and yellow. This one had a cab door that was still wearing the older 1990s-era orange and white scheme.
Below are two versions of the same image. The top is a camera generated JPG. The bottom was created by making minor adjustments to the Canon RAW file using Adobe Lightroom.
Canon 7D JPG, scaled for internet but otherwise unmodified.File created from an adjusted Canon CR2 RAW file using Adobe Lightroom.
Toward the end of April, for the second morning in a row, I was in position at ‘the box’ on St Johns Road in Dublin to witness the passing of Irish Rail’s down IWT liner.
It was a cosmic alignment. The sun came out just as three trains converged upon Islandbridge Junction. The first was an ICR that emerged from the Phoenix Park Tunnel and stopped across from Platform 10. The second was an ICR heading toward the tunnel.
Then the down IWT liner emerged from the tunnel weaved around both ICRs on its way through the junction.
Sometimes, it helps to be in place at the best spot and just wait out the action.
Exposed in April 2022 using a Lumix LX7 digital camera.
