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On the Beet: Wellingtonbridge 18 Years Ago

On 2 December 2005, clouds had given way to a burst of late afternoon sun at Wellingtonbridge, County Wexford as sugarbeet was being loaded into the wagons that would take them by rail to Mallow, County Cork.

What this photo cannot convey is the earthy scent of the freshly harvested beet and the ‘clop clop clop’ sounds of the beet being loaded.

Below are two versions of the Fujichrome slide scan. The top is the raw unmodified scan. The bottom is my adjusted JPG of the same scan. I aimed to make a more pleasing photo by lowering contrast, lightening shadow areas, and warming the color temperature

Since this photo was made; the beet traffic ended (long story), the beet wagons were scrapped, and later the railway through Wellingtonbridge was closed to regular traffic. However, old Irish Rail 134, one of 15 Class 121-GM diesels, was preserved and has since been restored and repainted into its as-built gray and yellow livery.

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20 Years ago: Sugarbeet at Cherryville

Twenty years ago, during November and December I would focus my photography on Irish Rail’s Sugar Beet campaign.

This was an intensive and fascinating operation that focused on the movement of sugar beet from the loading point at Wellingtonbridge, Co. Wexford to the sugar processing factory in Mallow, Co. Cork. The trains were typically hauled by a variety of Irish Rail’s 1960s and 1970s-era General Motors diesels and used a fleet of antique vacuum-braked four wheel beet wagons.

Over the years, my friends and I got to know many of the players in this magnificent stage show, which often added a personal element to watching and photographing the trains in action.

Ireland in November: chilly with low midday sun, the ground perpetually damp and an agircultural scent in the air.

The 2003 beet campaign had an unusual twist. Earlier in the year, an accident at Cahir, Co. Tipperary on the Waterford-Limerick Junction line had damaged a key bridge, as a result the sugar beet trains were diverted northward to Cherryville Junction (on the Dublin-Cork line) and to Kildare where the locomotive would run around, and then toward Cork via Limerick Junction.

On November 27, 2003, my friends and I were set up at Cherryville Junction. Irish Rail class 071 No. 081 had been holding at the signal as trains passed on the main route. Then when traffic cleared, the 081 with 750 tonnes of sugar beet got the signal to crossover and head ‘up-road toward’ Kildare. The locomotive was roaring away as it snaked through the Cherryville crossover.

I exposed this view on Provia 100F (RPD-III) using a Nikon F3 with 180mm Nikkor telephoto.

Much has changed in the intervening years, but I still carry the 180mm lens and Irish Rail 081 is still on the roster. The sugar beet trains are but a memory.

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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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