Irish rail freight is comparatively scarce today compared to my visits years ago.
While visiting county Mayo, I’d hoped to catch one of the several freights that still routinely grace the rails there.
On the advice of an old friend at Irish Rail, Kris and I paid our second visit to Manulla Junction on a rainy Monday March morning. After passage of the morning Dublin-Westport passenger train, we caught the once-per-week Ballina-Waterford timber train led by class 071 locomotive number 074.
I exposed these photos of the train as it squealed through the junction. It was like old times again! The sound of the turbocharged 12-645 roaring away brought me back many years.
Nikon Z7-II with 70-200mm Nikkor Z-series zoom.
Nikon Z7-II with 70-200mm Nikkor Z-series zoom.
Nikon Z7-II with 70-200mm Nikkor Z-series zoom.
Nikon Z7-II with 70-200mm Nikkor Z-series zoom.
Nikon Z7-II with 70-200mm Nikkor Z-series zoom.
Nikon Z7-II with 70-200mm Nikkor Z-series zoom.
Lumix LX3.
Lumix LX3.
Lumix LX3.
Nikon Z7-II with 70-200mm Nikkor Z-series zoom.Nikon Z7-II with 70-200mm Nikkor Z-series zoom.
I made thousands of photos of Irish Rail operations on Fujichrome Sensia II (100 ISO). Typically, I had the film processed at Photocare on Abbey Street in Dublin.
In this photo, exposed on a summer Saturday, Irish Rail class 071 number 083 roars up-road at Enfield with a laden timber train. The signalman hands the staff to the driver. The staff authorized the train movement over the section (in this case Enfield to Maynooth).
This image was made was in the final years of traditional electric train staff and semaphore operation on Irish Rail’s Sligo Line.
I’ve been gradually archiving my Irish Rail slides by scanning them at very high resolution, typically between 3200 and 4800 dots per inch, saving the file in TIF format.
