Photo Thread.

afatbollix

Getting an early train from Inverness tomorrow so booked into the local hotel.

Turns out it over looks the station. Quite busy with freighters & the sleeper but that has been taken away as its not in use till tomorrow night.

The_Wanderer

Stayed in that hotel before. Nice place.

Are you heading to Kyle or up to the far north of Wick and Thurso?

The_Wanderer

Evening folks,

Some photos taken over the past few days:

Includes:
- Limerick Jct.
- Limerick.
- Portarlington.

Click http://smu.gs/1Q1O8e1 to view.

The_Wanderer

The 2016 Emerald Isle Explorer started its first Irish leg yesterday afternoon with a trip from Connolly to Rosslare. The passengers had earlier arrived in Dublin on the ferry after leaving London on Wednesday by train which was also hauled by Flying Scotsman from Crewe to Holyhead.

During their visit to Ireland passengers will visit Wexford, Waterford, Cork, Killarney, Sligo, Dublin, Derry and Belfast.

Three steam locomotives from the RPSI’s fleet will be used over the course of the week with No. 461 doing the Connolly to Rosslare Strand Leg on Thursday. The rest of the operation will feature No. 4, with a few diesel legs thrown in to position stock, while No. 85 "Merlin" will undertake the Derry - Belfast - Dublin leg of the trip.


Click http://smu.gs/1rt0oZb to see the pictures of the trip down to Rosslare. Sadly the Sunny South East name didn't live up to expectations yesterday!

Salmon Leap

Great set of shots, was the Steam Dreams well-loaded?

The_Wanderer

Pictures from day 3 of the Emerald Isle Explorer which saw it travel from Waterford to Cork via Limeric.

Photos from:
- Limerick.
- Limerick Jct.
- Charlevile.
- Mallow.
- Cork.

Click http://smu.gs/1Yykb73 to view.


In reply the the question above there are 159 passengers on board.

Captain Chaos

Great shots with the buckeye and buffers being adjusted on 229 for classic rolling stock.

yachtsman

Where are Irish Rail Marketing Dept., Failte Ireland, local tourism bodies etc pointing to the asset that our rail network and heritage trains are to the economy?

Not a word, but if 159 cyclists came from overseas to have spin on a closed railway "greenway" we'd never hear the end of it and all about the €2 some of them who forgot their packed lunch had spent in the greenway coffee shop, and the tremendous economic asset that the old railway had at last become!

Perhaps our railway and tourism bodies are too busy working on plans to close some of these routes and offer them to local communities as greenways. Don't laugh, there's €100m in the Prog for Gov. for greenways!

I don't think the Swiss, Scottish or Welsh would contemplate converting railways into greenways, but I reckon we would.

The Railway Preservation Society of Ireland, Railtours Ireland First Class, Steam Dreams and Belmond deserve great credit for investing in Irish Railway Tourism and they deserve more formal recognition. How about a few quid out of the greenway fund going towards heritage rail projects! Mention it to your local TD and the next Bord Failte rep you bump into when you're out on yer bike!

Jamie2k9

yachtsman wrote: »

Where are Irish Rail Marketing Dept., Failte Ireland, local tourism bodies etc pointing to the asset that our rail network and heritage trains are to the economy?

Not a word, but if 159 cyclists came from overseas to have spin on a closed railway "greenway" we'd never hear the end of it and all about the €2 some of them who forgot their packed lunch had spent in the greenway coffee shop, and the tremendous economic asset that the old railway had at last become!

Perhaps our railway and tourism bodies are too busy working on plans to close some of these routes and offer them to local communities as greenways. Don't laugh, there's €100m in the Prog for Gov. for greenways!

I don't think the Swiss, Scottish or Welsh would contemplate converting railways into greenways, but I reckon we would.

The Railway Preservation Society of Ireland, Ireland First Class, Steam Dreams and Belmond deserve great credit for investing in Irish Railway Tourism and they deserve more formal recognition. How about a few quid out of the greenway fund going towards heritage rail projects! Mention it to your local TD and the next Bord Failte rep you bump into when you're out on yer bike!

Have you not heard of Rail Tours Ireland

yachtsman

Sorry, my typo. You will see" Railtours" got left out accidentally as I typed Railtours Ireland First Class.

They were the first and actually the best....363 days a year.

The_Wanderer

Evening folks,

Pictures from day 4 of the Emerald Isle Explorer by Steam Dreams & the RPSI took passengers from Cork to Killarney on a short day outing to the busy tourist town.

Pictures start at http://smu.gs/1YzatBx

savagethegoat

you got me in one of the pictures.... did I get you?

The_Wanderer

Oh yes you certainly did

savagethegoat wrote: »

you got me in one of the pictures.... did I get you?

angelIRL

Good morning,

some photos taken over the last few days of the Steam Dreams "Emerald Isle Explorer" in Cork and Kerry: https://www.flickr.com/photos/finnyus/


No. 4 at Kilmallock with the Limerick-Cork portion, Friday 17 June 2016


No. 4 climbing out of Cork at Kilbarry with the 0935 Cork-Killarney portion, Saturday 18 June 2016


Steam loco No. 4 at Minish with the 1632 Killarney-Mallow portion, Saturday 18 June 2016


GM 221 at Rathpeacon with the 0800 Cork - Mallow portion, Sunday 19 June 2016

Finbarr

Seanmk1

The Point Yard today

The_Wanderer

Good evening folks,

Here is my pictures from Sunday's Emerald Isle Explorer which traveled from Cork to Sligo via Connolly. RPSI's No. 4 was used from Mallow to Connolly. The leg from Cork to Mallow used the Cork Thunderbird 221, while 071 class 078 was used for the Connolly to Sligo leg. The loco and carriages then went empty to Longford to stable. This will be the last update from me on the Emerald Isle Explorer, I must say it was a wonderful few days and all the operations generally ran within a few minutes of time. The most late running we had was about 25 minutes on the Mallow - Connolly leg today.

Click http://smu.gs/23kkyCR to view.

The_Wanderer

Evening folks,

A collection of general pictures from last Thursday to Monday while out and about for the Emerald Isle Explorer.
- Connolly
- Recent track alterations at Grand Canal Dock.
- Rosslare Europort.
- Enniscorthy
- Portarlington
- Limerick
- Charleville
- Cork
- Killarney
- Mallow
- Lisduff
- Laois Train Care
- Portlaoise
- Connolly
- Dromod
- Longford

Click http://smu.gs/28M5nNp to view.

The_Wanderer

Tuesday 21st June 2016:
Delays through Portlaoise due to a trespasser and Belmond nominated 216 finally runs on the main line with a short trial to Hazelhatch.

Clixk http://smu.gs/28QvhiW to view.

Del.Monte

Great pics as always! I note that 216 doesn't appear to carry nameplates anymore or am imagining things? River Dodder?

I'd guess that the nameplates haven't been refitted because the paintwork isn't complete yet.

GM228

Del.Monte wrote: »

Great pics as always! I note that 216 doesn't appear to carry nameplates anymore or am imagining things? River Dodder?

It's not the only 201 missing it's nameplates. A llot of 201s have lost at least one nameplate over the years for whatever reasons.

All 201s except 201, 208 and 209 had 4 plates each at one stage, I wonder how many are left with all 4?

Some like 206, 208, 209 have lost all plates following repainting and there's no guarantee of them being returned to 216.

I think there are others missing all plates but not sure.

The_Wanderer

Photos from yesterday and today have now been uploaded to the June gallery.

Wednesday 22nd June 2016:
A trip to Killenard in the late afternoon to photo 215 working the 1140 Ballina - North Wall IWT Liner plus various passenger train services.

Thursday 23rd June 2016:
Just before lunch time I got a tip off that 216 was being scrambled from Inchicore to Kildare to replace 088 which was having trouble on the 1130 Waterford - Westport Timber. A last minute trip to Kildare ensured to see 216 arrive and be shunted onto the timber train. It left 30 minutes late at 1445 for Portarlington and onwards to Westport.

Click http://smu.gs/290hWF1 to view.

The_Wanderer

A visit to Cherryville Jct. in the evening time while en route to Newbridge.
Click http://smu.gs/28SYrQc to view.

The_Wanderer

The project to extend freight train lengths continued on Monday 27th June when a 27 bogie (54 TEU's) liner wagon trial operated from North Wall to Ballina. NI Railways Locomotive (8)209 was allocated to the Liner and it departed from North Wall ontime at 2045.

I photographed the train at Stacumny Bridge on the Dublin / Kildare border and also at Monasterevin Station. Click https://thewandererphotos.smugmug.com/2016Photos/June-2016/i-RWcNQPw to see the pictures and videos of the freight train trial.

I must say it was a very impressive sight and hopefully will become a common feature on the Irish Railway Network.

roundymac

Could result in less trains.

Del.Monte

It's an illusion. Back in the day when there were a wide range of freight flows (IFI, Irish Cement, Beet, Bell, Shale, Ballinacourty, Coal & Oil, Asahi etc)there was some chance for rail freight, but today with so few players one hiccup and the games is up.

Captain Chaos

roundymac wrote: »

Could result in less trains.

Think that's the idea. The more goods you can move at a time the more cost effective the operation becomes, economies of scale and all that.

GM228

roundymac wrote: »

Could result in less trains.

Captain Chaos wrote: »

Think that's the idea. The more goods you can move at a time the more cost effective the operation becomes, economies of scale and all that.

IWT want more spaces on the existing services as they have no problems filling them generally, there won't be any less IWTs.

The_Wanderer

Evening all,

Photos from the past few days have now been uploaded to the June gallery.

Includes:

- General liveried 231 and 233 both working Heuston - Charleville services last Saturday.
- Photos of Limerick - Ennis services around Cratloe.
- Scart Level Crossing on the Nenagh Branch.
- Limerick Station with a 4ICR using the train wash at the depot.
- Some more views of passing passenger trains at Stacumny Bridge on Monday night.
- Green liveried 216 at Kildare on Tuesday with the Waterford to Ballina Timber.

Click http://smu.gs/29lIznI to view.

yachtsman

75 loose coupled wagons were a similar length and demanded great skill from Driver and Guard to control at a maximum speed of 35 mph. 50 mph for the vacuum fitted container train is not a dramatic improvement.