thewanderer

The July gallery has been updated with a few images from earlier tonight. The 1925 Cork - Heuston service was cancelled on Wednesday evening after the set failed pre departure. Recovery was arranged for Friday with 076 working the train back to Dublin. Unfortunately this also ran into trouble at Mallow and was terminated there for further assistance which came in the form of 220 from Cork. The train departed Mallow at 2105 approx and closely followed the 2025 Cork - Heuston and was photographed passing Thurles Beet Factory Sidings. Click https://thewandererphotos.smugmug.com/2025-Photos/July-2025/i-RJ3qHNv for all the images including the 2025 Cork - Heuston passing a few minutes in advance of the empty movement.

The July gallery has been updated with new images after short stay in Co. Wexford which just happened to coincide with the annual visit of the weedspray train to the mothballed South Wexford railway. Tuesday 8th July 2025: Pictures from Wexford and Rosslare Strand. Highlights include seeing the morning Rosslare bound train passing the Irish National Heritage Park outside Wexford, MPV 790 at Wexford which had just arrived with the 1120 weedspray train from Greystones and later a visit to Rosslare Europort to see the massive changes ongoing at the port. Wednesday 9th July 2025: MPV 790 operated over the mothballed Rosslare Strand - Waterford railway on this day to weedspray to just beyond Dunbrody Abbey near Campile. The train couldn't proceed to Waterford as the Barrow Bridge is closed to rail traffic and pinned in the open position to allow shipping traffic through. Click https://thewandererphotos.smugmug.com/2025-Photos/July-2025/i-cskFmv3 to view all the images and videos.

The July Gallery has been started with images from: Saturday 5th July 2025: Pictures from the Thurles area on Saturday morning showing the process of trains heading to Dublin from Cork due to Cork playing Dublin in the GAA All Ireland Hurling Semi-Final. The railway company ran 5 specials in addition to the scheduled service. Sunday 7th July 2025: Images from Waterford City showing the new station and new bridge crossing the River Suir, plus a trip on the Passage East ferry. All the images are available at https://thewandererphotos.smugmug.com/2025-Photos/July-2025

Saturday 21st June 2025: A selection of images from between Thurles and Lisduff on the longest day of the year. Click https://thewandererphotos.smugmug.com/2025-Photos/June-2025/i-2CzdjCH to view all the images.

Evening all, The June gallery has been updated with images from this week in Dublin and Thurles. Highlight capturing 218 hauling a failed MK4 set from Cork to Inchicore on Thursday lunchtime. Click https://thewandererphotos.smugmug.com/2025-Photos/June-2025/i-dFXXm2x to view.

Last week, between the 1st and 6th June, Railtours Ireland, in conjunction with the Railway Preservation Society of Ireland operated another of their Emerald Pullman charters around Ireland. The last number of years have used a Iarnrod Eireann 22000 Class unit (a 3ICR set) but for 2025 the format has reverted to the RPSI Cravens which feature two of their six coaches in the rake upgraded to "Pullman" class. The tour departed from Dublin Connolly on Sunday 1st June and over the next 6 days visited Waterford, Killarney, Cork, Cobh, Limerick, Galway, Westport and Dundalk. The full guest itinerary can be found on the Railtours Ireland website (link on my gallery page). I managed to capture photos of the Special Charter on Sunday 1st June at Lavistown South Jct. & Waterford, on Wednesday at Limerick Jct. while operating from Killarney to Galway. On Friday I was invited to board the train and travelled from Westport to Dundalk where guests continued their journey north to Belfast via the Enterprise. Locos 086, 083 & 081 were used during the course of the week. For all the photos click https://thewandererphotos.smugmug.com/RailtoursPreservedRailways/2025/Railtours-Ireland-Emerald-Pullman The June gallery has also been updated with images from the past week at: * Lavistown South Jct. * Waterford * Thurles * Limerick Jct. * Loughmore * Portarlington * Clara * Athlone * Manulla Jct. * Westport * Inchicore * Connolly * Dundalk * Bohernacrusha The 60+ images can be viewed at https://thewandererphotos.smugmug.com/2025-Photos/June-2025/i-fJGnH57

Thursday 5th June 2025: A lunchtime visit to Loughmore to photograph retro liveried 220 passing the ruined castle. This shot has been on my bucket list for a number of weeks. Also captured passing was the 1325 Cork - Heuston with 6ICRPC set 22040. Click https://thewandererphotos.smugmug.com/2025-Photos/June-2025/i-nr9jFNT to view all the images.

The June gallery has been updated with some images from today. A quick trip down to Limerick Jct. to view the Railtours Ireland "Emerald Isle Pullman" operated by the RPSI, which was heading from Killarney to Galway today. After dropping the guests off at Galway the set operated empty to Westport where it will remain until Friday to operate to Dundalk via Dublin Connolly. An additional highlight was capturing 220 in its IE retro livery from 1994 at Thurles. Click https://thewandererphotos.smugmug.com/2025-Photos/June-2025/i-k52CnHs to view all the images. More about the Emerald Pullman can be found at https://railtoursireland.com/emerald-pullman/private-train-tour/7-nights-from-dublin/all-islands-of-ireland-bucket-list-attractions

Two updates to the website tonight. First up is images from the Irish Railway Records Society outing to Belfast Grand Central and Adelaide Training School and Maintenance Depot on 28th May, where the group got a briefing of the facilities at Belfast Grand Central transport hub. After been shown the station facilities by Station Manager Louise Doyle we headed to Adelaide to visit the training school facilities and the maintenance depot on the site. At the training school we had presentations from Louise Sterritt, Senior Programmer Manger with Translink about the development and construction of Belfast Grand Central transport hub and Hilton Parr, Customer Services Manager Translink about recent developments in the company. After the presentations, we were shown the signalling simulator and driving simulator which are used to train and assess current and trainee signalling and driving grades. The final part of the tour of Adelaide was to the maintenance depot where the C4K 4000 Class DMU's are maintained. Click https://thewandererphotos.smugmug.com/RailtoursPreservedRailways/2025/IRRS-outing-to-Belfast-Grand-Central-Adelaide-Depot to view all the images from this very interesting day out and thanks to NIR for facilitating the visit and being such wonderful hosts on the day. The 2nd update is from Sunday 1st June, Pictures from Lavistown Jct. (Kilkenny) and Waterford of the Railtours Ireland "Emerald Isle Pullman" which this year is being operated by the Railway Preservation Society of Ireland using their RPSI Cravens rate instead of an Iarnrod Eireann Class 22000 3ICR set. Click https://thewandererphotos.smugmug.com/2025-Photos/June-2025/i-fJGnH57 to view all the images from the day.

Photos from this week include: Sunday 20th May 2025: One final look at set 2722 + 2719 at Inchicore before it is scrapped. Wednesday 21st May 2015: The 0615 Cork - Heuston passes Thurles. Thursday 22nd May 2025: Pictures from Thurles and Heuston including loco 220 in its retro 1994 livery. Saturday 24th May 2025: Pictures from the Templemore and Thurles area on Saturday evening, including loco 220 in its retro livery working the 1800 Heuston - Cork. Click https://thewandererphotos.smugmug.com/2025-Photos/May-2025/i-kWfxL6H to view all the images. https://photos.smugmug.com/2025-Photos/May-2025/i-NJxh6kV/0/Nc4ktLrDCvjLkcfSLjcRdhNh8PqbPshV2xWKmDvRr/S/DSC_5672-S.jpg

Photos from the Irish Railway Record Society "The Har-stone Explorer" railtour in conjunction with Transdev Ireland from last Sunday 18th May. The route the tour took was: Broombridge Depot – Broombridge Depot West Gate - Broombridge outbound platform (Rev) – Beechwood – Beechwood Emergency Crossover (Rev) – St. Stephens Green – St. Stephens Green emergency refuge siding (Rev) (photo stop) – Brennanstown (unopened station) (photo stop) – Brides Glen inbound platform (Rev) – Broombridge Depot East Gate – Broombridge Depot. The tour was narrated by Dave Rooney (Director of Operations, Transdev) and driven by Kevin Kavanagh, with key contributions from Luas Trainer and first-ever Luas driver Eddie Byrne, Lorraine Anderson (Communications), Deirdre Miller (TII), and many others who brought the rich history of Dublin's tram and rail network to life. As tour manager on behalf of the IRRS, our thanks go to Transdev for providing a first class experience on the tour. Pictures from the day can view viewed at: https://thewandererphotos.smugmug.com/RailtoursPreservedRailways/2025/IRRS-The-Har-stone-Explorer

This weeks updates include: Wednesday 14th May 2025: Photos from Nenagh, Limerick and Ennis. Thursday 15th May 2025: A late afternoon trip around on the South Western Commuter line between Park West and Hazelhatch observing the start of the evening peak. Also earlier in the day the 1005 Ballina - North Wall was captured at the Phoenix Park Tunnel. Friday 16th May 2025: The 2nd movement of 2700's for scrapping, which included the hybrid set 2609 + 2716 from Cork to Inchicore operated today running as a 1240 Cork to Inchicore. 082 had been sent down from Inchicore on Thursday evening to work the movement back up. Loco 234 which was failed in Cork was also added to the consist at late notice to trip it back to Inchicore. With a senior FTS person onboard to jockey the unusual movement the opportunity was also taken to multi 234 and 082 to conduct some fault finding on 234 for the trip to Dublin. With 5650hp between the 2 locos I imagine getting up to the 60mph limit for the movement was effortless! Click https://thewandererphotos.smugmug.com/2025-Photos/May-2025/i-FDRz8GX to view all the 50+ images.

Good morning all, Two updates to the website today. First up is images from the excellent RPSI Diesel Railtour "Premier Branchline" to Waterford and Limerick on 10th May featuring three 071 Class locos, 077, 071 and 081 in that order. Click https://thewandererphotos.smugmug.com/RailtoursPreservedRailways/2025/RPSI-Premier-Branchline-Railtour to view. Second up is images from May so far featuring images from Cahir and Thurles areas. Highlights being a private RPSI Charter between Limerick and Heuston for Odyssey Travel and the Waterford to Portlaoise Steel train which unusually operated via Limerick Jct, both of which operated on Monday. Click https://thewandererphotos.smugmug.com/2025-Photos/May-2025 to view.

The April gallery comes to a close with images from Heuston, Kishoge and Hazelhatch on Monday 28th April to photo the 9000 Class BEMU on test on the down fast line. I played a bit of a game of cat and mouse with the test unit on this night as it was only running between Park West and to a point west of Kishoge, instead of going all the way to Hazelhatch, but I eventually got it passing Kishoge. Photos can be viewed at https://thewandererphotos.smugmug.com/2025-Photos/April-2025/i-wbNgTKn

The April gallery has been updated with: Wednesday 24th April 2025: A few images from around Dublin including Heuston, LUAS Red Line, Connolly and Harmonstown. Thursday 24th April 2025: Even though it opened at the end of August 2024, I hadn't managed a visit out to Kishoge Station yet. That was rectified on this day with a lunchtime visit to the new station on the Portlaoise Commuter route and an added bonus was also photographing 22010 which has just been reformed from a 3ICR to a 4ICR with the addition of vehicle 22402 from disbanded set 22002. 22402 has been renumbered to 22810 to reflect the new set it is formed into and is expected to remain as such until late 2025 while collision damage repairs are carried out to car 22139 at Laois Depot. Click https://thewandererphotos.smugmug.com/2025-Photos/April-2025/i-8kknmPL to view.