thewanderer

Evening all, A round up of photos from the past week have now been uploaded to the website and include: - The former station site at Banagher which is now the town park and a base for boat hire companies on the River Shannon (Carrickcraft and Silverline). - Athlone with views of the IWT Liner crossing the Shannon Bridge. - Limerick. - Portarlington. - Inchicore viewed from a passing train with 228 and 231 on view. - Heuston. Click http://smu.gs/20YbMJz to view.

Morning all, The final part of the weekend photos have now been uploaded to the April gallery featuring: Saturday - 0545 Athlone - North Wall IWT Liner. - 0730 Inchicore - Connolly De-Dietrich "Enterprise" Transfer. - Connolly - Inchicore includes views of repainted 231 and the Tara Mines bound Shale wagon. - Cork Station with two stabled MKIV Sets due to the special timetable in operation on Saturday. - Mallow Sunday: - Waterford showing the yard alterations. - The highlight of Sunday was the working of 5ICR 22037 to Rosslare Europort on Sunday afternoon, the first visit of this subfleet south of the Dublin area. The set had been in Connolly for the "Enterprise" services and this work finished on the Saturday night with the introduction of the 3rd refurbished De-Dietrich set from Connolly on the Sunday morning. As the train was required for a private charter by Railtours Ireland on Tuesday from Sandymount to Belfast GVS the set was to remain at Drogheda Depot until this happened. The opportunity was taken to allocate it to the 1345 Connolly - Rosslare Europort / 1740 Rosslare Europort - Connolly / 2115 Connolly - Drogheda Ety. on the Sunday to work it back to Drogheda the long way around. - Tuesday: After the 2020 Cork - Heuston failed at Limerick Jct. on Monday night, 2809 + 2810 went forward to Heuston as the replacement train and was stabled there overnight. They were pictured shortly before departure for Ballina empty to take up the Branch services. All the images can be viewed at http://smu.gs/1SeNx9z

Evening all, Part two of the IRRS tour photos have now been uploaded to http://smu.gs/1qOqkze On the Sunday the tour operated from Killarney - Tralee - Killarney - Mallow - Limerick Jct. - Waterford - Kilkenny - Kildare - Connolly. Once again timekeeping was A1 and the weather gave us four seasons in one day! Click this link http://smu.gs/1T27oFS if you want to view from gallery from the start. Full Credit must go to the IRRS Program Officer Shane Roberts for organising another successful tour and if the past several years are anything to go by, the 2017 tour will just be as interesting. Also we cannot forget the RPSI and IE staff involved in the operation of the tour and to making it such a great weekend.

JB, I was on a train with a fully stocked bar. Imagine that!!

Evening all, Pictures from day 1 of the IRRS 071 Class 40th Anniversary Tour from Dublin to Killarney via Nenagh, Limerick and Cork. Click http://smu.gs/1qEGg6D to view. Pictures from day 2 will follow on Tuesday night. One of the downsides of a two day tour. Your knackered and have double the amount of images to process! But it was still a great weekend. Full Credit must go to the IRRS Program Officer Shane Roberts for organising another successful tour and if the past several years are anything to go by, the 2017 tour will just be as interesting. Also we cannot forget the RPSI and IE staff involved in the operation of the tour and to making it such a great weekend.

Some early morning action this morning with a 0545 Athlone - North Wall IWT Liner and De-Dietrich set 9002 + loco 206 going 0730 Inchicore - Connolly prior to taking over the 5ICR diagram on the Belfast route from tomorrow. Click http://smu.gs/1Ng03y4 to view.

Evening folks, A few pictures from the past few days: - Clonkeen to see 2817 + 2818 heading ety. from Limerick to Galway. - Templemore - A passing shot of Inchicore showing 216, which is in a temporary light green livery prior to be repainted fully for the Belmond Grand Hibernian. - Heuston. Click http://smu.gs/1RYpXuu to view,

Evening folks, Two updates to the website today. The main update features the RPSI "Dublin Riveria" Specials from Connolly to Greystones. After recent maintenance work carried out at Connolly Locomotive Shed, 461 was in what can only be described as flying form. The run back from Greystones to Connolly on the 1st trip was a great performance from both locomotive and crew on the footplate. Once again a massive thanks to all the RPSI volunteers and Iarnrod Eireann Staff for making days out like this possible. Click http://smu.gs/1SvPZmk to view. The 2nd update features the general odds and sods around the Dublin area today, plus a very early morning bus move from Laois to Dublin due to the lack of early trains into Heuston on a Sunday (first arrival being 1042). Locations visited today include: - Drumcondra to photograph the 0725 Athlone - North Wall IWT Liner with 083. This liner left Ballina on Saturday afternoon and was stabled overnight at Athlone. - Connolly. Last week of 22000 Class operation to Belfast. Plus the 3rd refurbished Enterprise set (9003) was photographed. - Grand Canal Dock to view the ongoing remodelling works to allow platform 2 to become a terminating platform. - Heuston. - Inchicore which includes (8)208 coupled to a Shale Wagon. Click http://smu.gs/1PPGcFG to view.

Saturday 2nd April proved to be an interesting day with the Limerick - Ballybrophy service being extended to Portlaoise as the 8ICR's on the Cork services are no longer permitted to call at Ballybrophy. Ballast Cleaning work was also being carried out near Cherryville Jct. with 221 & 086 top & tailing the HOBS train from Heuston Guinness Yard to the work site on Saturday evening. Click http://smu.gs/1ULE8qx to view.

I did some digging on this last Thursday. There is a calibration wagon at Tara Mines for the weighing scales which is now life expired. It has been agreed to send the Shale Wagon to Tara Mines to become the new calibration wagon. The Wanderer.

Morning all, March comes to a close with photos from Portlaoise, Limerick Jct. and Limerick. The update also includes photos of the new public plaza under construction outside Limerick Station. Clickhttp://smu.gs/1q73Jxj to view.

Evening folks, A batch of 40+ photos have been uploaded from the past two days. Sunday 27th March 2016: 079 was stabled in Portarlington for the weekend with a Spoil Train. Monday 28th March 2016: I intended to pop over to the Stradbally Railway today but the big railway was far more interesting after I discovered (slightly too late in one case) that a full freight timetable was scheduled to operate. Photos on Monday come from: - Portarlington. - Killenard. - Monasterevin. - Cherryville. - The Curragh. Click http://smu.gs/1WT4ep7 to view.

If memory serves me correctly the Cravens carriage with the IR logos was 1524. It lasted into the mid 1990's as I remember seeing it in Killarney on several occasions. Never seemed to be allocated to Cork though. Always seemed to be a Dublin based carriage.

Evening folks, A few pictures from Friday and Saturday at: - Portlaoise - Mallow - Killarney. Highlight being (8)209 working the 1300 Heuston - Cork on Friday. Click http://smu.gs/1q8cffj to view.

Evening folks, Two updates tonight to the website. The first is to the March gallery and features: - Interesting day today with Tamper 743 operating Kildare to Mallow and heavily delayed West of Ireland freight services due to 088 having flat batteries at Ballina and 087 having to go and jump start it. Click http://smu.gs/1Rbn6iP to view. The second update is a contributed gallery from>>>> and features the event held at Stradbally on Sunday 20th March for a 1916 Centenary reenactment / pageant event acknowledging and highlighting the historical role of county Laois in the 1916 rising. Click http://smu.gs/1XIaYGc to view.

Evening folks, The latest batch of images have now been uploaded to the website and feature: - Portarlington. - Carn Bridge (highlight being (8)209 appearing on the 1700 Heuston - Cork. - Portlaoise. - Laois Depot - Thurles. - Limerick Jct. - Mallow - Cork. Click http://smu.gs/22wT1xX to view.

Afternoon all, Saturday produced some rare freight action with both Up & Down IWT Liners scheduled to operate. As an added bonus there was also a 1130 Portlaoise - North Wall PWD Materials Train which followed right behind the 0815 Ballina - North Wall IWT Liner. I popped over to Killenard to photograph the proceedings. Click http://smu.gs/1pAAJxT to view all the pictures from today.

The second and final batch of images from my mid week UK trip to Liverpool and Manchester area have now been uploaded to the website. To view Thursday's images clickhttp://smu.gs/1pzqZDT To view all the images from the start ciick http://smu.gs/1STTyax A selection of the gallery is highlighted below.

Evening all, Some images from last weekend in Killarney / Farranfore and the Dublin area. Click http://smu.gs/1QYxTwr to view. Also I'm spending a few days in the Manchester and Liverpool areas. The first batch of pictures have now been uploaded to http://smu.gs/1STTyax

A selection of pictures from the RPSI "The Shannon" and "The Boyle" Railtours on Sunday 13th March 2016. Click http://smu.gs/1SLDDu to view.

Evening folks, Thursday 10th March 2016: While on a visit to the IRRS at Heuston for the excellent lecture by Brian Solomon, I grabbed a photo of 071 stabled in the Guinness Yard with a Autoballaster rake. Click the image below to see full high rez version.

Evening all, Been a while since my last update for various reasons. The February gallery comes to a close with some pictures from Killarney and Killeen Cutting in the Killarney - Farranfore section, where recent engineering works have taken place to regrade the cutting. Click http://smu.gs/1p9391K to view. March kicks off with images from Roscrea and Ballybrophy showing the recent engineering works with the Relay Train and HOBS Train and a trip to Westport. Click http://smu.gs/1L9pczb to view.

Evening folks, I ventured over to Ballykillane between Portarlington and Portlaoise to see 088 working the Belview - Portlaoise "Steel Train", plus 224 on the 1200 Heuston - Cork and a couple of 22000 Class Units on the Portlaoise Commuter service. Click http://smu.gs/1ReuWGH to view

Èvening all, A dreary lunchtime around Portlaoise threw up Inspection Car 722 operating from Portlaoise to Limerick Jct. & (8)209 on the 1300 Heuston - Cork. Click http://smu.gs/1OkhigD to view.

VIDEO: A rare 9ICR passenger working to Cork this evening with 22055 + 22051 + 22054 working the 2100 Heuston - Cork service. This is normally formed by a 3ICR + 4ICR formation. In Cork the sets will be split with 2X3ICR forming the 0550 Cork - Heuston & 3ICR forming the 0615 Cork - Heuston "Express". Thurs 18.02.16 Click the image below to view.