Photographic Website Updates

[thewanderer]

The October gallery comes to a close with:

Saturday 21st & Sunday 22nd October 2023:
Some general shots ftom the RPSI Liffey Leesider railtour weekend. See the 2023 Railtour section for all the pictures.

Tuesday 24th October 2023:
081 and 084 pass Nenagh with a HOBS train to drop ballast on the branch.

Wednesday 25th October 2023:
Pictures from Portlaoise of 075 hauling new Inspection Car 725 and later that day images from Limerick Station.

Thursday 26th October 2023:
Pictures today come from Ballybrophy and Portloaise. Includes 075 and 220 leaving the Perway Yard bound for North Wall and Athy respectively.

Saturday 28th October 2023:
The Linmag Rail Milling Machine at Nenagh after completing work south of the station at the 36MP.

Sunday 29th October 2023:
One photo from today of Whitegate while attending the funeral of enthusiast Fred Dean.

Click https://thewandererphotos.smugmug.com/2023-photos/October-2023/i-sLG8G3X

 

[thewanderer]

The November Gallery kicks off with:

Wednesday 1st November 2023:
A trip down to Cork to meet up with Tony Miles and explore some of the East Cork Commuter routes before heading back to Dublin.

Thursday 2nd November 2023:
The more was spent at Inchicore Works for the CME Strategy Day before returning to Thurles later in the afternoon.

Click https://thewandererphotos.smugmug.com/2023-photos/November-2023/ to view.

 

[thewanderer]

Evening all,

Photos from the past week have now been uploaded to the website at https://thewandererphotos.smugmug.com/2023-photos/November-2023/i-xNMfZ5d

Saturday 4th November 2023:
During the first week of November the Nenagh Branch received the new NTA funded wayfinding signage. I popped into Nenagh Station on Saturday to view the new improved signage.

Wednesday 8th November 2023:
Pictures from Thurles and Portlaoise.

Thursday 9th November 2023:L
Pictures today come from Ballybrophy, Portlaoise, Heuston, LUAS Red Line at Rialto, plus Blackrock.

 

[thewanderer]

Saturday 11th November 2023:
A Saturday afternoon spent in the Cratloe area which afforded some pictures of Western Rail Corridor services between Limerick and Ennis at Cratloe and Sixmilebridge.

Click https://thewandererphotos.smugmug.com/2023-photos/November-2023/i-JF4pt4r to view.

 

[thewanderer]

Monday 13th & Tuesday 14th November 2023:
A busy two days of travelling to Dublin, Cork and Limerick. Travel plans on the Monday were somewhat disrupted by Storm Debi but the highlight was seeing Ballast Cleaner 781 leaving Limerick Jct. for Kildare.

Click https://thewandererphotos.smugmug.com/2023-photos/November-2023/i-q8Fvgvv

 

[thewanderer]

Evening all,

The November gallery has been updated with:

Wednesday 15th November 2023:
The new Track Recording Vehicle 701 travelled on the Nenagh Branch on Tuesday and Wednesday and I photographed it passing Nenagh on Wednesday morning.

Thursday 16th November 2023:
Loco 218 has been converted to run on Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO) as part of a trial to reduce carbon emissions and after a number of trials on non-passenger work it was released to work passenger trains from Thursday 16th November 2023 where I managed to catch up with it at Thurles in the afternoon.

Click https://thewandererphotos.smugmug.com/2023-photos/November-2023/i-KHMDsj5 to view all the images.

 

 

[Rob]

Great catch on the conveted 218.    I saw it in the distance in the dark at Heuston a few days ago but it was too far away.  Great pics of it

[thewanderer]

The November gallery has been updated with:

Friday 17th November 2023:
While in Galway for the night, I stopped off at Oranmore to see the 1305 Galway - Heuston passing through non-stop.

Saturday 18th November 2023:
After a lovely evening in Leenan in the wilds of Connemara, we decided to head over to Westport to spend a few hours in the town and at Westport House which I had never been to before. Later in the afternoon while heading back to North Tipperary, I stopped off at Manulla Jct. and Balla to view the 1245 Heuston - Westport passing.

Click https://thewandererphotos.smugmug.com/2023-photos/November-2023/i-wxJTdHC to view all the images.

 

 

[thewanderer]

Latest photos from the week so far are now online at https://thewandererphotos.smugmug.com/2023-photos/November-2023/i-RBkZqR3

Tuesday 21st November 2023:
Pictures come from Ballybrophy, Portlaoise, Limerick Jct. and Limerick.

Wednesday 22nd Novemeber 2023:
Pictures today come from Thurles, Portlaoise, Heuston and Abbey Street.

 

[thewanderer]

The November gallery comes to an close with images around Nenagh and a 3 day visit to Dublin.

 

Saturday 25th & Sunday 26th November:

Images around Nenagh.

 

Monday 27th - Wednesday 29th November 2023:

November comes to an end with 3 days in Dublin. Photos come from:

* Thurles

* Inchicore

* Heuston

* LUAS

* Pearse

* Tara Street

* Clontarf Road & Fairview

* Bray

 

Click https://thewandererphotos.smugmug.com/2023-photos/November-2023/i-mDDdrHG

Also while at Inchicore I took a look at the DART+ mockup. The new DART+ fleet is being built by Alstom in Poland to the X'trapolis design.

Click https://thewandererphotos.smugmug.com/Officialevents/2023/DART-mockup-at-Inchicore/

 

 

 

 

[hurricanemk1c]

 

 

September 2023 saw me visit Downpatrick (before the floods severely impacted their ability to operate) and participate in the Irish Railway Record Society's "The Token Exchange" railtour from Heuston to Waterford and Limerick

Album link - https://flickr.com/photos/hurricanemk1c/albums/72177720312746614/with/53336374563

Regards,

Kieran

[thewanderer]

The December gallery has been updated with:

Wednesday 6th and 12th December 2023:
Views of Laois Depot where a trio of the new ICR B2 cars have visited for modification work to be carried out on the vehicles. To shunt the vehicles in the yard, an 071 class locomotive was provided, an unusual sight in a DMU depot. 

Saturday 16th December 2023:
A day spent in Dublin to photograph and travel on the RPSI Santa Specials between Connolly and Maynooth.

Click https://thewandererphotos.smugmug.com/2023-photos/December-2023/i-bkR4r6p to view.

 

 

[skinner75]

One of the ITG tours "The Blue Thunderer" I took pics of, on my Flickr page:

https://flic.kr/s/aHsjCreAVE

There are albums with other ITG tours there as well

[thewanderer]

Evening all,

Pictures from around Dublin and Thurles during an overnight trip to the capital city.

Click https://thewandererphotos.smugmug.com/2023-photos/December-2023/i-mTR68BC to view.

 

 

[hurricanemk1c]

In October I visited Denmark, staying in Copenhagen and travelling around a little bit. Photos include various visits to the central station and Osterport, as well as a trip out to Odense (railway museum) and Middelfart. A highly impressive system.
 

 

 

 

 

Album link: https://www.flickr.com/photos/hurricanemk1c/albums/72177720313364974/

Regards,

Kieran

 

[thewanderer]

Afternoon all,

Two updates to the website this afternoon.

The main one concerns the Foynes Line rebuilding in Co. Limerick and features photos from between Ballingrane and Patrickswell showing the latest progress on the work to reopen the railway for Freight to Foynes Port.
Click https://thewandererphotos.smugmug.com/Officialevents/2023/Foynes-Line-Reconstruction-/i-ThN4SZF

The 2nd update is in the December gallery with two pictures from Killarney during a visit to the station to drop a person off.
Click https://thewandererphotos.smugmug.com/2023-photos/December-2023/i-VQ9FDMB

 

[thewanderer]

The January 2024 gallery kicks off with:

Thursday 4th January 2024:
Pictures from Nenagh of 3ICR 22060 working the evening branch service.

Friday 5th January 2024:
Pictures from between Nenagh and Belfast.

Saturday 6th & Sunday 7th January 2024:
A weekend in Belfast with visits to Derry, Portrush, Coleraine, Bangor, Lisburn, City Hospital and Titanic Quarter.

Click https://thewandererphotos.smugmug.com/2024-Photos/January-2024/i-6WL5J8C to view.

 

[hurricanemk1c]

In early December 2023, I visited Finland for a week, taking in two concerts in Helsinki on consecutive nights (Raskasta Joulua and Till Lindemann), and various other activities.#

Locations covered include Helsinki (national network, tram and metro), the railway museum at Hyvinkää, Rovaniemi, Tampere and Kouvola, plus a few smaller places in between

 

 

 

 

Album link - https://www.flickr.com/photos/hurricanemk1c/albums/72177720313701965/

Regards,

Kieran

[thewanderer]

A rather hastily arranged trip to England was put together for early January as I needed to head to Norfolk for a family event. As is usual with me, I extended the trip a few days either side and managed to fit in a few more bits I had wanted to tick off.

* Belfast to Birkenhead Ferry.
* Merseryrail 507001 in its BR Blue & Grey Retro Livery.
* Newcastle Tyne and Wear Metro
* South Western Railway Class 455's.

Click https://thewandererphotos.smugmug.com/International/2024/UK-Trip-8th-14th-January-2024 to view all the individual galleries.

 

 

 

 

 

[thewanderer]

Good evening all,

Photos from Nenagh, Ballybrophy and various locations in the Dublin area from Monday and Tuesday.

Click https://thewandererphotos.smugmug.com/2024-Photos/January-2024/i-2DMKW3n to view.

 

 

[thewanderer]

After receiving an invite to attend the event at London Waterloo for the return of 4VEP 3417 "Gordon Pettitt" to the terminus for the first time in 18 years, I made a flying visit to London on the Friday night to attend the event on Saturday before returning back to Ireland on Saturday night.

I have to say it was a fantastic day out and full of emotion for me as well. Hopefully it won't be too long before we see "Gordon" at heritage railways and eventually mainline running before too long. 

All the photos from the visit, including the event at London Waterloo can be viewed at 
https://thewandererphotos.smugmug.com/International/2024/A-night-in-London-26th-27th-January-2024

 

 

[thewanderer]

Evening all,

The backlog of photos has been cleared and the website has been updated with the end of January and the start of February.

The January gallery can be viewed at https://thewandererphotos.smugmug.com/2024-Photos/January-2024/i-TMHxfJm and contains:
* Pictures from Portlaoise on Monday 29th January.
* Pictures from Cork on Tuesday 30th January.

The February gallery contains images from Killarney, the closed stations at Clonakilty and Bandon plus two visits to Thurles. Click https://thewandererphotos.smugmug.com/2024-Photos/February-2024/i-rv6BdMD to view.

All the images can also be accessed from the 2024 folder at https://thewandererphotos.smugmug.com/2024-Photos

 

 

[thewanderer]

After spending a long weekend in the Manchester area, I arrived back into Ireland to find my train home to Thurles would have vehicle 22516, which is the first of the new 22000 Class B2 type cars to enter service last Friday.

So click https://thewandererphotos.smugmug.com/2024-Photos/February-2024/i-9xMS6T5 to view pictures from Heuston on Sunday evening including interior pictures of the new B2 car layout with its multi-purpose bike storage / standing area.

 

Edited February 19 by thewanderer

[thewanderer]

My 3rd trip to the UK this year (and was the 1st planned!) with a long weekend based in Manchester. The reason for the trip was to attend the IRRS Manchester Branch talk with the President of the Society Dick Fearn.

 

Other highlights from the trip include:

* Hadfield and Glossop.

* Preston / Lancaster and Penrith.

* Leeds / Keighley & Worth Valley Railway / Bradford.

* Blackpool Trams and Blackpool North and South.

 

Click https://thewandererphotos.smugmug.com/International/2024/UK-Trip-15th-18th-February-2024 to view all the pictures from the weekend.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[thewanderer]

The February gallery has been updated with: 

Monday 19th February 2024:
Just one pict from Ballybrophy while enroute to Dublin for an overnight.

Sunday 25th February 2024:
A varied selection of images today from Killarney showing 22016 working Tralee line services. Of course 22016 is the first set to contain one of the new B2 type vehicles. Later in the day I stopped off at Kilgobbin Level Crossing on the Foynes Line to see the latest work on the rebuild at this location.

Click https://thewandererphotos.smugmug.com/2024-Photos/February-2024/i-ppSCsQW to view.

 

[thewanderer]

The February gallery comes to an end with the first refurbished first class MK4 carriage being released back to service today on the 1600 Dublin Heuston - Cork. Initial customer feedback from those who were lucky to travel on the first service with the refreshed interior was positive with many noting it was a vast improvement over the old interior which had been starting to look tired after 18 years of service. The main highlights of the refresh include new leather seats, new tables with USB & wireless phone charging, refreshed disabled toilet, recoated grab handles and a deep clean of the interior. The refurbishment program will continue in 2024 to complete all eight carriages by year end. As there is only one spare first class carriage the refurbishment of the interior will take place alongside other maintenance requirements.

Click https://thewandererphotos.smugmug.com/2024-Photos/February-2024/i-NrB87Kk to see images from Thurles and Limerick Jct. today including the new interior. As the 1st class was sold out leaving Heuston today, it was particularly busy so hopefully I'll manage to get some more detailed interior photos during a layover in the coming days. 

 

[thewanderer]

Afternoon all,

A bumper start to the March gallery with over 100 photos uploaded to the gallery today with trips to Cork and Belfast in the space of 24 hours. The main highlight being the diversion of the Dublin to Belfast Lanyon Place "Enterprise" service into Belfast Great Victoria Street this weekend due to engineering works on the route into Lanyon Place, making for the rare sight of a loco hauled train at GVS. GVS is due to close in Summer 2024 with services transferred to the new Grand Central Station alongside it, so this will certainly be the last (planned) use of a Enterprise set into this terminus before closure. 

Photos come from:
* Nenagh
* Limerick - with views of the new integrated bus and rail station.
* Limerick Jct. Includes seeing new ICR B2 vehicle 22517 on its first day of service.
* Cork
* Ballybrophy
* Dublin Heuston.
* LUAS views.
* Dublin Connolly 
* Great Victoria Street - including views of the interior of the Great Northern Mall, Europa bus station and railway station prior to closure in Summer 2024.
* Lisburn to view the recent track renewals.
* Derriaghy - to see the new down platform being built to replace the current one.
* Finaghy 
* Central Jct. where the routes to Great Victoria Street and Lanyon Place (aka Central) diverge. 

All the photos can be viewed at
https://thewandererphotos.smugmug.com/2024-Photos/March-2024

 

 

[thewanderer]

The March gallery has been updated with photos from the past week with photos from:

- Nenagh
- Limerick
- Limerick Jct. 
- Ennis
- Ballybrophy. 087 passing Ballybrophy on a materials train to Lisduff.
- Newbridge
- Kildare. 072 passing with Saturday's IWT Liner from Dublin North Wall to Ballina.
- Portarlington.
- Heuston - including interior photos of the "old" first class layout on the MKIV carriages which are currently being refurbished.

Click https://thewandererphotos.smugmug.com/2024-Photos/March-2024/i-S4Hf7Wk

 

 

[thewanderer]

The latest updates to the website this week include:

Sunday 10th March 2024:
Pictures from a busy Nenagh on Sunday evening.

Wednesday 13th March 2024:
Pictures from Portlaoise mainly with a single picture from Thurles. Highlight being 22519 on its first day in service.

Click https://thewandererphotos.smugmug.com/2024-Photos/March-2024/i-954W4dk

 

[thewanderer]

Last Saturday I hosted an Irish Railway Record Society trip to the Level Crossing Control Centre at Mallow and also visited the Lartigue Monorail in Listowel. 
Pictures from the trip are at https://thewandererphotos.smugmug.com/RailtoursPreservedRailways/2024/IRRS-outing-mallow-lccc-lartigue-listowel/i-HSSXLrM and also includes detailed photos of the first refurbished first class MKIV coach 4203.

 

 

 

[thewanderer]

Monday 18th March 2024;
Pictures of the new station under construction in Waterford and the 1335 Connolly - Rosslare Europort running along the quayside at Wexford.

Click https://thewandererphotos.smugmug.com/2024-Photos/March-2024/i-nxPXTvN to view all the images.

 

[thewanderer]

Afternoon all,

Latest update to the March gallery includes photos from Limerick Station and a visit to Ballycar Lough, which has flooded the Limerick - Ennis railway at this location resulting in services being suspended between these two locations for the next several weeks until the flood waters subside.

Click https://thewandererphotos.smugmug.com/2024-Photos/March-2024/i-2dSjnPT to view all the images.

 

[thewanderer]

The April gallery starts off with pictures from Ballybrophy, Portlaoise and Heuston.

Click https://thewandererphotos.smugmug.com/2024-Photos/April-2024

 

[Broithe]

Wandering back from the pub in Rathdowney, I would often glance northwards and wonder why there was one red light in the middle of a few sodium lamps at Donaghmore. 

This bemused me for many years.

Last winter, I suddenly realised that I was actually seeing the lamp two miles further on, on the top of the mast at Ballybrophy. Things just happened to line up from my viewpoint.

One very small problem solved.

[Ironroad]

5 hours ago, Broithe said:

Wandering back from the pub in Rathdowney, I would often glance northwards and wonder why there was one red light in the middle of a few sodium lamps at Donaghmore. 

This bemused me for many years.

Last winter, I suddenly realised that I was actually seeing the lamp two miles further on, on the top of the mast at Ballybrophy. Things just happened to line up from my viewpoint.

One very small problem solved.

Probably something to do with where you were coming from