Here we see a very rare sight, a locomotive on the Dublin to Sligo line! All scheduled passenger services on this line are operated by railcars of various types, and there are no freight services here anymore. What makes this an even bigger threat is that it's not just any loco, but a large Class 201 intercity loco in Enterprise livery. This loco is normally pulling or pushing express services between Dublin and Belfast. Just to make this a little bit rarer still, this is not an Irish Rail loco, but a Northern Irish Railways loco, number 8208 to be precise.
The reason for this special treat is that the RPSI's steam loco No. 4 broke down the day before, so they needed alternative traction for this day's Santa Specials from Dublin to Maynooth and back. This shot was taken from the embankment leading up to the new Matt Goff bridge near Intel Ireland in Leixlip.
This shot is mostly as it came out of the camera, just a very small amount of Dodging & Burning and a few tweaks in Aperture as well as a panoramic crop.
Tags: rail railway train loco locomotive diesel diesel locomotive Class 201 8208 NIR RPSI Santa Special Leixlip Kildare Ireland pano panorama panoramic crop
Here we see a very rare sight, Northern Irish Railways class 201 locomotice number 8208 in the Republic of Ireland on the line from Dublin to Maynooth. We don't normally see any locomotives on this line at all these days, let alone a large NIR loco!
The reason for this rare sighting is that RPSI steam locomotive No.4 had broken down the evening before, so the RPSI has no choice but to use a Diesel loco for their Santa Special. I'm sure there were many sad and disappointed children, but, there were as many childishly excited train spotters up and down the line between Dublin and Maynooth!
The water running parallel with the track is the Royal Canal. The canal was bought by the railway company (the Midland & Great Western Railway, or M&GWR), and they laid their line along it's bank for almost the entire stretch from Dublin to Mullingar. The reason there are so many twists and turns on this line is that it follows the canal so closely.
This shot was generated by first using Aperture's Dodge & Burn plugin to selectively tweak the exposure a little, and then subtly tonemapping the resulting image with Topaz Adjust (adaptive exposure in Topaz lingo).
Tags: train rail railway loco locomotive diesel diesel locomotive NIR Class 201 8208 RPSI Santa Special Leixlip Kildare Ireland tonemapped Topaz Topaz Adjust Historical Engineering Works HEW canal Royal Canal
Here we see a very rare sight, Northern Irish Railways class 201 locomotice number 8208 in the Republic of Ireland on the line from Dublin to Maynooth. We don't normally see any locomotives on this line at all these days, let alone a large NIR loco!
The reason for this rare sighting is that RPSI steam locomotive No.4 had broken down the evening before, so the RPSI has no choice but to use a Diesel loco for their Santa Special. I'm sure there were many sad and disappointed children, but, there were as many childishly excited train spotters up and down the line between Dublin and Maynooth!
This is the second version of this shot I've uploaded. The first version was a fairly extreme HDR t hat I'm sure a lot of people will hate, but I still like it.
This more natural looking version was generated by first using Aperture's Dodge & Burn plugin to selectively tweak the exposure a little, and then subtly tonemapping the resulting image with Topaz Adjust (adaptive exposure in Topaz lingo).
Tags: train rail railway NIR Class 201 8208 locomotive loco diesel diesel locomotive Maynooth Kidlare Ireland RPSI Santa Special tonemapped Topaz Topaz Adjust
RPSI steam loco No.4 approaches Pike's bridge near Maynooth with an RPSI Santa Special making it's way from Dublin Pearse Station to Maynooth.
The water in the foreground is the Royal Canal.
This shot was generated by tonemappign a single RAW image in Photomatix Pro and then tweaking the resulting image using Aperture's Doge & Burn plugin.
Tags: train rail railway steam train RPSI No.4 Santa Special canal Royal Canal pano panorama panoramic crop Maynooth Kildare Ireland tonemapped HDR TTHDR Photomatix 2-6-4T
Here we see a very rare sight, Northern Irish Railways class 201 locomotive number 8208 in the Republic of Ireland on the line from Dublin to Maynooth. We don't normally see any locomotives on this line at all these days, let alone a large NIR loco!
The reason for this rare sighting is that RPSI steam locomotive No.4 had broken down the evening before, so the RPSI has no choice but to use a Diesel loco for their Santa Special. I'm sure there were many sad and disappointed children, but, there were as many childishly excited train spotters up and down the line between Dublin and Maynooth!
Here we see 8208 rounding the sharp turn having just passed Leixlip-Louisa-Bridge station. The bridge you see in the left background is Louisa Bridge, and the station which gets its name from
it is directly behind the bridge. The water in the foreground is the Royal Canal.
This shot was generated by tonemappign a single RAW image in Photomatix Pro and then tweaking the resulting image using Aperture's Doge & Burn plugin. This shot is a panoramic crop rather than a stitched pano.
Tags: train rail railway locomotive loco diesel diesel locomotive NIR Class 201 8208 reflection canal Royal Canal RPSI Santa Special path pathway towpath bridge Louisa Bridge Leixlip Kildare Ireland HDR TTHDR tonemapped Photomatix