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
RPSI steam loco No.4 pulling a Santa Special from Dublin Pearse to Maynooth rounds the corner at Louisa Bridge in Leixlip, Ireland on a fine December afternoon.
The water in the foreground is the Royal Canal, which is crossed by Louisa Bridge which is visible in the left background. The railway station Leixlip-Louisa-Bridge is located directly behind the bridge as seen from here. The special did not stop there.
This shot was generated by tonemappign a single RAW image in Photomatix Pro. This is a panoramic crop rather than a stitched pano.
This shot featured on my blog as Photo of the Week 102 & 103 - 2009 RPSI Santa Specials.
Tags: train rail railway steam train steam locomotive RPSI No.4 2-6-4T Santa Special canal Royal Canal bridge Louisa Bridge Leixlip Kildare Ireland pano panorama panoramic crop HDR TTHDR tonemapped Photomatix Historical Engineering Works HEW flickrAward GününEnİyisi TheBestOfDay 1001 Nights / Magic City
The old meets the new in Maynooth station as the RPSI Stanta Special headed by steam locomotive No.4 stands next to Irish Rail class 29000 Diesel Multiple Unit number 29021.
29021 is getting ready to depart on a Commuter service from Maynooth to Dublin, and will be followed out by No.4 on the return leg of it's journey back to Dublin Pearse.
Tags: trains rail railway steam train RPSI No.4 Santa Special Irish Rail Iarnród Éireann DMU DMU-4 railcar trainset station Maynooth Station Maynooth Kildare Ireland panorama panoramic crop Class 29000
RPSI's steam locomotive No.4 steaming into Maynooth with a Santa Special in December 2009. The water in the foreground is the Royal Canal.
Unfortunately, even shooting RAW, I blew out some of the detail in the steam.
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 reflection tonemapped HDR TTHDR Photomatix Maynooth Kildare Ireland Historical Engineering Works HEW 2-6-4T
Here we see RPSI 2-6-4T steam locomotive No.4 coasting towards Maynooth with a Santa Special on a December afternoon. As you can see by where the steam stopped, at this point the driver had closed the regulator and the train is now just running on her momentum for the final few hundred yards into Maynooth station. 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 is a panoramic crop rather than a stitched pano.
Tags: train rail railway steam train RPSI No.4 canal Royal Canal reflection Santa Special HDR TTHDR tonemapped Photomatix Maynooth Kildare Ireland 2-6-4T