Ireland - 1998

 A friend announced they were getting married - great news.  Same friend saying they were getting married in Ireland - even better news.  We had never been there so what more excuse did we need?

We booked a flight, bought the guidebook and planned the trip to bookend the wedding.  The flight was less than great as we flew Canada 3000 which was a discount airline.  It had what were some of the most uncomfortable seats I have ever sat in on an airplane - which is saying something since I had flown in many 3rd world countries.  

We survived the flight and tooled around Ireland for 3 weeks.  We started in Dublin, went to the west coast, Dingle Penninsula, down through Cork (where the wedding was) and back up to Dublin for the trip home.  Highlights include the usual sights and sounds of the country, copious amounts of Guinness and other tasty Irish beers, and the people.  

We were in one bar in Dublin one night watching a live show and a guy across the way kept looking at us.  We thought it a bit weird but carried on with enjoying the show.  At the end of the night we made our way out and the guy accosted us: "Are you from Canada?" was the question.  I then realized that the Molson Canadian shirt I was wearing (don't ask why I was wearing it, I can't remember) was what he was looking at.  

We replied that indeed we were, and he proceeded to tell us about his years in Canada.  We said we were originally from Winnipeg, and he roared "WINNIPEG! I lived there for years!" and he regaled us with stories of blasting through the intersection of Portage and Main in the winter because he couldn't stop and many others.  It was a most memorable encounter.  

I promised my wife I wouldn't railfan and for the most part I kept that part of the deal.  We were travelling by train and bus so I did manage a few photos along the way.   Iarnród Éireann (Irish Rail) is the main railway in Ireland.  It operates predominantly EMD/GMD locomotives, at least when we were there.  We saw examples of the 141 Class, 181 Class and EMD 201 class.  A few photos of the ones we encountered are below.  

We'd like to head back someday to travel the areas of Ireland (and Northern Ireland) that we didn't get to on this trip.   

The main station in Dublin.  It was a very rainy day


EMD 210 lurking in the station - I think this was Dublin

141 Class unit heading out of Dublin.  


Class 181 departing Limerick Station - We waited for our train in a Hurling Bar.  Irish Field Hockey, not what you do after a few too many beers.



Departing Limerick
The COFC yard is adjacent to the station.  The crane in the background is to unload containers from railcars.`

My all-time favourite freight car load - Barrels of Guinness.  If I could figure out how to model this on my layout I would do it.  



223 passing through the station somewhere near Cork 


Reminder of home


I want to say this was leaving Cork but I'm not sure anymore.





Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Something a little closer to home (literally) - Canadian Pacific's Arbutus Spur

Image
From early 1998 through 2002 I lived near the Granville Island area of Vancouver.  Vestiges of the former industrial nature of the area still survive the encroaching condominiums, townhouses and tourist traps in the area.  The condo building that I lived in was built on the site of an old sawmill.  One benefit of this location was that I was literally 2 blocks from the Molson brewery which was served by CP several times per week.  As well the Downtown Historic Railway operated former BC Electric interurban cars during the summer from a station across the street from my apartment. My apartment was just behind the CIBC sign, although it hadn't been built yet when this photo of BCH switching Granville Island was taken in 1974.  The tracks in the foreground are still there as a reminder of the historic industrial nature of what is now a prime tourist destination BC Hydro 904 has just come off the False Creek Bridge and is likely heading to the BN/CN interchange on the east side of Main
Read more

Ferrominera Orinoco Venezuelan Iron Ore

Image
In the mid 1990's Venezuela was a top destination for gold exploration and I worked in the El Callao region of Estado Bolivar on and off from 1994 until 1999 when I last visited the country.  Generally I was busy crashing around the jungle trying to avoid snakes, killer bees and tropical diseases.   The airport in Ciudad Guyana (we called it Puerto Ordaz) was our flight destination after first flying from Miami to Caracas and then onto Puerto Ordaz, generally flying on a wing and a prayer with Aeropostale (it was an airline before it was a clothing line) or one of the other more dodgy airlines.   The more dangerous part of the trip was from Puerto Ordaz to Guasipati and El Callao where our housing and work sites were.  Venezuela at the time was (and likely still is) where old cars went to die.  It was amazing to see the ancient gas guzzlers still running there (fuel was around $0.05 per liter at the time, heavily subsidized by the government), seemingly held together by wire, twine
Read more

Buenos Aires Al Pacifico Railway

Image
The Buenos Aires Al Pacifico (BAP) was one of my favourite railways in Argentina.  This was mostly because it rostered an almost exclusively Alco/MLW fleet of locomotives, with one of the major shops located in Mendoza where my company's exploration office was located.  The BAP was a broad gauge railway running between Buenos Aires to the interior of Argentina; to my knowledge it never made it to the Pacific but only as far as Mendoza.  A narrow gauge railway ran into Chile from Mendoza but it was out of service while I was there.   I was working in Argentina during 1995/96 in gold and copper/gold exploration between Uspallata in Mendoza State and Rodeo in San Juan State.  Uspallata is somewhat well known as many of the scenes in " Seven Years in Tibet " were filmed in the valley north of the town.  I wasn't in the area when Brad Pitt was there, but apparently he caused quite a stir in the small Argentinian town while he was filming.   I met an older South African geo
Read more