European Railroad Discussion > Going to Ireland in June...

and hoping to start educating myself as to what I might expect to see regarding Ireland's rail system. What would be the general attitude of people taking photographs be, is it tolerated or frowned upon? The cities I will be traveling through will be Dublin, Killarney and Connemara. Any information or websites that might prove to be a help would also be appreciated. Thanks!

I am sure that there are many TO members much better qualified to comment on the current details of Irish Rail, as I am a mere occasional visitor from London. Suffice it to say that Ireland, like much of Western Europe has suffered from the usual mix of progress and retrenchment, meaning that there are many fewer freight trains, simpler track and signalling layouts, and increasing domination by multiple unit passenger trains of a characterless "international" style.

The old querkyness of previous decades is fading fast, along with semaphore signals and locomotive haulage. On top of which Ireland has been hard hit by the economic downturn. Nonetheless, there remains a national commitment to passenger rail services, including intercity, regional and local trains.

My biggest question is: why you would think there might be any issue regarding photography? The only places I can think of where there is a real problem are police states like North Korea. The occasional overzealous official in western Europe has simply been watching too much CNN or similar TV. Of course you can take pictures wherever you like!

I hope you have a great trip.

spflow wrote:
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> My biggest question is: why you would think there
> might be any issue regarding photography? The only
> places I can think of where there is a real
> problem are police states like North Korea. The
> occasional overzealous official in western Europe
> has simply been watching too much CNN or similar
> TV. Of course you can take pictures wherever you
> like!

Police states like North Korea-or idiotic, dysfunctional so-called democracies like America. Here in the land of the free, that is a real question. "Am I allowed to take photos". He is probably a curious American.

Tor, a lame American

I've made two trips to Ireland (1998 and 2005) and never had any problems taking photos. You will want to stake out a location in advance of train time. Sometimes it can be a challenge to find the tracks between stations.
It's pretty much all passenger service and very little freight.
There is a Yahoo! group that has some good current information: https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/IrishGen/info
Railway Preservation Society of Ireland: http://www.steamtrainsireland.com/
Dublin has two main stations: Heuston and Connolly. They are sort of connected by the LUAS light rail line. It goes right by Heuston but stops a few blocks short of Connolly.
Killarney has a good sized station. We took the train from here to Dublin in 2005.
I don't think you will find much north of Galway. I did find traces of an abandoned railway on the drive from Clifden to Galway in 1998.
Some good locations from my travels include Mallow and Limerick Junction. Photos are from my 1998 trip. First two are at Mallow and the last is at Limerick Junction.
If you find yourself near Listowel in Co. Kerry, there is a cool steam powered monorail museum: http://www.lartiguemonorail.com/ We visited this with my late father-in-law who grew up about ten miles from Listowel. Turned out he and the engine driver were high school classmates.
Google Streetview is valuable for scouting locations.

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Also, much information has been posted on this forum. Search using "Dublin", "Mallow", "Limerick" and "Cobh", that will get you started.

The one and only time I was in Ireland was in 1985. One of the memorable rail-related sights was a string of cars hauling barrels of Guinness. I recall that the cars seem to have been built specially for that purpose.

colehour Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The one and only time I was in Ireland was in
> 1985. One of the memorable rail-related sights was
> a string of cars hauling barrels of Guinness. I
> recall that the cars seem to have been built
> specially for that purpose.


That's enough to make me mourn the loss of LCL service (or at least local siding deliveries) right there. I don't think I could do justice to a unit train. A carload, maybe....

Thanks one and all for taking the time to provide information regarding my initial post.

Irish railways has been extensively modernised in the past 10 years, although since the financial crisis of 2008 funding has slowed as Ireland was one of the worst hit European countries. The only loco hauled passenger trains are those between Cork and Dublin and Dublin and Belfast but these use a Driving Van Trailer (DVT) at one end with the loco at the other. All other medium distance trains are operated by Korean built DMUs. There's both an electrified and DMU operated commuter service around Dublin and a smaller DMU operated commuter service around Cork. Freight consists of intermodal trains from Ballina in the NW of the country to Waterford in the SE and (I think) North Wall Dublin. I don't think either runs daily. There are also trains from the zinc mines about 40 miles NW of Dublin at Tara which are routed via Drogheda to North Wall and trains carrying timber from the NW (Sligo IIRC) to waterford - not sure whether they are operating at the moment. Only two classes of locomotive remain, the 071s which are EMDs with 645 series engines and date back to the 1970s and the 201s with the 710 series. The latter have been problematic in passenger service although in freight service in the UK (they are for all intents and purposes a class 66) and elsewhere they have been remarkably successful.

In Northern Ireland all trains (apart from those too and from Dublin) are operated by DMU, there's no freight.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/12/14 14:06 by 86235.