If this government has allowed Boliden mining a Swedish based company with links to NATO now a non neutral country,,,to extract zinc vital to our unique landscape , which is the component to regulate glycogen levels in polarised light in manalian liver ,then they have threatened the lives and liver of every soil based lifeform on our archipelago of islands....Our headlands will become infected by contaminated insects as their natural predators will not have the energy to hunt ..turning the tropical disease filter of our western headlands receiving contaminated insects from the trade winds ,into a mosquito swamp uninhabitable for alll....and who stands to profit from that ?..the largest anti histamine producers Johnson and Johnsom Pzifer and our recent experiences become a recurrence ....Hands of our zinc and have Boliden publish their share shareholders list as required by the Company Law Act 2013...it makes for some reading.🎉🎉🎉
Love seeing how long the Zephyr was,were lucky if the Zephyr or Starlight even has 8 cars today,usually its more like 6 or 7 under todays Ammanagement style
hard to believe irish rail got rid of beautiful trains like this to get the sardine can pieces of crap they have now. board of directors obviously haven't much intelligence
Great look back! One correction however. SP trains on what was THEIR track were considered Westbound going UPhill and Eastbound going down. In 2002, that all changed to Northbound/Southbound.
Waterford station has been decimated. Waterford to Rosslare, that used to have a more frequent service than the Waterford to Limerick Junction section, is now no more. These lovely loud locos, especially the 071s, sadly missed on passenger turns hauling Mark 3s with plug-fit doors. I remember Rosslare Harbour Pier !! And Dublin to Rosslare with A Class 001s !!
I grew up in Enniscorthy Co Wexford ( now living in Hong Kong) and I remember as a kid catching the Summer Sunday special to Rosslare Strand with the family and friends. At the Strand I always wondered where the line branching off to the west went to. It was my mystery line that I thought one day I'd go on it when I was older. Sadly never did and an opportunity missed. Whether it's Irish Rail or the Govt it seems that a situation was contrived to close this line. Trains run so that they didn't coincide with the ferry departure. Low fares so they could say it's not making money. High track access charges. And, as for the Greenway people, they are deluded. Their 'environment' strategy of promoting the great outdoors for cyclists and walkers by destroying railway infrastructure and putting more cars/trucks on the road is just crazy.
Wow. Great pre merger footage from 1996. Reminds me of the railfanning I've done over the years at Jack Lomdon Square. I digitized all my footage years ago onto a Portable HD. My 8mm and Hi8 film is still good though. 👍
Awesome video. The train running around the cememnt bubbles in Kildare was the afternoon laden Castlemeungret to Athy (Tegral factory) run. The train would continu from Kildare to Athy, shunt the wagons one by one there to unload and then return empty to Castlemungret, via Kildare, again running around the train.
Great video. At least 071 is still in use. Worth walking over the Barrow bridge if you are in the vicinity combining with a visit to Caisleain Dún Broide.
I can see why BN would be only too happy to give this marginal operation to somebody else. Seven or eight units and a full crew to lug a bunch of center beam empties over a high pass is not a very profitable venture.
When I rode this train in the mid-'90's, service was just twice a day. Seemed odd to me back then, as it's the perfect line to bring you into Ireland coming form the ferry. I do remember the state of the rolling stock; I loved it but in reality, it was decrepit and tired.
It is such a shame that this line closed. I remember catching a train to Limerick, from Rosslare Harbour PIER station. When staying in Waterford, this line was the best way to get to Rosslare and the sailing to Fishguard. Odd to think, back then Rosslare to Waterford had 3 trains per day, and Waterford to Limerick, which only had 1 train, is still open. What they have done to Waterford station and signalbox is awful too. Thanks for filming this, in happier times.
The stations along the way were already very rundown and overgrown even then. When no one is using a railway line anymore, it needs to close, and I say that as a big fan of railways.
Thanks so much for uploading this video from back in the day - when it was a much better time to be a rail fan. No distracting ugly, eyesore graffiti of passing trains, friendly engineers with their windows open waving at you, and not feeling paranoid when filming a passing train. A time long gone, but not forgotten. BTW, where were they going with those three cabooses? I hate to think those things were on their way to their `death'.
