PUBLIC TRANSPORT

All Photographs Supplied By William Murphy

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Public Transport

LEVEL CROSSING OR RAILWAY CROSSING

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SERPENTINE AVENUE

A level crossing is an intersection where a railway line crosses a road, path, or (in rare situations) airport runway, at the same level, as opposed to the railway line crossing over or under using an overpass or tunnel. The term also applies when a light rail line with separate right-of-way or reserved track crosses a road in the same fashion. Other names include railway level crossing, railway crossing (chiefly international), grade crossing or railroad crossing (chiefly American), road through railroad, criss-cross, train crossing, and RXR (abbreviated).

There are more than 100,000 level crossings in Europe and more than 200,000 in North America.

There are currently 909 level crossings on the Irish Rail network, a number which has reduced from over 2,000 since the turn of the century. These are a combination of automated CCTV crossings, manned crossing and unmanned user operated accommodation crossings, including on farmlands.

In June of last year Irish Rail announced that they had seen a surge in incidents at level crossings across the State and urged the public to be vigilant when crossing railways, particularly in Dublin.

There had been 54 incidents at level crossing in the first six months of 2022, up from 31 for the same period in 2021. Irish Rail said that some of these incidents had been “particularly worrying” and have been shared on social media.

The majority of incidents at level crossings in 2022 were in Dublin. These included incidents at crossings on Lansdowne Road, Serpentine Ave, Sandymount Ave, Sutton, Bray, Merrion Gates and Baldoyle Road. In Cork, the Banteer level crossing also had incidents.

LUAS TRAM STOP AT BROADSTONE AND THE ENTRANCE TO GRANGEGORMAN UNIVERSITY CAMPUS

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I USED AN OLD SIGMA CAMERA

I am still experimenting with my old Sigma DP1 Quattro and today, 24 April 2023, I photographed in manual mode and underexposed as the camera was inclined to over expose despite any settings that I make.

In the “Lotus-Eaters” episode of James Joyce’s Ulysses Bloom imagines that the couple leaving the Grosvenor Hotel are “Off to the country: Broadstone probably,” and in Wandering Rocks Mr. Dudley White stands on Array Quay “undecided whether he should arrive at Phibsborough more quickly by a triple change of tram or by hailing a car or on foot through Smithfield, Constitution hill and Broadstone terminus.” Both passages refer to a railway station in the northwest part of inner Dublin, at the top of Constitution Hill between Smithfield and Phibsborough. In 1904 it served as the terminus of the Midland Great Western Railway Company, whose trains went to the west of Ireland.

Broadstone railway station was the Dublin terminus of the Midland Great Western Railway (MGWR), located in the Dublin suburb of Broadstone. The site also contained the MGWR railway works and a steam locomotive motive power depot. The Luas tram station opened at the front of the station in 2017.

It is currently the headquarters of Bus Éireann, housing most of their administration and one of their main garages.[2] Nearby on the same property is a Dublin Bus Depot.

In June 2013, Luas Cross City – a construction project which extended the Luas Green Line North from St. Stephen’s Green to Broombridge – commenced. The line, which opened to passengers on 9 December 2017, traverses the city centre on street-running track and arrives at Broadstone. It then enters into the Broadstone cutting where it continues on its own right of way. Broadstone – DIT is a Luas stop on the line. Its name refers to the fact that it was intended to be the closest stop to Dublin Institute of Technology Grangegorman campus. However, the plans were changed at a late stage, adding Grangegorman stop, which is closer to the campus. Construction of the stop involved excavating a large amount of earth from the land in front of the station, and building a road bridge over the tracks which buses can use to access the depot. The Luas stop has two lateral platforms and is in front of the station building. It was built several metres below the station in order to make it level with Constitution Hill; and a curved, white wall separates the southbound platform from the garden in front of the building. Trams approach the stop from Dominick Street Upper and continues by passing under the new bridge and turning sharply to the right, where they traverse the edge of the bus depot and enter the cutting.

A few years ago i was offered a Sigma DP1 Quattro at a very good price and while I had a bad experience with all my previous Sigma cameras I decided to accept the offer especially as the camera could produce .dng images but, as you may have guessed, there were many problems that can be really annoying. The DP1 Quattro is a fixed lens camera aimed at enthusiasts who demand the best image quality in a reasonably portable form factor. Announced in September 2014, it’s a unique camera in many respects, employing an unusually-shaped body, a fixed focal length lens and a sensor unlike any outside of Sigma’s range. It also eschews modern features we take for granted on other new cameras such as Wifi or even a movie mode. The DP1 Quattro is all about still photo quality.

DUBLINBIKES DOCKING STATION 03 ON BOLTON STREET

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THERE ARE MANY RESTAURANTS NEARBY ESPECIALLY ON CAPEL STREET

The Docking Station is outside Bolton Street College which is in the process of moving to the new University Campus at Grangegorman.

Because of the college many restaurants have opened over the years because the owners expected to attract a lot of student business but almost all closed within two or three years. However, BoCo, which does not depend on student business, has proved to be a huge success and if you like pizza it is highly recommended. Recently I noticed that the Taco Libre (pub restaurant operated by the Galway Brewery Company) has closed and the El Patron Mexican Street Food restaurant across the street has become the Tia Maria Brazilian Restaurant. The Art Flamingo recently became the Burger House but when I visited it a few weeks ago I was told that it would close again and reopen under new management. A few doors along the street a new restaurant is being outfitted but I have no further information.

Early in 2013 I purchased a Sigma Dp3 Merrill and while it could produce the best images ever it was in reality a disaster. The batteries could at times last only long enough to capture 40 images [at best no more than 80] and one could forget about selecting any setting other ISO 100. In order to process RAW images one needed to use Sigma’s Photo Pro 5.5 which was supplied with the camera.

Recently I discovered that Photo Pro 6.8.3 was much more user friendly than the version supplied with the camera so I decided to charge all eight batteries, that I still had, and use the camera for a day (22 April 2021) but unfortunately the weather proved to be way too wet. Two of the batteries were exhausted after ten captures.

The DP3 Merrill was the latest of a trio of almost identical compact cameras released by Sigma, all named for Dick Merrill (1949-2008), the co-developer of the Foveon image capture system. The DP1 Merrill and DP2 Merrill were announced in early February 2012. The former features a 19mm f/2.8 lens that provides the equivalent of a 28mm field of view in 35mm format, while the DP2 Merrill has a 30mm f/2.8 lens with a field of view equivalent to 45mm. Unveiled on 8 January, 2013, the DP3 Merrill sports a 50mm f/2.8 lens with a 75mm equivalent focal length that is ideal for portraiture.

DUBLINBIKES DOCKING STATION 29 ON ORMOND QUAY

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I USED AN OLD SIGMA DP3 MERRILL

Ormond Quay was the first of the quays to be built on the north bank side of the River Liffey, complete by c. 1680, developed by Sir Humphrey Jervis and named in honour of the Duke of Ormond who instigated the trend for building houses facing the river.

Early in 2013 I purchased a Sigma Dp3 Merrill and while it could produce the best images ever it was in reality a disaster. The batteries could at times last only long enough to capture 40 images [at best no more than 80] and one could forget about selecting any setting other ISO 100. In order to process RAW images one needed to use Sigma’s Photo Pro 5.5 which was supplied with the camera.

Recently I discovered that Photo Pro 6.8.3 was much more user friendly than the version supplied with the camera so I decided to charge all eight batteries, that I still had, and use the camera for a day (22 April 2021) but unfortunately the weather proved to be way too wet. Two of the batteries were exhausted after ten captures.

The DP3 Merrill was the latest of a trio of almost identical compact cameras released by Sigma, all named for Dick Merrill (1949-2008), the co-developer of the Foveon image capture system. The DP1 Merrill and DP2 Merrill were announced in early February 2012. The former features a 19mm f/2.8 lens that provides the equivalent of a 28mm field of view in 35mm format, while the DP2 Merrill has a 30mm f/2.8 lens with a field of view equivalent to 45mm. Unveiled on 8 January, 2013, the DP3 Merrill sports a 50mm f/2.8 lens with a 75mm equivalent focal length that is ideal for portraiture.

DUBLINBIKES DOCKING STATION 26

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AT MERRION SQUARE WEST

All the original 18th century properties in Merrion Square have survived to the present day except for Antrim House which was demolished to make way for the National Maternity Hospital in the 1930s. Three sides are lined with Georgian redbrick townhouses; the West side abuts the grounds of Leinster House (seat of the Oireachtas), Government Buildings, the Natural History Museum and the National Gallery. The central railed-off garden is now a public park.

The Wellington Testimonial to commemorate the victories of Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, was originally planned to be located in Merrion Square. However it was built in the Phoenix Park after opposition from the square’s residents.