Barry Carse

RAILS THROUGH WEXFORD is a photographic journey across the two scenic railway routes in the south of the county, which once upon a time connected Waterford city with Wexford town and points further afield, by two different routes. The photographs are mainly from the collection of acclaimed railway photographer Barry Carse, who has been taking photographs of railway operations in the area for some fifty years. Many of the scenes depict operations which not only have long since ceased, but of which little or no trace now remains. We commence our journey around the county by tracing the erstwhile North Wexford line, from Waterford city up through New Ross and onwards through Palace East to join the Dublin - Rosslare line at Macmine Junction. From Macmine Junction, we head south to Wexford and onwards to Rosslare Harbour, before returning to Waterford via the South Wexford line through Wellington Bridge. Despite both being opened as through routes in 1906 and serving a similar hinterland, the two lines would have a very different history. As a through route the North Wexford line was closed in 1963, although the section from Waterford to New Ross would remain in use for freight trains until 1995. However, largely due to the sugar beet loading facility at Wellington Bridge, and Rosslare - Cork passenger trains in times past, the South Wexford line would survive until the untimely demise of the domestic beet industry in 2006 and the end of passenger services in 2010. The beet traffic, for so long a staple on this line, has been covered in detail in the book. Today, only the section from Dublin to Wexford and on to Rosslare remains in use for passenger trains only.

This pictorial album, illustrated in colour from the 1960s to the present, is a portrait of the Limerick to Sligo railway line in its Indian Summer. The colour photography of Barry Carse allows the line to come to life on these pages reviving memories for the line's users, for local people, and others with an interest in this unique and picturesque railway. Now, at the end of the first decade of the 21st Century, a century after the GSWR took over the line's operation, the Western Rail Corridor, as it is often identified, is a display of its own history. At the south end, a busy and well used passenger service operates with modern trains over well maintained track; in the middle, renewal work is under way or planned, and at the northern end all is quiet, save for the birds in the trees which grow between the rails.