bar358 wrote:During May and June this year I will be on my last trainning crusie for school. This years ports of call will be Barcelona, Spain; Gdynia, Poland; and Cobh, Ireland in which I would like to do some local railfanning at. If anyone has any suggestions on where I might be able to find some information about railroads in these towns or what railroads operate in the area would be a big help.
Thanks,
Matthew Minson
Maine Maritime Academy
Castine, Maine
There is a suburban branch from Cobh to Cork. In Cobh station there is a museum of Emigration, as in the past Cobh was a major port for the people leaving Ireland, mostly for the United States. It is a mostly single track line that about halfway turns left on to what was once a main line to Youghal, and is going to be revived soon as a suburban line to Midleton. This area is going to see a lot of investment in rail soon. You will note that all these lines are to the wider Irish gauge.
In Cork there is a large main station with an overall roof. From there run intercity trains to Dublin, and shorter distance trains to Tralee. The trains are all operated by Ironrod Eireann (IR).
Cork is an interesting city. If you are in the know you can see many remains of the major lines that were closed in the 1960s to the south west.
If you have time to take a train from Cork I recommend the line to Dublin and get off at Limerick Junction which is an interesting junction. All the mainline trains stop on a single long platform with a very interesting arrangement of track. There is also a bay platform for trains to Waterford and Limerick. I find it interesting that the trains have to back into this platform, something I have otherwise seen only in North America.
Another interesting trip is to Tralee via Killarney.
I can't help you with Barcelona or the others, except that I am aware there is a tramway in Barcelona and a metro. There of course you will see the Iberian Broad gauge.
