2 ‘Hey Now’s,’ price of 1
Thursday October 8
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After arriving on the south shore of the Monongahela River in Pittsburgh, via the T light rail from the Downtown area, your humble narrator scuttled towards a familiar destination – a brewery that sits alongside the CSX Pittsburgh Subdivision tracks.
The plan was to grab a beer, but just one on this day, as it was still kind of early (around 2 pm). I was on my way to the brewery when the signal arms descended and the chimes began ringing.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Hey Now!
CSX #3028 hurled past. Heading away from Pittsburgh, in a southeasterly direction.
Historically, the space I was walking through used to be a part of an enormous train yard operated by the PLERR – ‘P&LE” or the ‘Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad.’
That trivia would matter, when the next one appeared.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One was heading towards the usual spot at the brewery, and that cold beer I had been dreaming about for a few miles now. So was #3028 and the line of mixed rail cars that it was hauling behind it.
Managed to get to the brewery, inspect the porcelain, and order a drink.
Just as I was securing my gear around the outdoor table which I’d be occupying, the signal chimes lit up again and the RR’s wooden barrier arms descended at the street intersections.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Next up was CSX #1875.
Hey Now! – This is the 15th train which the CSX people have painted up with ‘heritage’ color ways and branding for this year’s July 4th dealie.
Here’s their press release.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I wish there was some way I could convey how loud the experience is, having a fright train shoot past you about ten to twenty feet away – at speed – while it’s passing through a space wherein it’s entirely surrounded by brick walls. Sound bounces, and reflects, and… scalar effects, that’s what they’re called.
Suffice to say that I could be listening to Black Sabbath – at maximum volume – through headphones jammed tightly in my ears, and I would not be able to hear a single note of it. Lord of this world, indeed.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Similarly to #3028, #1875 was heading in a southeasterly direction and towards the ‘Mon Valley,’ a highly industrialized series of communities which hug the shorelines of the Monongahela River all the way through PA, and then into West Virginia.
To sum this area up simply – it’s the rust belt.
Back tomorrow with something that’s WAY different.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
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Art Deco, always catches my eye
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Pittsburgh’s Grant Street hosts a catalogue of truly monumental and architecturally important buildings. City Hall and the Allegheny Courthouse are just down the block, as is the US Steel Building and several other skyscrapers.
Also important to my tale is that there’s a station for the T light rail just a few blocks away from Grant’s intersection with Liberty Avenue, which is more or less where these shots were gathered.
On Grant Street, there’s a ‘Federal’ Building, a big 1930’s style Post Office, and a giant hotel or two. Lots of the ‘big,’ and ‘important,’ and ‘power elite’ in the business and governmental world types of people spend their days along this stretch who make random decisions that the rest of us have to figure out how to live with.
The ‘Big Shots’ work on Grant Street, basically.
Click here for a Google Maps waypoint, centered on Grant Street, and have a look around using the street view feature. That’s how I remotely scout out an area which is unfamiliar. An interesting urban corridor.
As mentioned in previous posts, it was a fairly hot summer day when these shots were gathered, and one was forced to abandon the idea of walking in direct sunlight for hours and hours. After shaving a couple of miles off my walk by riding a bus on one of the busways, your humble narrator was soon roughly shambling towards a T light rail station to do the same on the way to the next destination.
Along the way, the ‘Drury Plaza Hotel Pittsburgh Downtown’ pictured above and below caught my eye, or at least parts of it did.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Federal Eagles? New Deal style construction…. Hmm… as it turned out, this is the former Federal Reserve Bank of Pittsburgh’s building.
Luckily, regarding the suffering of Our Lady of the Pentacle, I didn’t need to become obsessed with researching this one as the Drury people offer a fantastic and detailed account of this building, and its purpose prior to their renovation of the place which turned it into a hotelier space.
Neat!
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Three of these capitols really caught my eye.
These are all mythological/allegorical characters, and I wonder if that one might be Pluto, the Roman God of the Underworld who was known for his fortune. The term ‘Plutocracy’ means Government of and for the wealthy, after all. As far as the other capitols, since I only had room for one in today’s missive; here is one which I think is meant to represent either Artemis or Ceres, and another which looks like it represents Mercury- here.
Again… neat.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Handsome structure, but I had spent too much time nearby a medium high security Federal Building while waving a camera around, and so rejoined my efforts to get to the train. Scuttle, scuttle, scuttle.
The amended plan would involve debarking the light rail at the Station Square stop, whereupon I’d again be walking directly beneath the burning thermonuclear eye of god itself for a spell.
There’d be about 15 minutes of air conditioning though, once I got into the station, so…
Up and over!
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Scuttle, scuttle, scuttle – that’s me.
Always going somewhere, with no actual place to go.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Liminal Spaces like this just keep on popping up for me lately.
Wait till you see what’s coming your way in just a few posts… whew!
There’s spaces like this all over Pittsburgh, which feel like walking through and into the Backrooms.
Empty, but with exquisitely maintained space. Floors are clean and clear of litter, glass is polished, all the lights work, air conditioning on. Not dusty, floors mopped. No visible commercial or human activity whatsoever, though.
Back tomorrow, with a big bunch of hey now!
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Buy a book!
“In the Shadows at Newtown Creek,” an 88 page softcover 8.5×11 magazine format photo book by Mitch Waxman, is now on sale at blurb.com for $30.
Mass trans-sitting
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One of the historical curatives, embraced during the City of Pittsburgh’s steel industry apocalypse and subsequent multi-decade economic recovery period, involved the conversion of former railroad and industrial property’s ‘right of way’ over to an alternative purpose.
Some of these rights of way were converted over to ‘rail trails’ for active, and often waterfront facing, recreation purposes.
Several others were converted over to ‘Busways.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
These are municipal vehicle only high speed roads.
You see Cops, Firemen, Ambulances, even the sundry fleets of agency vehicles associated with City or State, using these ‘back door’ routes. The agency which ultimately administers this system is called the ‘PRT,’ and they are the master agency behind both the T light Rail and the extensive bus system which replaced Pittsburgh’s historical network of trolleys.
PRT is Pennsylvania’s counterpart to the MTA, back in NY.
The transit agency people claim that their buses can move as fast at 50mph on these private roads.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There are three of these busways, and I’m planning on getting to know where they all go this autumn and winter.
Seems like a good choice, weather wise. The busways interface with local streets, obviously, where the buses leave their private roadways to do the usual thing on the shared public streets.
This was literally the first time I’d darkened the pavement of this system with my odious presence.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One was taking this shot when my downtown focused bus arrived. Paid my fare with a special fare card they use here – the Pittsburgh version of the OMNY or Metrocard used for the NYC Subway and Bus system.
It was standing room only on the bus, but this was a short hop and the air conditioning was welcome after walking about in ‘the hot.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The bus, whose routing indicated it as a ‘P1,’ dropped myself and others off alongside what used to be one of the most important locations in the United States – the HQ of the Pennsylvania Rail Road.
Said HQ is now an expensive condo, with the train station run by Amtrak below, and it looks like a Soviet Orthodontist’s office.
Having enjoyed my retreat from the heat, and desirous of photographing some railroad action, a new and cunning plan emerged from within the head noodle.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One would make his way over to the T light Rail station associated with the U.S. Steel Building, and use that to cross the Monongahela River.
That would put me where I wanted to be, on the south side of the river, where CSX’s frequent travels have been documented before.
The irony of my stated purpose for this walk as ‘getting some cardio in’ devolving factually down to riding a bus, and then a train – this fact does not escape me. What can I say?
You have to ‘go with the flow,’ and as sweat was oozing freely from your humble narrator’s skinvelope on this super hot day, there was the ‘flow’ part for you.
Back tomorrow.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Buy a book!
“In the Shadows at Newtown Creek,” an 88 page softcover 8.5×11 magazine format photo book by Mitch Waxman, is now on sale at blurb.com for $30.
Run and gun through Skunk Hollow
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
You may recall that – on Friday last – your humble narrator had involved himself the latest medium length scuttle here in Pittsburgh.
The walk began on the Bloomfield Bridge, and routed into the Bloomfield neighborhood, which posits itself as ‘Little Italy.’ The very day that I was moving through here was the start of an Italian heritage focused street fair called ‘Little Italy Days’ and a terrific amount of activity was underway to prepare for the event. I wanted nothing to do with all that, and my toes were pointed away from the festivities.
As also mentioned last week, this walk had a purpose, namely ‘cardio’ and I was attempting to move a bit faster than normal while kicking the dirt. Unfortunately it was terrifically hot out, which changed my plans.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My route diverted away from the population center, and down into Skunk Hollow.
This is a ravine, found between the prominences of the Polish Hill and Bloomfield sections, which returns visitors to the ‘grid’ of streets at the edge of the Lawrenceville section on its western side. The street is sharply graded, heading downwards.
I wouldn’t have complained if any trains had appeared while moving through here, but no ‘Hey Now!’ for me on this part of the scuttle.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As also mentioned above, it was ungodly hot out.
Additionally: The Newtown Pentacle time warp is very much still in effect, as a note. These shots are from the 13th of August, and the words are being inscribed at the end of the same month.
I waved the camera about a bit, but again – this outing was about making my ‘body’ work – rather than my ‘head.‘
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The path through Skunk Hollow is largely an industrial zone, with railroad tracks and neighboring contractor yards. Several times along the route, I had to take up a safe position as heavy trucks rolled past.
I mention ‘safety’ a bunch, and having been invited onto several industrial sites during my Newtown Creek years, one has received several ‘OSHA’ focused training sessions. Some of these sessions were only an hour or two in length, with others playing out over multiple days.
One of the facts embedded in my brain by the safety people is to stop moving, after acquiring a safe spot, and waiting until being acknowledged by the driver when a heavy truck is moving past you.
The whole trick to the ‘tradie’ world is expectations. What does a truck driver ‘expect’ you to do? What do you expect the truck will do? You ain’t gonna win a fight with a loaded dump truck moving at thirty plus miles per hour… so…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Admittedly, I was a little disappointed that I didn’t catch a shot of a train moving through the hollow, but there we are. It was too hot to stand around and wait. My big problem at this point revolved around a multi mile path in front of me that offered zero cover from the radiates of the burning thermonuclear eye of god itself. Shvitz!
What to do, what to do?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Back on the street grid… and wait a minute… that’s the Herron Avenue Bridge leading down from Polish Hill… which overflies… one of the busways! Salvation!
One of my stated goals has been to get ‘all familiar’ with Pittsburgh’s busway transit system, right? I’ve said that multiple times, right?
Back tomorrow.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Buy a book!
“In the Shadows at Newtown Creek,” an 88 page softcover 8.5×11 magazine format photo book by Mitch Waxman, is now on sale at blurb.com for $30.
Bopping, over Bigelow
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Once more unto the breech, and a ‘stretch and shvitz’ kind of exercise day was on my menu.
A rideshare dropped me at the veritable gateway to the Bloomfield Bridge, here in Pittsburgh, and after a moment of personal organization regarding the camera and bags and straps your humble narrator was soon on the move, and scuttling against the inevitability of entropy once again.
The Newtown Pentacle time warp grows ever more severe. These shots were gathered, and the walk perpetrated, on the 13th of August. If my scheduling all works out, you’re receiving this in early October.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One such as myself straight up loves pedestrian bridges like the one pictured above and below, spanning over Bigelow Boulevard, which de facto is an arterial road despite being classed as a ‘local’ one.
This ped bridge has to date back to the 60’s or 70’s – governments just don’t ‘spend’ on pedestrian infrastructure like this anymore. It’s part of why they like bike lanes so much – as the lanes are just paint and plastic sticks (vertical delimiters), which are cheap to install.
Up I went. The sound I made was analogous to that produced at the extreme right hand side of a piano’s keyboard as it is being ‘plinked.’
Bink, bink, bink…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Dynamism, that’s my thing. Every chance I could find to strike a pose on the way up, and then across, was taken. I made the Zoolander face.
It was hot. Really, really hot. High 80’s, with about 70% humidity. It was about 10 or 11 on a Thursday morning when I started this effort, and it was already unbearable out. There was supposed to be a street fair in front of me, but to be honest – that’s just an obstacle – and I had no interest in participating in Bloomfield’s ‘Little Italy Festival.’
The big celebrity draw for that event was the presence of actor Vito Spatafore, who was simply being billed as ‘Vito from the Sopranos.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My plan was to move as quickly as I could through an obstacle course of Pittsburgh’s various geological barriers. Eventually, and as usual, I’d need to get back to the T light Rail somehow to get back to HQ.
I took a lot of pics, but the main motivation for me on this day was to get my heart rate up and then keep it elevated for a few hours.
One was walking a bit quicker than usual, up around three mph, as my normal/comfortable velocity is slightly slower at 2.3 – 2.6 mph.
Yes, I keep track of all that on my phone… metrics. It was a big deal for me, post broken ankle, when I broke through the 2 mph barrier.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The muscles in my legs have hardened up again.
The thighs are iron, the calves bronze, if I do say so myself.
The ankle still hurts all the time, especially so after a long walk. I’ve got arthritis in the affected joint now too. The skinvelope is still oddly discolored around the joint, and it’s not just on the side where the surgical scar is found. Lots and lots of visible blood vessels have also sprung up around the site of the injury, offering the appearance of a spider web of varicose veins. It’s all quite spectacular, really, but as I’m also closing in on the brink of sixty…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One thinks about his calendrical age a lot these days.
I reminisce about my Dad when he was at my current age, and I have to say that – my perception – is that I’m a far younger man – at the same age – than he was. At least I don’t fall asleep behind the wheel at red lights, like the old man used to.
My relatives and friends all point out that this is all perceptual bullshit and self aggrandizement when I utter something like this, gleefully reminding me of all the things medically and psychologically wrong with me, and then end their admonition with that most Jewish of expressions:
‘Shut up, you wanna give call down a conahurra on yourself?’
Back next week with more – at this – your Newtown Pentacle.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Buy a book!
“In the Shadows at Newtown Creek,” an 88 page softcover 8.5×11 magazine format photo book by Mitch Waxman, is now on sale at blurb.com for $30.
