Deathsylvania
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Catchup from yesterday: your humble narrator had accidentally gotten ‘turned around’ on a local road, called Becks Run, after having made a wrong turn at the start of a scuttle. This set me on a less than salubrious pathway.
I’ve mentioned, many times, that one of the things you have to watch out for when taking walks around the Pittsburgh metro area is finding yourself trapped into a ‘cul-de-sac’ style situation, while ‘on-foot.’ You find yourself with limited options, as far as where you can go and even when you do, or the path that you’re walking on just kind of terminates at a highway, or a cliff.
The highway scenario was the case, on this particular day.
I ‘effed up, alright.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Lovely little ‘zone’ back here, have to say. The wooded hills behind the neighborhood are at the edge of a natural area called Hay’s Woods. Bald Eagles nest in those woods, which is kind of cool. Lotsa critters.
Becks Run Road has been receiving an awful lot of attention from the State’s water control people, who are quite concerned with flooding, and the broader region that Becks Run Road is a part of has been displaying opened up streets and busy construction crews for the entire interval that I’ve been living out here in Pittsburgh.
History of coal mining hereabouts, as a note.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
At the end of Becks Run Road, there’s a fantastic ice cream joint called Page’s, and an enormous rail trestle which carries trackage for the Norfolk Southern RR outfit. Becks Run disappears into the ground there.
A ‘local’ street is present, which interesects to the ‘South Side’ section of Pittsburgh to the west, or becomes a de facto highway heading eastwards towards Homestead and Duquesne, along the shoreline of the Monongahela River. That local east/west street is called ‘East Carson.’
About a mile to the west, it’s a normal street with lights and crosswalks and sidewalks, but here…
This is where I found myself in a pickle.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I walked up on top of a hill, along this de facto highway, to see if I could spy some way to get from ‘a’ to ‘b’ without having to walk the better part of a mile along the shoulder of East Carson Street.
No bueno.
This view looks eastwards, as a note. The ground level set of RR tracks on the left of the shot belong to CSX.
‘Feck.’ I’d just have to ‘do it,’ and walk alongside a high speed road.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As an omen, as soon as I began my tremulous passage, the realities of this plan asserted themselves.
There was an abattoir’s worth of dead animals lying on the shoulder side of that curb. It was so dangerous a walk that I didn’t shoot any photos during this section of things, as I couldn’t take my eyes off the traffic lane in case I needed to leap for safety. Of course, the curb disappears after a few hundred feet and then you’re just walking on the 18-24 inches of space between the painted white line and the grass.
‘Sheiste, en mi pantalunes,’ lords and ladies.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Cannot begin to tell you how happy I was when I saw that guard rail above appear, and then when I stepped over it. Whew.
I was still walking alongside a highway, but now there was 10-20 feet of space and a steel rail between me and oncoming traffic. That’s opposed to about 18 inches of space, with buses shooting by me at 50 mph.
Wow. How stupid was that? I really am a moron, just like everyone says I am.
Back tomorrow.
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What you do and what you say
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The title of today’s post is from another one of the idiotic aphorisms which swirl about, within the brain box of your humble narrator.
‘Do what you say’ is fairly obvious, but ‘say what you do’ needs a bit of explaining. I think it’s important to – out loud and to the crowd – say when you’ve ‘effed something up, rather than performing some aggrieved martyr act intoning that you are an innocent whom ‘something bad just happened to,’ as a defense mechanism.
There’s a reason I’m starting this post with all of this admonition, Y’see…
I really ‘effed up on this one, and could have gotten seriously hurt.
We’ll explore my stupidity, committed here at the edge of Pittsburgh’s Mount Oliver section, over the next couple of posts. My ‘mea culpas’ need an audience, after all.
Meanwhile… welcome to Mount Oliver.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Despite the usual preparations – for some dumb reason, when I was dropped off by a cab at the start of this walk, I scuttled off in the completely wrong direction.
I had even been gazing at a map that morning, before I left HQ, and considered the path I accidentally ended up on and said ‘no way.’ My rejection was based around a long stretch of high speed road with zero sidewalks which I’d have to navigate.
Of course, that’s exactly the direction which I stupidly headed towards, without realizing it until it was far too late to change my course.
Oh, unhappy act.
This street I was walking along in Mount Oliver is called Mountain Avenue, if you’re curious as to where all this played out.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Steep as the name would imply, when walking on some of Mountain Avenue’s rare sidewalks, nearby an intersection, there was some sort of city step action going on. There mostly weren’t any sidewalks, forcing me to just walk on the side of the road, which is actually kind of normal for Western PA. – to be honest.
As a note – Mountain Avenue is a local, and fairly low volume, street. My problems were still ahead of me.
Crap.
It was right about at this point that I had realized my mistake, and the direction that I was heading for. If you were in Pittsburgh and overheard blue language and angry ‘cussin’ in the vicinity of Mountain Avenue and Becks Run Road, on the afternoon of the 13th of April… yeah, that was me.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Becks Run is an urban waterway.
As established in the past, Pennsylvania uses the term ‘run’ for flowing but not terribly deep waterways which other municipalities would call a ‘creek’ or a ‘stream.’ It’s fuzzy, the naming convention.
Haven’t been able to discover what differentiates a waterway being called a ‘run’ as opposed to a ‘creek’ or a ‘stream.’ River, yeah, that’s volume and depth based, but ‘run’?
Like nearly all urban waterways in Pittsburgh, Becks Run flows in an engineered manner around a series of residential and business properties, which are found along a roadway named for it. A lot of traffic from the South Hills area gets focused along this particular roadway, as it’s sort of the gateway to get out towards Homestead, where a retail Mecca called ‘The Waterfront’ is extant, and where one of the local Costcos is found.
Big draw, lotsa traffic, the Waterfront.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After turning onto Becks Run Road, a roadside memorial was encountered. Have no idea what sort of tragedy occurred here, but it was likely caused by a pickup truck driver, and it was obviously deadly.
Seriously, the pickup truck guys seem to think that they’re driving in indestructible Batmobiles or something. Drifting along the road at speed, playing games with other vehicles, tail gating…
Somebody tells me ‘a car got hit by a train nearby,’ my first response is going to be ‘did the pickup’s driver survive’?
Anyway, this post is all about my own stupid decisions, not somebody else’s. Bah!
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Noticed this dead thing on my way. To me, it looked like an Eagle while ‘in the field,’ but one of my buddies insists that this is likely a dead Hawk of some kind. Any opinions? Here’s a full body shot, and one of its particularly wicked looking foot. Whenever I try to say what kind of a bird that a bird is, I get it wrong.
Leave opinions in the comments, if you’ve got one.
Back tomorrow with more… and… the horror…
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
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Scuttle’s end
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Swindell Bridge to North Shore, part eight.
This is the last post in this series, which began up in the Perry South section nearby the Swindell Bridge here in Pittsburgh. We then followed Perrysville Avenue to the Federal Street Extension, got some rail shots at Allegheny Commons Park, and here we are – crossing the Allegheny River on the way to ‘the train.’
I’d be heading back to HQ in nearby Dormont, and using the T light Rail to do so.
As you may have noticed, I’m a bit of an enthusiast for the light rail service, which makes me stand out a bit here in Pittsburgh. People would rather spend $25 on a cab to ‘get into and out of town’ than $2.75 on the train. Weird.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Slow Danger!
That’s the worst kind of danger.
My ‘dogs were barking’ by this stage of things, but ‘push, push, push.’ Back and shoulders were a bit sore as well. I was thirsty, and concerned about the future.
All told, this ended up being a 7ish mile long walk. The path got my heart beating quickly a few times, surmounting hills and such, and the goal of ‘hitting the fronts of the thighs and hips’ on downward slopes was accomplished. I’m still regaining strength and endurance – post broken ankle ‘orthopedic incident’ – and ‘downhill’ is currently my jam.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One made it to the ‘other side,’ onto the central peninsula of Pittsburgh.
I would have boarded the T on the North Side if it wasn’t for all of the NFL Draft preparations. Bah!
It was decided that the Gateway Station was likely the closest one to my physical location, and one headed there.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This is one of the underground ‘subway’ style stops on the T light Rail. It’s built into an old freight train tunnel.
I used the elevator rather than the stairs, because…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Brutalism meets 1980’s style ‘modern,’ that’s how I’d describe this station’s esthetic. One of the odd things about the T system is that few of the stations look anything like the next one.
Sure… there’s similar stainless steel accents, signage, and primary color plastic panels… but Gateway doesn’t look like Station Square, which doesn’t look like First Avenue, which doesn’t look like South Hills Junction, which doesn’t look like Washington Junction… you get the idea.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Finally, my chariot was arriving, and the ride back to HQ..
Back next week, with something different.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
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Yinz confuse me, yo
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Swindell Bridge to North Shore, part seven.
That’s the same Norfolk Southern train seen in yesterday’s post, transiting over Pittsburgh’s Merchant Street Bridge, on the city’s North Side. There’s been a decent number of bridges seen during this scuttle, huh?
When these shots were gathered, specifically on the 9th of April, a great tumult had seized Pittsburgh, in advance of the forthcoming NFL Draft event. Workers were everywhere; obliterating graffiti, painting things, filling potholes, etc., and a large number of street closures here on the North Shore, where the Draft would play out, were enacted. Lots and lots of wind blown garbage was collected, from both highways and river fronts/
The powers that be called it ‘the immaculate collection.’
Even we happy pedestrians were ejected from our tenancy over the sidewalks during this interval, on these affected streets, and many detours were introduced.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Now, this pathway which the ‘detour’ signage directed me towards is one that is commonly transited by scores of people, but there are explicit ‘Private Property’ and separate ‘no trespassing’ signboards seen all over the place back here.
In accordance with my normal policy of respecting that sort of thing, I’ve not walked through here once during all of my scuttles. There’s a proper ‘street’ path you can take instead, which is actually a lot more direct, so why trespass if you don’t need to?
This time – though – the government’s signage people were telling me to trespass, so… gotta follow the law, right?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Some members of the Urbex crowd think me timid. That’s ok, but I don’t have a Police record. You?
I’ve got a lot of ‘rules’ based on lived experience.
The ‘youngins’ don’t remember when packs of wild dogs prowled around in Brooklyn, for instance, but I do. Don’t want to mess with the junk yard dogs, and the Mafia isn’t just a thing in the movies. It’s real.
Just the other day, during a scuttle which I’ll be discussing in a few posts from this one, I turned a corner and saw some guy dancing around with a knife in his hand behind a building, and near a waterway that I was interested in grabbing a shot of. ‘Noped’ out of that one, right quick.
When you spend your time in potentially dangerous places, you’ll often meet potentially dangerous people.
Also, yes – the Newtown Pentacle time warp is still in effect – as I’d really been ‘hitting the bricks’ and ranging all over the place in March and April.
As stated above, these shots were gathered on the 9th of April, and the posts are being written on the 27th of that same month. If I’ve got my scheduling right, you’re reading this in early June.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
So… this was the pedestrian detour path.
It’s running through one of the ‘overflow’ parking lots nearby the stadiums. The ramps above are a combination of Route 28 and the various bridge ramps that it feeds into.
The big wall on the left is a rail berm, carrying tracks which lead back to the Merchant Street Bridge, and that rail trench in Allegheny Commons Park, and eventually back to the Conway Rail Yard and beyond. Whew.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This area is regularly transited by street people, which is something I can report from observation. It ‘ain’t so nice’ under these ramps, lots of highway noise, and you can observe little piles of ‘precipitant’ from auto exhaust soot which is lurking everywhere. Blech!
This shot looks back at where I was.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One got to walk through a decent amount of that sooty zone under the highways before sunlight began factoring back in. An Allegheny Valley RR unit was just idling up on the tracks, for a long while. I hung around to see if anything was going to happen and then got bored.
Back tomorrow with the end of this one.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
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Lake Elizabeth, and 2 Hey Now’s
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Swindell Bridge to North Shore, part six.
After walking down from Federal Street, here in Pittsburgh, and then through a section of the Mexican War Streets neighborhood, your humble narrator soon found himself loathsomely occupying a two cubic meter patch of the space at Allegheny Commons Park.
They’ve got a manmade lake in there, dubbed ‘Lake Elizabeth.’
I was just passing through, on my way to a rail trench which bisects the park. This is a cool location for railfanning, and there’s usually a few guys (it’s always guys, you don’t meet many lady rail fans, or at least I don’t) sticking a lens through the fences here. I’m often one of these guys.
That horrible thing with the camera, over there, too terrible to behold – that’s me.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Hey Now!
Norfolk Southern’s #4309 appeared. It was a train. That’s all I’ve got to say on the matter.
Also, I very nearly fumbled these shots, due to being a clumsy idiot.
I’d spend the rest of the afternoon in a broad ranging self critique after nearly fumbling them, as that’s all it takes to set me off into a spell.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One of the ‘things’ which you have to manage, when wandering about American Cities with a camera, are the various straps, pouches, and cases that the ‘gear’ lives in. It’s important to pat down your pockets periodically to ensure that everything – lens caps, etc. – are where you think they are. A little bit of ‘OCD’ is actually helpful.
I was right in the middle of doing all that when this train showed up, which meant that I had to position the camera and set the exposure triangle in just under a second or two to ‘catch the shot.’
Whew!
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One moved to another position, on the bridge which carries local streets over these trenched tracks in the park, and another Norfolk Southern train appeared, heading in the opposite direction to the former one.
Hey Now!
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Your humble narrator was ‘enroute’ to a light rail station where a ride back to HQ awaited, and given the peculiarities of Pittsburgh’s street layouts and river crossings, the path that brought me here is one which I commonly transit through.
Lucky for me, this train trench turns this ‘zone’ into what I call ‘a feature rich environment.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I still can’t run, but I did ‘quick step’ across the bridge to other side to get a shot of the train’s transit. Black minerals, likely coal or coke.
Back tomorrow with the penultimate steps of this scuttle.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Buy a book!
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The Newtown Pentacle 