Light and heavy
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A recreational night out was recently on my agenda, so a quick trip on Pittsburgh’s Light Rail service – dubbed ‘The T’ – carried me to the south side of the Monongahela River and the figurative center zone of the City. I was heading back to a certain brewery located alongside CSX’s (street grade heavy rail) Pittsburgh Subdivision tracks, where I had photographed an absolute parade of trains during a prior visit. The beer is pretty good there, too.
Despite my better judgement, I’ve started reading up on the history of Pittsburgh’s public transit services. Saying that, I absolutely refuse to become historically literate about the thing. No. J’ refuse.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The neighborhood surrounding my destination is the sort of place I feel most comfortable in; industrial, desolate, broken pavement, heavy truck traffic, homeless encampments, etc. This spot has garnered a lot of my interest in recent weeks, as it is fascinating visually.
It’s also a spot where you definitively want to be wearing a hat in the late afternoon, as the burning thermonuclear eye of god itself radiates directly upon you with virtually zero vegetation blocking its influence.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A few people have asked why I don’t find a schedule for trying to catch shots of passing trains like the one above, here in Pittsburgh. First off, there isn’t one – or at least there isn’t one which is publicly available. Secondly, my observation of the situation reveals that what controls the frequency of rail traffic here are the shift changes and industrial needs of the nearby steel mills, which is where the rail traffic is concentrated, and that’s a subject which I have near total ignorance of.
That’s CSX #916. I’m told it’s a ‘ES44AH’ model, built by General Electric, and the engine produces 4,400 HP worth of motive juice. If you wish to be bored to tears reading about all the nuances which this model offers – click here.
Back tomorrow.
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