The Newtown Pentacle

Tuesday

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Pictured above is the home of a journalist named Ida Tarbell. Tarbell is remembered for writing biographies of Abraham Lincoln and Napoleon, amongst others. She is especially honored for her nineteen ‘muckraker’ style articles on the Standard Oil Company, which were originally serialized in McClure’s Magazine.

Her work on those articles resulted in the ultimate breakup of Standard Oil and the creation of Federal level regulatory agencies. The reports were combined into a book – The History of the Standard Oil Company. The text is available as a free audiobook, in two parts, and found at LibriVox.

It’s quite a book, I would add.

One first became aware of Ida Tarbell when researching the Tidewater Building back in NYC, found alongside the Greenpoint Avenue Bridge in the Blissville section of Queens, on Newtown Creek.

Her home in Titusville PA., pictured above, is thereby recognized as a ‘historic place,’ and there’s a bit of signage out side signifying the author’s work and the house she dwelt in. Lovely structure, if you ask me. I got the distinct impression that it’s still in use as a home, rather than housing a historic society or something.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

The next stop was to check out a Motel whose conceit revolves around the fact that all of the rentable domiciles are former railroad Caboose Cars. This is part of the Oil City & Titusville historic railroad outfit’s operation.

The rail outfit runs what you might call a ‘Heritage line,’ not unlike the one in Western Maryland Scenic RR, down in Maryland’s City of Cumberland, that I showed y’all a few weeks ago. The OC&T peeps seem to operate along similar lines – historic rolling stock and short run tourist trips.

They also have a bunch of interesting rail cars on their site.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

This RR outfit sprung into existence after the Oil Rush started up just after the Civil War, and operated well into the 20th century. That’s a 1947 locomotive pictured above, one which you can find out all the nitty gritty about at the OC&T site.

I plan on returning, in the Springtime, when they are running the trains again for tourist duty. There’s an open air car which seems quite promising for itinerant photographers.

This is a fairly long drive for me, from Pittsburgh, roughly 2 and change hours from HQ.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

On display, the OC&T RR had several interesting offerings to check out, but this snow plow train car immediately caught my eye. What an interesting series of parabolic curves, huh?

It was time to get moving, though. As you’ll recall, this day trip began with a visit to what turned out to be a fog choked view of Pennsylvania’s Oil City. My companion and I decided to reverse my original schedule and try Titusville instead, with a return to Oil City (about 20 miles to the south) planned for the afternoon.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

It was about 11:30 a.m. by this point, and as described in prior posts – I had left HQ at about 4:30 a.m. so I was running on fumes at this point. We decided it was a good idea to grab a meal, and also use the opportunity to oblige other biological functions. The local McDonald’s, thereby, was visited and patronized.

The fast food outpost is located along the shoreline of Oil Creek, mentioned yesterday, but grabbing a few shots of this unusually stolid bridge was also on the menu. It’s the 1939 vintage South Franklin Street Bridge, if you’re curious, which carries local Route 8. It’s historic!

– photo by Mitch Waxman

This shot was gathered from onboard the South Franklin Street span, depicting Oil Creek lazily flowing through Titusville. After quaffing cheeseburgers, fries, and drinking a coke, we climbed back into the Mobile Oppression Platform and motored in a southernly direction along Route 8, and back to Oil City.

More on all that 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.