Archive for March 2024
Trolling on the Ides
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Whenever I’m under a bridge, one can’t help but go all Brooklyn in my thoughts – “Hey Ma, check me out, I’m a troll hanging out under da bridge.” The one pictured above is the Fort Pitt Bridge in Pittsburgh, spanning the Monongahela River. It’s a pretty city, I tell’s ya.
There’s a few weird cultural things here in Pittsburgh which I still haven’t gotten used to. This area was a frontline during the French and Indian War, and thereby there’s a bunch of town names which have French origins. Thing is – they pronounce “Versailles” as ‘Ver Sales,’ and “Dubois” as ‘Du Boys’ here in Western PA – which causes me headaches, and inflammation.
The Brooklyn way is to purposely mispronounce ‘fancy pants’ words and speak them as they’re spelled – hence ‘Whores Du Vores’ for ‘Hors D’oeuvres’ or ‘Antikways’ for ‘Antiques’ – but the locals aren’t being snarky like all Brooklyn people are obliged to be, and the Yinzers literally say ‘Ver Sales’ for ‘Versailles.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This was a short walk, as stated in Monday’s post, one which took place on a fairly cold and windy day. I was quite pleased to reach the final leg thereby, which carried me over to the Light Rail station for a ride back to HQ. The Three Rivers Heritage Trail was exited at Smithfield Street, where I found this charming arrangement of cautionary signage that had been tumbled about by the turbulent atmospherics.
I’m really trying to lean into my exercise schedule of ‘one day out, one day in,’ at the moment. Winter, although it was a fairly mild one, is not my favorite time of year. Luckily, the camera is hungry for sights to see and I have to oblige the thing.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It didn’t take long for my chariot to arrive, which carried my bloated pre-corpse back to HQ. Embarrassingly, just as I was about to sit down on the train, the T light car I was in lurched forward, which caused me to stumble and fall. Everybody onboard was concerned about the old fellow with the gray beard who just fell down.
I was worried about the camera. It was fine.
Back next week with more from the Paris of Appalachia at this – your Newtown Pentacle.
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Diesel
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Lucky, lucky. While walking the last third of a constitutional walk on a chilly afternoon, a second CSX train appeared while I was on the Three Rivers Heritage Trail here in Pittsburgh. That’s the Fort Pitt Bridge behind it, if you’re curious.
CSX #845, I’m told, is part of General Electric’s ‘Evolution Series’ locomotive line – a model ES44AC-H locomotive. Read all about it here, nerds.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It was actually quite cold out by this time of day, with winds kicking up and temperatures falling. Funnily enough, not 36 hours later, the temperatures would be in the middle 70’s with extremely pleasant conditions. They all told me when I was talking about moving out here – in Pittsburgh, if you don’t like the weather, just wait about 20 minutes and it’ll change.
Saying all that, I wasn’t properly insulated and despite the exercise, a humble narrator was growing a bit chill. it probably had a lot to do with the actual drop in temperature and upscaling of the wind, but there you go.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This was getting close to the end of this particular walk, which offered two cool views of train traffic up, so I considered it a ‘lucky’ day.
Too often, my rail timing is off and all I get to see are empty tracks. I’ve got to resume my vigil at Seldom Seen Greenway soon, and wait out the Wheeling & Lake Erie RR’s schedule until I get a desired shot there. I’ve made multiple attempts, but no bueno.
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.
‘Effin Pittsburgh, yo
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Just as I arrived at a series of ‘Bernie Holes,’ found in the fencing on Pittsburgh’s West End Bridge which overlook the CSX tracks along the Ohio River, a train set appeared. The locomotive engine was CSX #6348, an SD40-2 type built by General Motor’s Electro Motive Division. That’s literally all I can tell you about the thing, as I continue to refuse to ‘nerd out’ about trains.
Really, I just like taking pictures of the things, which I find fairly challenging. Something moving at 20-40 mph that’s bigger than most houses, which just sort of randomly appears… that’s a difficult photo. I guess I’ve been preparing for this sort of scenario with all of those subway posts I used to do back in LIC for a while now.
BTW- How’s that all that going these days, New Yorkers? I’ve seen the news about the Governor sending the National Guard in. Tell me in the comments, I’d love some ‘personal experience’ perspectives on the presence of long barrel military guns being brandished about down below.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This shot looks back along the West End Bridge span I’d just walked. This isn’t a hard walk at all, I’d mention, but driving over this bridge is actually fairly challenging. Narrow – in the extreme – travel lanes, and you have to be in the correct lane for your destination on the other side, I’d offer. The amount of gouging into and transferred auto paint on the bridge’s concrete sections speaks to the driving challenge. Tight fit, this.
Also, as a note… ‘Bernie Holes’… are gaps found in fencing that would otherwise occlude a desirable point of view. Some of these are surveyor’s holes, which are discernible by the fact that the fencing was cut with a power tool. My old friend Bernie Ente, who introduced me to the Newtown Creek community and acted as a mentor when I first turned up on the creek, had created a series of these apertures all over Western Queens. He made me privy to many of their locations, and long have I thereby referred to them as ‘Bernie Holes,’ although the ones here in Pittsburgh were obviously not created by him. They do use his preferred pry bar and spring powered vise grip methodology, however.
For those of you reading this who were members of ‘Team Bernie’, hello again old friends.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The train lumbered along, and the towboats were changing shifts. This one looks up the Ohio towards the Monongahela River. The plan at this point was to walk eastwards, in order to get back to a T station and home to HQ after my short walk.
Simple pathway, this. After debarking the bridge, I’d walk about a half mile, where the entrance to the Three Rivers Heritage Trail is found. An easy walk is found on the trail, which offers quite photogenic sets of circumstance along the way. This has become one of favorite paths here in Pittsburgh. By ‘easy,’ I mean flat.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As mentioned yesterday, something about this abandoned automotive service building, constructed of corrugated steel, intrigued me. The moss on the roof was calling, I guess. Imagine that, this has to be the most hostile environments that a plant might nestle into. Griddle hot in the summer, undertaker’s slab cold in the winter. Nature always wins.
One negotiated his way down a couple of flights of stairs from the West End Bridge, whereupon I needed to find a place to take a tinkle. Another sign of age which I’ve had to deal with – other than the various aches and pains which I bitch about endlessly – is that as soon as I start exercising the kidneys kick into high gear. This is a good thing, obviously, but it gets a bit problematic when you are walking over a bridge or something.
Luckily, right alongside that steel building pictured above is a fairly private area with lots of shrubbery. These plants were watered, thereby, with my personal liquor.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After obliging these biological imperatives, one continued along with the photowalk. The view was pretty epic from my pee spot, as it turned out, and I waited around to see if another train might be fixing to cross my lens but there was no such luck.
I hate ‘hanging around’ and waiting for something to occur. It’s a ‘photowalk,’ not a ‘photo stand around and wait,’ after all.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One last look back at the West End Bridge, and then to the east did a humble narrator scuttle, which will be described in a subsequent missive.
As a note – I’m still re-listening to the History of Rome podcast mentioned last week, and I’m pretty sure that the story of Marius and Sulla was what was being discussed on this afternoon. It’s a very long podcast, by the way, and highly recommended. Caesar is coming.
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.
Obsessive & compulsive
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As previously stated, one was involved with an afternoon constitutional walk on a fairly chilly afternoon recently, and my pathway carried me to the West End Bridge here in Pittsburgh. It’s the first bridge to cross the Ohio River, and found just a few hundred yards away from where the admixture of the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers form the waterway’s source.
There’s a pedestrian and bike path on either side of the bridge. I was walking on the eastern side of the thing, which faces downtown Pittsburgh and several other points of interest.
This was a short walk, but I was also desirous of and committed to a ‘photowalk,’ wherein the wandering photographer makes it a point of looking up, down, all around along a meandering path.
Serendipity is what one craves, ultimately. Right place, right time.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There’s a towing company, which I know nothing about, based on the southern shore of the river. They seem to haul a lot of mineral barges, but I spotted a Towboat with a barge whose design is unfamiliar to me. It was riding high in the water, suggesting an empty hold, but constructed in a rather stout manner with lots of metal fastenings. It also had a ‘lid’ on it, but didn’t appear to be a fuel barge. Gas, maybe? I don’t know, but if you’ve got an idea – leave a comment and share the wealth.
I was using a zoom lens on this walk – my super reliable 28-105mm. The thing has gotten a bit banged up over the last few years, I’d mention, but it’s also tens of thousands of exposures in at this point. The choice of lens was made for convenience’s sake. Wish I had a broader zoom range, but…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This is one of the spots I ‘slow walk’ whenever I’m scuttling down this particular route. Love the abandoned blue automotive care building with its patches of moss on the roof, but what really draws me in are the railroad tracks. These belong to CSX, and are fairly well used. Fencing starts just as you get to where you’d want to shoot from, but there’s ‘Bernie Holes’ cut into the chain link which allows for pretty nice views of the tracks.
More on that tomorrow, and also on what I mean when I say ‘Bernie Hole,’ 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.
Scuttle on, my wayward son
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Climatologically speaking, it was in in the high 30’s with a stiff wind on this particular afternoon, but exercise day is exercise day and a humble narrator tries to stick to a schedule. One scuttled up the hill from HQ, and soon found himself at the Potomac ‘Red Line’ Station of Pittsburgh’s light rail system – The T – and ready to board a city bound train set and subsequently set out on a short walk.
As stated previously, a short walk for me is one of about 4-5 miles. This one was also a ‘photowalk,’ which means that whereas I intended to wave the camera around, no specific shot was being sought. Catch as catch can, for this sort of thing.
The T service carried me to its terminal stop on the north shore of Pittsburgh, dubbed Allegheny Station, which is where the line runs up and out of the ground and onto an elevated track, which is found nearby Acrisure Stadium wherein the Pittsburgh Steelers play sportsball.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Curiosity leads me about on this sort of endeavor. What’s over there, or there, or… you just kind of follow your nose, and try to see something off the beaten track. I was intrigued by the masonry shadow of a long gone building. Its shape suggests that a house used to kiss up against the larger commercial structure, which is itself hollowed out and largely windowless, as it is seemingly undergoing a stalled renovation.
A recently announced development project, whose footprint is nearby, promises a new effort at making use of a part of Pittsburgh’s waterfront to create a tourist, hospitality, nightlife, and shopping Mecca that would take advantage of sportsball tourism. The centerpiece of this project is a giant Ferris wheel.
That didn’t work out too good on Staten Island, I’d offer, but sportball stadiums actually cost NYC money, whereas the ones in Pittsburgh offer a surplus in economic activity and tourism (hotels, bars, restaurants, even the museums see higher revenue during weekend sports events here).
It’ll be interesting to see what happens, maybe ride that Ferris Wheel, and ultimately – I don’t really care. My gentrifiers are back in NYC. I guess that I’m one in Pittsburgh – howzaboutdat?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My nose following found me walking towards the West End Bridge, to enact a now familiar plan of heading back towards the distant T station which would be the end of this short walk. Luckily, for once, I had picked the right time of day – as you’ll see in posts all week long.
Apparently, and I’m sure this is an absolute coincidence and has nothing to do with the development plans, the West End Bridge is about to start redesigning its approaches and interfaces with the neighborhoods that it connects to… one of which happens to be where that Ferris Wheel dealie is supposed to be. There’s an local outfit called Riverlife which seems to be driving the train on this one.
Lots to see coming up this week – here at Newtown Pentacle – towboats and railroads, oh my. 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.
The Newtown Pentacle 