Up, down, and around
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Yup… that’s the shot I was hoping for after walking down a thousand feet of steps. Norfolk Southern #1024. It’s an EMD SD70ACe model locomotive if that means anything to you. What warmed the cockles of my heart, however, was what it was hauling. Check it out. I recognize those containers, and so will longtime readers of this publication. You really never can escape NYC, or its trash.
As mentioned yesterday, I’ve sort of been systematically exploring legally available POV’s for this Norfolk Southern Right of Way. Call me timid, but my way has always been to not knowingly trespass. Admittedly, I break this rule a little bit here and there, but otherwise it’s followed as such activity is generally outside of my comfort zone.
I never want to be the guy who needs the Fire Department to come rescue me after falling through a rotting floor or something.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This one looks back up at the last sections of the German Square steps which I had walked about a thousand feet down on from Arlington Avenue.
My friend Tim Fabian has actually photographed all the steps of Pittsburgh, and his photos are available in this book. Personally, I will not be photographing all of the seven hundred and twelve sets of steps Pittsburgh offers. Tim is insane, just ask him.
Suffice to say that going downwards on these steps is a bit less of an athletic undertaking than going up would be, but also as mentioned the path down provided access to less commonly used musculature in the roadway interface and I really felt it in my knees, thighs, and hips.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The Norfolk Southern train set, hauling NYC’s garbage, moved westerly through Pittsburgh in the direction of the P.J. McArdle roadway. My day was half over at this point, but there were still a couple of spots in the South Sides Flats area where my desire to point the camera at things could be satisfied.
Back tomorrow.
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Wow! Where were those containers loaded onto Norfolk Southern trains? Where are they headed? Who’s the lucky recipient of this authentic NYC trash? Inquiring minds want to know.
Liman
April 24, 2024 at 12:25 pm
Long story short is New York Container Terminal on SI is where they leave NYC, but I don’t think it’s NS that takes them all the way. As to destination – lots of holes in the ground in the Midwest which used to have commercially viable minerals in them. Famously, I once asked a commish of the DSNY where our garbage goes and he told me – can’t tell you, homeland security. There’s also a waste flow associated with ‘sewer solids’ which are usually trucked out. If you encounter a smelly semi truck, nearby one of the 13 sewer plants, which has a screed on its trailer that says ‘municipal waste’ you found one of them.
Mitch Waxman
April 24, 2024 at 12:59 pm