Archive for August 27th, 2024
Ambulans mortem
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A humble narrator was out for an early walk, on a particular section of Pittsburgh’s Great Allegheny Passage trail, found in the Homestead and Munhall areas. After marching to the Whitaker Flyover bridge, which spans a grouping of rail tracks parallel to the trail, I was rewarded with a less than sudden appearance of a Norfolk Southern train set.
‘Less than sudden’ means that they were changing crews about a half mile away, and that I stood there for around a half hour waiting for the thing to move into position for the shot above. Sheesh!
The flyover bridge is a somewhat recent addition to this milieu, I’m told, and was installed along with another trail connector bridge found a couple of miles away in Duquesne, to ensure continuity for the GAP trail and to avoid having the citizenry using the trail crossing the very active tracks down below. I’ve learned this from signage.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My schedule for the day was cramped, and I had allocated just a few hours for the outing. Time was short and I was glad of the fact that the crew change finished up and the train started moving. It passed under the bridge I was standing on, and started heading roughly westwards. I altered my perspective, and got blasted with engine exhaust.
Me? After gathering these shots, I changed lenses back over to the big 24-240mm zoom.
The bridge sports a chain link fence, which negates usage of that larger lens. Instead, I had been using a ‘nifty fifty’ at this point, as the size of that lens easily fits into the diamond pattern of standard chain link.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A shlep still stood in front of me, and I had to scuttle back to where the car was parked a couple of miles distant to get on with the rest of my appointed rounds for the day. I had also left my water bottle in the car, and was looking forward to having a good long suckle from its icy content.
Back tomorrow, with something just a little different.
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