The Fourth, and Final, Potato
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Just a short one today, with the last few shots from a Birthday walk wherein I contemplated – amongst other things – just how Superman would stop a runaway train without causing a derailment. I had just taken up station at an oft visited brewery found alongside CSX’s Pittsburgh Subdivision tracks when CSX #3320 appeared from the east. Or at least eastwards. I’m still working out the cardinal directions here, and have added a compass to the long list of stuff attached to or in my camera bag.
I had an ‘ok’ cheeseburger for dinner. Beer’s pretty good here, but the food is – as the youngins would say – ‘mid.’ #3330 is a GE ET44AH model locomotive, incidentally.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
From the same direction a GE C30-7 model locomotive, which CSX has assigned the charming moniker of ‘#7036’, appeared. It’s a fairly old train, apparently, as this model was produced sometime between 1976 and 1986. It seemed nice.
Given that it was my birthday, and that I also thrive on this sort of ‘Doctor Nerdlington’ information, it seems that the average rate of human fingernail growth is about 1.5 inches a year. Thereby, some 7.125 feet worth of fingernails have been produced by and clipped away from me, over an entire lifetime. How much of a mess are you? How much cellular debris do you think has been let loose upon the world in your name?
Apparently, I’ve also shed something in the neighborhood of 85 pounds and 8 ounces of human skin, as exfoliate, over the years.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
CSX currently has 2,700 locomotives in its fleet, the average length of which is 60 feet. All together that’s about 162,000 feet of end to end hardware. In miles, that translates to 30.68 miles of just locomotive engine. That assembly would theoretically produce a force of 11.34 million horsepower if combined perfectly.
This brings us back to Superman, doesn’t it? Given that the Man of Steel has ‘one arm’ pushed the Earth out of the way of a passing comet and returned the planet to proper orbit multiple times, can we say he’s more powerful than ‘ALL the Locomotives’ in the future? I’ve done the math on this, or at least a handy computer program has.
The last of my Birthday trains was CSX #7037.
Back next week.
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“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 
Happy Birthday! Thank you for your constancy in posting. I’ve enjoyed it all and hope for many more to come.
dbarms8878
September 6, 2024 at 7:57 pm
Happy Birthday Mitch!
leonardseastone
September 6, 2024 at 11:07 pm
Go upstairs and try the burgers (and beer) at Burghers.
Jon H.
September 9, 2024 at 9:07 am
Good tip, I’ve been eyeing them.
Mitch Waxman
September 9, 2024 at 9:08 am