Hey now, a train’s a-coming…
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
So, this is how I wrapped up the first scuttle of the post broken ankle period, back at the brewery alongside CSX’s tracks in Pittsburgh’s South Side Flats neighborhood. I don’t have to wait long before the signal arms began chiming and CSX #7589 appeared.
My plan didn’t involve much more than grabbing a quick beer and then summoning a car to drive me back home. According to the not entirely accurate ‘health’ app on my phone, I had taken 7,742 steps since leaving the PT appointment, and then boarding a T light rail, which brought me to this area.
Not bad, really, and with all things considered.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The combination of the PT appointment and the walk had inflamed the ankle and the thing had swole up a bit. That’s normal, the surgeon tells me, and I can expect to be dealing with swelling after exercise for at least the next year. When the cab dropped me off at HQ, your humble narrator was absolutely spent. I oozed into my reclining La-Z-Boy style chair and just sat there moaning for about thirty minutes.
Eventually, I managed to unpeel the shoes off of my feet. When sleepy time arrived, I hit the pillows and was out for nine straight hours. Surprisingly, the next day I was pretty ok. Sore, but ok. Progress!
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It’s going to take me a bit of time to get back to normal, that’s for sure. Rebuilding muscle and stretching out all of the internal rubber bands in the foot and ankle is not going to be fun, but pain is the oldest and best friend I have, after all. I can always count on pain, who never turns its back on me. Pain also doesn’t betray or gaslight, it’s loyal.
Pain is family.
Back next week with more tales from a broken and enfeebled man, and his busted ankle, at this – your Newtown Pentacle.
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The Newtown Pentacle 
What’s the story with the single railcar parked behind the brewpub? Google Earth shows it preceded the Sly Fox at that location. Pre-graffiti, it was a good example of an early 20th Century passenger car. Is it part of the brewpub? Looks pretty trashy now.
Liman
January 24, 2025 at 1:18 pm
There’s a muni park dubbed ‘colors park’ here, one which allows and encourages free expression in the form of graffiti. I’m told they operate in a manner similar to the way that Meres and the 5ptz crew used to curate their site. The building that the brewery is in used to be a rail warehouse terminal building which has been bought, rethought, and gentrified by a NYC based real estate company that’s using the Brooklyn Army or Bush Terminal as it’s inspiration. Just like that far away part of Brooklyn, however, the rents aren’t competitive t with the other commercial or residential spaces found in the same area and the complex seems somewhat empty at the retail level except for the brewery and new burger restaurant up on the elevated ramp. This entire complex, including ‘Station Square’ used to be a fairly active rail yard, so I imagine the ‘Pennsy’ rail car was placed there for historical reasons.
Mitch Waxman
January 24, 2025 at 1:38 pm
Thanks for the robust response. Our rail heritage is disappearing, so I hate to see any of it sacrificed. The beer menu at the Sly Fox is enticing. References to the BAT and Bush Terminal strike chords. My mother worked at at Bush Terminal in a defense industry during the War. Sad that the good ideas for their resuscitation haven’t panned out so well.
Liman
January 24, 2025 at 3:15 pm
They haven’t, bush terminal wise. Unfortunately it’s the property of NYC EDC, an authority which is neither nyc centric nor do they develop the economy in any way other than taking it up the ass everytime REBNY calls for a favor. For their current hijinks, check out their brilliant plan for Brooklyn’s Atlantic Basin. Traffic problems? Let’s get rid of the very last cargo port on the east river, that’ll fix ‘em.
Mitch Waxman
January 24, 2025 at 3:41 pm
man, I have GOT to get to that bar.
Daniel Katzive
January 24, 2025 at 1:24 pm
Sly Fox Brewing at the Highline, near the T. It’s a bit of trip for ya – up the Hudson, barge canal, Mohawk, Great Lakes, Erie, down the Allegheny and then on to the Monongahela. There’s plenty of places to tie up, though.
Mitch Waxman
January 24, 2025 at 1:39 pm
Maybe i will hop a freight.
Daniel Katzive
January 24, 2025 at 1:42 pm
Bring a sweater then
Mitch Waxman
January 24, 2025 at 1:44 pm