Good gander
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Continuing with observations and photos from a scuttle along the Ohio River, here in Pittsburgh. Along the waterfront trail, I encountered this jerk. All Canada Geese are jerks.
One decided to sit and cool his heels for a few minutes, and take a good look around. A series of broken cement plinths line the shore here, and there was a guy about 200 feet away that was fishing.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Across the water from my location is Brunot’s Island, which is off limits to the normal humans who don’t work for a power company which maintains a peaker power plant there.
It felt like something was about to happen, and I was keeping an eye on a few different spots in hope of something to focus in on.
A lovely summer like day at any rate, and it was a real pleasure just sitting alongside the Ohio River, tbh.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A wider view of my situation. That’s Brunot’s Island on the right, and you can see the peaker plant right at the water. The bridge in the distance (specifically the Ohio Connecting Railroad Bridge) is a rail bridge, which is used by the Norfolk Southern railroading outfit.
That bridge was one of the things I was watching, an effort which sort of paid off.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A train appeared, and started transiting over the span. In the foreground was a tugboat with a peculiar barge attached to it. More on that later.
Wonders, I tell you… wonders.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Upon reaching the other side of the river, Norfolk Southern’s tracks branch out both east and west after passing through a wye. There’s a pretty large NS yards both north and south of here which I haven’t visited yet, but are on my list.
I’ve only been consciously shooting trains for a little bit, as in ‘I’m going out in pursuit of getting shots of trains,’ but one thing I’ve learned is to look for the choke points where all the trackways converge.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As to why the barge that the tugboat was towing was ‘peculiar,’ it’s because it was a landing craft. It seems that the power company which controls access to Brunot’s Island maintains this system for vehicular access to the landform in lieu of building a bridge. Seems financially untenable, until you consider what building a vehicle bridge would cost.
Back next week with more – at this – your Newtown Pentacle.
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Interesting. I didn’t know Fedex used rail. That barge and tugboat serve the function of a dedicated ferry, which one would expect to see here.
dbarms8878
May 24, 2025 at 7:24 pm
[…] along, a Norfolk Southern train was seen on the Ohio Connecting Railroad Bridge, on the Ohio River. This 2025 post from a painful scuttle at the end of May describes the section of the river from the ground level on the northern […]
Bottoms end | The Newtown Pentacle
December 8, 2025 at 11:00 am