Archive for August 2025
We gonna rock down to…
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Circumstance found me in McKeesport, a municipality which neighbors Pittsburgh. Said circumstance carried me into an industrial park, where the demolition of a fairly grand industrial building was underway.
What? I’m not going to take pictures of something like that? Sheesh.
This particular section is called ‘Turtle Creek,’ and named after a waterway which the Westinghouse Corporation’s industrial campus used to be centered around. The road you use to access this complex of manufacturing and assembly plants along the Monongahela and Youghiogheny Riverfronts is called ‘Electric Avenue.’
I cannot help but sing the song when I’m in this area, as I’m a known idiot.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Upon seeing this building, my first thought was that the Kaiju Monster Rodan had flown past and grabbed out a chunk of the structure with its massive talons. You’ll remember Rodan from its attack on NYC in 2004.
Known idiot, remember?
In all seriousness, though, I have no real idea what the purpose or identity of this building was, nor why the time and treasure to demolish it are being expended. I asked a computer to explain it all.
Via Google’s AI:
“The Regional Industrial Development Corporation (RIDC) has a history of revitalizing former industrial sites in the Mon Valley, including those in McKeesport and Turtle Creek
Specifically, the Industrial Center of McKeesport, a 133-acre site that was once home to U.S. Steel and other metal tube and pipe mill companies, has undergone significant remediation and redevelopment by RIDC since 1990.
This has included:
- Environmental remediation
- Selective demolition of some structures
- Sale of scrap materials
- Renovation and conversion of existing buildings
- Construction of new facilities
The site now houses various companies, employing over 200 people.
RIDC also acquired the former Westinghouse campus in Turtle Creek, which is now known as Keystone Commons. This site has been redeveloped into a multi-use industrial facility that houses numerous companies and employs around 1,100 people.”
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I waved the camera around for a couple of minutes, but didn’t want to get ‘ostentatious’ and draw the attentions of the security people so I just clicked out a few exposures and then beat it the hell out of there.
‘Who is to blame in one country?
Never can get to the one
Dealin’ in multiplication
And they still can’t feed everyone
Oh no, we gonna rock down to Electric Avenue
And then we’ll take it higher
Ho no, we gonna rock down to Electric Avenue
And then we’ll take it higher’
Back next week with something different.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Buy a book!
“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.
Three from Pittsburgh
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s a ‘T’ light rail train set operating at street grade, along Arlington Avenue in Pittsburgh, and sitting at a red light. The transit service is currently rerouted from its normal efficiency to accommodate a construction project rehabilitating a transit only tunnel punched through Mount Washington which it normally uses.
Your humble narrator was car based on this particular day, due to high atmospheric temperatures and a desire to see a lot of things all at once. Luckily, I’ve developed a fairly decent knowledge of how to get around hereabouts in the last three years. Zippy.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A quick drive over to Etna found me sitting under a bridge to take advantage of the offered shade. I was trying for a railroad trifecta, but Norfolk Southern wasn’t playing ball. I had other stuff to do, and my ‘me time’ interval was coming to an end.
All of the posts you’ve seen this week were captured rapid fire on that particularly hot and sultry morning.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
On my way back to where the car was parked, this truck carrying smaller trucks caught my eye. I asked the trucker if I could grab a couple of shots and he waved me on saying ‘I couldn’t give a flip.’
Back tomorrow with something different.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Buy a book!
“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.
Subdivisioning
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Dynamic was your humble narrator, as he had spied from the corner of his wicked eye a CSX train set being held static by signals nearby the Fort Pitt Bridge, while said narrator was hurtling past in his automobile. Haste was made to arrange said automobile, a Toyota, into a parking spot and nearby a familiar location.
Happy day. The signal arms flailed about and lights and bells were activated. Just like Christmas, the bells and lights. Hooray. Like a sinner from hell’s heart, that CSX train arrived in a puff of noise.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
CSX #1972 appeared. Apparently, it’s a ‘Family Lines’ ‘Heritage Unit.’ My joy at getting a nice shot, above, soon became interlocuted with sadness. The sadness intruded because of the realization that I might have to deep dive on what the hell ‘family lines’ means, and reenter the Byzantine world of the railfans.
Really, I just like taking pictures of trains. It’s a difficult subject – huge, quick moving, need to be able to react quickly when one appears… that’s me. Commenting upon how the CSX people used the wrong screw on one of the metal plates, or that this train once rolled past something important is just way outside my wheelhouse. Maritime metaphor is intentional.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I wasn’t planning on running this shot, but I got a request in the comments section a few days ago, asking about the appearance of the Sly Fox Brewery, which is often mentioned within similar posts that have also focused on CSX’s Pittsburgh Subdivision Tracks nearby this spot.
That’s Sly Fox in the background, but I wasn’t in attendance there on this particular day. First off, it was something like 11:30 a.m., and secondly I had the car with me. I also had other places to visit on this particular day.
Why use the car on a ‘photo day’? It was about 100 degrees outside with humidity and dew point levels in the 90’s.
Back tomorrow with something different.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Buy a book!
“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.
Canton Avenue, Pittsburgh
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The steepest known street in the whole world is Baldwin Street, in Dunedin, New Zealand. This abomination condemns its pedestrians to walk on a 34.8% grade. Baldwin Street holds the Guinness World Record currently for steepest street. In Wales, a former contender and holder of that Guinness Crown is Ffordd Pen Llech, found in Harlech, with a 28.6% gradient. The latter street was the steepest street for a while, as it was originally described as being set at a 37.45% gradient. Under an updated methodology used by the Guinness people, the current ‘28.6’ number was arrived at. Apparently the Welsh are appealing the decision.
(Via Google’s AI: Guinness World Records measures the steepness of a street by determining the maximum gradient over a 10-meter horizontal distance, based on the street’s centerline. This method ensures a consistent and fair comparison, as taking an average over the entire street could mask sections of extreme steepness.)
Pictured in today’s post is Pittsburgh’s Canton Avenue, found in the Beechview section, a street which has a grade of 37%. That makes it (the probable) steepest known street in the Northern Hemisphere, and whereas it might be the second steepest on earth it is certainly the steepest street in the USA (according to official sources).
I took a shot of an ‘official’ Pittsburgh signage, which proclaims this spot as ‘the steepest street in the Continental United States,’ click here for the image, and to hear it all directly from the ‘horse’s mouth.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There’s an annual bicyclist challenge ride called ‘The Dirty Dozen’ here in Pittsburgh. Participants ride up these crazy hills. This is the inverse view of Canton Avenue above, as in from the bottom. Check out those City Steps which are set along Canton as well.
Up top, it flattens out somewhat, but you’re entering an incredibly hilly section of Pittsburgh called ‘Beechview.’ Newtown Pentacle HQ is embedded into Dormont, right next to Beechview. Canton Avenue is about two miles from HQ.
This sort of terrain, while admittedly an extreme example thereof, is sort of normal here. Remember Rialto Street?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This is one of the ‘ones’ that you’re supposed to visit. While I was there, that family you see in the looking upwards shot at the top of the hill, they had just pulled up to check out Canton Avenue with the kids.
Tourist trade, yo. If I lived there, I’d probably try to sell T-Shirts out of a booth on my lawn. Printed posters, stuffed toys, rock candy. I’d know who Canton was. (Actually, I looked into it and there’s no overt record of how they came up with ‘Canton Avenue’ back in 1905 after Beechview was created. Prior to then, the Canton was called ‘First Avenue.)
If.
Back tomorrow with something different.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Buy a book!
“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.
Castling the Rook
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’ve mentioned my current obsession with Wheeling & Lake Erie’s Rook Street Yard (found on the border of Pittsburgh’s Carnegie and Greentree) last week. Recently discovered, the point of view for today’s post looks down at the yard, and the tracks leading out of it.
This location is just a 15 minute drive from HQ, so I’ve been haunting it during my comings and goings, hoping to catch a bunch of shots of the sort displayed in today’s post.
Saying all that, I’m not saying these are ‘the’ shots for this location, just rather happy that I actually managed the ‘right time/right place’ variable correctly. Looking forward to ‘working’ this location again in the future.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It was literally 95 degrees out, with what felt like a thousand percent humidity level, while I was standing in the sun on a steel and concrete bridge spanning the tracks. The little scanner radio thingamabob was with me too, so I was listening in on their radio chatter.
Wheeling & Lake Erie #3073 was at the head of this steel snake. Funnily enough, they never left the yard, and were instead just repositioning the lines of tanker cars that were being held on the yard’s spurs.
Going to have to come back to get a shot or two of them heading off into that trench, that leads to the tunnel, which leads to a trestle, which then connects through Seldom Seen Greenway on its way towards… Bethel Park, actually… and then… and then…
Yeah, I think that I’m starting to figure this place out.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Saying that, still have lots to learn. This particular point of view includes a fairly safe spot to park the car, but it’s also a location that definitively requires an automobile to get to. Recent endeavor saw me buzzing all around the zone one recent day, starting at this POV over the Rook Yard. You’ll see all that over the next few days.
Tomorrow – something completely different.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Buy a book!
“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 