Archive for October 2025
Gap Trail: Homestead to South Side, part 1
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The Great Allegheny Passage rail trail is a bike and pedestrian path which connects Pittsburgh to Washington D.C. via the right of way of defunct railroads. It begins at Pittsburgh’s Point State Park and proceeds to Cumberland in Maryland, and then to Washington D.C. following more or less the path of the Potomac River. I’ve been walking the Pittsburgh side of it in sections, and this scuttle started in Homestead.
The enormous brick chimneys are a historic leave behind from the largest steel factory on earth, which was once found here. Today, squatting in the footprint of the mill is a gargantuan shopping center called ‘The Waterfront.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I was all huffed up for this one, but it ended up being a fairly boring walk – to be honest – until its very end.
Heavy vegetation obscured many of the wonders the path moves past, and it was also a quite warm and humid afternoon. I had a rideshare drop me off in the parking lot of a Costco, plugged my headphones into the ear holes, and then got down to scuttling about.
This time around, it was an unabridged audio play of Christopher Lee performing Bram Stoker’s ‘Dracula.’ Lee performs all of the voice parts himself, including Lucy and Mina, which was fascinating.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The first thing encountered on the trail is a water park called ‘Sand Castle.’ It was closed, as this was a weekday and the kids are back in school. This is good, as I was able to take photos of the place without children present so nobody accused me of being a pervert or a pedophile.
It’s amazing how many people see a ‘professional’ camera and think ‘he must be taking perv pics of kids’ with that. Odds are it’s not a stranger who’s going to abuse your kids, folks, it’s your weird uncle. Just saying.
As a note: Pervs and the ‘upskirt crowd’ generally use their phones for such pursuits, and not a very obvious DSLR with a huge zoom lens on it that draws attention. In recent years, I’ve actually tried to stick out and be incredibly obvious when out photographing. I used to wear a reflective worker’s vest around the Creek, particularly at night. A blaze orange ball cap has become part of my kit in recent years, as an example.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As mentioned, I wasn’t terribly happy with my decision to walk this section, and there’s a couple of reasons why I haven’t done so in the past.
The path follows the Monongahela River, and I’ve scuttled along the opposite shoreline’s ’Duck Hollow Trail’ previously. Just to the southeast is another section of the GAP trail which I find fantastic – nearby the community of Duquesne.
This section of the Gap trail passes by Hays Woods, a natural preserve and park. What the first two links show is a massive amount of infrastructure and rail activity, and what this section offers is basically a walk in a shit section of the woods. Bah!
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Regardless, I’m a completist. Had to scratch this section off my list.
At least I had Dracula.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Speaking as a former New Yorker, the subject of public bathrooms always annoys me. Bringing it up with ‘officialdom’ back home usually resulted in representatives of the City of New York saying they’d have to spend multiple millions in order to build any kind of public accommodation, and thereby it never builds lavatories. Then they bring up security, junkies, and the Cops to further why ‘they can’t.’ Ultimately, it’s affordable housing and bike lanes that will solve the problem, just as they will all the other things.
It positively galls me that little Pittsburgh has solved this most basic problem of human existence with low cost ‘Porta Potty’ leases. These things are everywhere. Even here on a trail in the middle of nowhere. They even set out a disabled style one ready for wheelchair people.
Grrr.
Back tomorrow.
“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.
Captive photons
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Today brings you another ‘odds and ends’ post, populated by photos gathered during various walks that didn’t quite fit into other narrative posts describing the effort. Your humble narrator is operating a bit closer to the actual chronological time that you’re reading this, as well. Pretty much the entire month of September’s offerings were written and scheduled for publication by the last week of August.
This post, and the seven or eight which will directly follow it, are being written during the last week of September.
Pictured above is the Duquesne Incline, one of Pittsburgh’s two remaining funicular railways.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Pictured is a gas station, at the center of Pittsburgh’s Borough of Dormont, where Newtown Pentacle HQ currently resides.
I’ve been keeping busy during this interval, taking advantage of a late summer bloom of heat to get busy kicking a bunch of dirt while scuttling, and burning out mile after mile. I’m back on the ‘twice a week’ schedule, finally. By the time winter rolls in, it should be back to my standard ‘two short walks of about five miles each, with a weekend walk of about ten miles’ built into my schedule. The one year anniversary for the broken ankle sailed through on the 18th of September, during which I was out and taking a fairly long walk.
Too legit to quit, me. Quite stoppable, I am, but only temporarily so.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Mount Oliver is a residential neighborhood that’s nearby Dormont, and I found myself cooling my heels there for a bit, waiting on a ‘thing.’ I had parked the Mobile Oppression Platform in a convenient spot and then realized that a nearby graveyard was set into an elevated plinth. That put my POV at more or less coffin level, given where I was sitting. Can’t resist that sort of thing, me.
There’s lots of things I can’t resist.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Occasion found me waltzing through Dormont, accompanying Our Lady of the Pentacle on one of her many missions. She was doing a bunch of things and I decided to just sit down at a coffee shop, grab a ‘cuppa’ and hang out nearby the T light rail station while waiting for her to finish up.
An ancillary benefit of this coffee break was having a nice ‘perch’ to shoot photos of passing rail sets from.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Hey, there’s that same gas station again.
I’ve been trying to force myself into executing a short road trip during the next few weeks, to take advantage of ‘leaf season’ in the ‘burning hills of Pennsylvania’ – as it’s called.
Either Altoona or Oil City are on my list (possibly both), for sometime in mid October. I’m also quite desirous of experiencing a proper Halloween this year.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
‘Odds and ends’ presentations and commentary for this Thursday post is hereby finished. Go ponder something, lords and ladies. PONDER!
Tomorrow, back 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.
Your scheduled dose of trains
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Yeah, this post gets a little excessive, but… Hey Now… it was my birthday – and CSX just kept on keeping on… so…
#5220 was the first CSX train that hurtled past the Sly Fox Brewery in Pittsburgh, on a late August evening. It was a very, very good evening for trains despite it being a Saturday night. Our Lady of the Pentacle and myself were in the company of friends, including our out of town guests whom we had ridden the tourist bus with the day before. Fun.
5220 is apparently a GE ES44DC ‘evolution series’ model locomotive.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
#3397, a GE ET44AH model locomotive, appeared next. It too is a GE Evolution Series locomotive, but seems to be a different model than the previous one. I think we can guess where the CSX people like to shop.
Me? I like to think about Superman… so, I asked a computer to do the math on what the physical reality of Superman stopping a speeding train might entail, so via Google’s AI:
Newton’s First Law: The law of inertia
- The train is in motion and will remain in motion at a constant velocity unless an unbalanced external force acts upon it.
- The immense mass of the train gives it a tremendous amount of inertia.
- Superman’s role is to act as the unbalanced external force that overcomes the train’s inertia and brings it to a halt.
Newton’s Second Law: Force, mass, and acceleration
- The fundamental equation for stopping the train is F=m×a𝐹=𝑚×𝑎.
- Force (F): Superman must apply an immense force in the direction opposite to the train’s motion. This force must be greater than the train’s accelerating force and other resistive forces like rolling friction.
- Mass (m): A train has a massive amount of mass, which means a very large force is required to change its velocity. For example, a large freight train could weigh 10 million kg.
- Acceleration (a): A negative acceleration, or deceleration, is the goal. For a safe stop, this deceleration must be gradual to prevent injury to the passengers. A safe stop would have a small negative acceleration spread over a longer time and distance.
Newton’s Third Law: Action-reaction
- For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.
- As Superman pushes on the train to stop it (the action), the train exerts an equal and opposite force back on Superman (the reaction).
- For a normal human, this equal and opposite force would be devastating. Superman’s durability and strength allow him to withstand this reaction force, unlike a normal person, who would be crushed instantly.
Conservation of energy
- A speeding train possesses a large amount of kinetic energy, which is defined by the formula KE=12mv2𝐾𝐸=12𝑚𝑣2. The enormous mass and velocity result in a colossal amount of energy that must be dissipated.
- Superman must perform work to remove this kinetic energy from the train. Work is defined as force multiplied by the distance over which the force is applied (W=F×d𝑊=𝐹×𝑑).
- The longer the distance Superman takes to stop the train, the less force he has to apply at any given moment. This is why a gradual stop is safer, as it dissipates the energy over a longer period and distance, lessening the strain on both the train and its passengers.
Realistic versus fantastical scenarios
- Fantastical “Brute Force” Stop: If Superman were to instantly stop the train by standing in front of it, the physics would be catastrophic. The sudden, near-instantaneous change in momentum would exert a massive, bone-crushing force on the passengers. The train itself would likely be ripped apart, sending cars and debris flying and derailing the train. The pressure on the tracks would be unbearable, causing them to fracture.
- Physically Responsible Stop: To stop the train safely, Superman would act as a massive braking force behind or in front of the train, applying a steady, constant force over a long distance. By pushing against the train and the tracks, he could dissipate its kinetic energy gradually, mimicking a safe, controlled braking process. This would prevent violent jolting and structural failure, safeguarding the passengers. Superman’s fictional abilities allow him to perform this feat in a way that is impossible for a real-world object.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
#3000 is a GE ES44AC-H locomotive engine, yet another variant in the Evolution series (linked to above). All of these trains were moving east/southeast along the Monongahela River and ‘away from Ohio.’ I’ve got limited experiences regarding Ohio, but leaving it seems like a good option for anyone or anything. Blech.
I asked the same computer, at Google, what it knew about freight traffic and volume along these subdivision tracks and the machine said:
- Company-wide average: In 2024, CSX reported an overall volume increase of 2% and an average of 1,848 trains operated per day across its entire network.
- Nearby operations: For perspective on rail traffic in the Pittsburgh area, Norfolk Southern’s Pittsburgh Line is reported to handle between 50 and 70 trains daily. While this is not CSX traffic, it illustrates the high density of rail activity in the region.
- General freight types: The CSX Keystone Subdivision, which runs between Pittsburgh and Cumberland, Maryland, carries a variety of freight traffic, including intermodal, grain, coal, and mixed freight. It also hosts Amtrak’s Capitol Limited passenger service.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
#815 appeared next, moving westerly towards Ohio, and it’s yet another GE ES44AC-H model locomotive engine.
This is the juncture where I feel the need to restate that I’m not a ‘railfan’ other than that I like taking pictures of trains. It’s important to me that actual railfans don’t think I’m trying to sound intelligent while pooping on their parade or something when mentioning that ‘I don’t care if the wrong screw is holding one of those lights on.’ I’m learning all of this rail stuff on the fly, and ultimately I’m seeking a cool shot rather than just indexing things in an encyclopedic manner. Nerding out on something esoteric is enjoyable to me, but that’s not where I’m going with all this. I’m ignorant, largely, of this nerdom phyla and I’m just trying to puncture that.
I see cool things, take pictures of them, then write about what I saw.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
#7289 was next. I was unable to find anything reliable to tell you about its model or make, but it seems I’ve photographed it before in this post from 2024.
The evening was starting to wrap up. We had all drank our fill of beers, and it was time to start thinking about food. As mentioned, it was my birthday, which I always try to keep simple. If the universe is going to ‘eff with you, or me in particular, it’s going to be on your own personal holiday. That’s my history, at least.
Also, it was the anniversary of the Pittsburgh incident of 1968.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
We gathered ourselves up, summoned rideshare vehicles to carry us back to HQ, and had a bite to eat back there. Moe the Dog was very pleased with the situation as he was able to purloin table scraps. He’s an odd dog, I should mention – as he likes bananas and broccoli. We generally don’t serve those two things on the same plate, as a note.
Back tomorrow.
“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 