Archive for the ‘Pennsylvania’ Category
Outside, always
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After quaffing an adult beverage at a local brewery, and getting a couple of shots of a passing train, it was time to scuttle back to the T light rail station for my ride back to HQ. This was to be the ultimate T ride home for me, as the next day a prolonged interval of maintenance would begin and the light rail service serving my particular paradigm will be unavailable until autumn. They’re running shuttle buses in the interim, the Governmental Transit agency is, but it ain’t the same for one such as myself.
While shlepping along, I kept on shooting.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There are three active light rail lines which disperse into Pittsburgh’s South Hills region – red, blue, and silver. The Red one is getting the maintenance attention, and that’s the one which HQ is found along, unfortunately and of course.
As mentioned yesterday, it was ungodly hot out on this particular evening, and I couldn’t help but remark on the fantastic luck of walking in direct sunlight for most of it. Good stuff.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Luckily, the light rail service station was held in total shadow. Unluckily, the maintenance work, further upstream on the service, saw me cooling my heels there for the better part of an hour waiting for the correct light rail train set to arrive and carry me home. Bah!
The thing finally arrived, and I shoveled my sloppy from sweating pre carcass onboard and found a seat.
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.
Steppin out
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After descending down the South 18th Street Steps, found in Pittsburgh’s South Side Slopes section, one hung around a bit as I was on eye level with a set of train tracks used by the Norfolk Southern outfit and knew that a train was likely to appear. I couldn’t see it coming, due to the heavy vegetation surrounding the tracks, so I popped the headphones out of my ears and listened for the hum of a train approaching.
This shot required some luck, as I started firing the shutter on the camera as soon as the thing entered frame on the left, and I was quick enough to catch the shot above, offering a clean profile of the locomotive. One second before and one second after, the train was obscured by the brush.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Happy with an image or two of the scene ensconced on the camera’s memory card, a humble narrator resumed his endless scuttling and headed towards the Monongahela River frontage, where – entirely coincidentally – that Brewery I’ve been patronizing is found.
Hey, it was 96 degrees and super humid out… what am I supposed to do? Not hydrate? Pfah.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Luckily for me, a CSX freight train appeared while I was… ahem… rehydrating. #837 is apparently a GE ES44AC-H model locomotive.
I’m sure that means a lot to someone, but all I can say is that I really enjoyed getting a few shots of it as it thundered past.
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.
18th street steps
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As has been mentioned in prior installments, a humble narrator has working his way around Pittsburgh’s inventory of ‘City Steps’ in recent weeks. Serendipity found me standing on the veritable breach of the 18th Street Steps recently, found in Pittsburgh’s ‘South Side Slopes’ section.
Somebody installed a pleasing bit of signage for this pathway, I’d mention, a close up of which you can admire here. The steps enjoy the same status that sidewalks do, as in they’re there for the scuttling public to use.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This set is a bit shallower than the German Square steps that I’ve described in the past, and offer a plunging descent that’s probably no greater than about six building stories.
As the name would indicate, these South 18th street steps deposit pedestrian traffic onto South 18th street in the South Side Flats area. There’s actually something quite magical about these paths, I’d also mention. Hidden corridors, surrounded by lush vegetation and private residential lots, and you don’t have to worry about motor vehicles or bicycles suddenly appearing and smashing into you. Instead you worry about stumbling, but that’s a different banana.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This set of steps ends in a high set structure which winds down to the street level, but what drew me to this particular path was a POV which I had noticed one day while driving through on that street down there. I walked down to a shady patch on the next landing and hung around for a few minutes hoping to see a train moving through.
Oddly, I was experiencing a slight bit of vertigo while walking this section, and thereby held onto the steel bannister while doing so.
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.
Walking in a nowhere land
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The kids called it the ‘Union Railroad Rankin Hot Metal Bridge #35,’ back in 1900 when this railroad bridge opened alongside Carrie Furnace and the Homestead Works. Whew! A glorious bit of scuttling this was.
I snapped that 16mm wide angle lens onto the camera for this walk over the Monongahela River.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Graffiti art adorned every flat surface within sight, and there seemed to have been a few acrobats counted amongst the corps of artists, as evinced by tagging that was observed high up in the rafters.
I’ve never been a good climber, personally. I lumber about like some sad and masterless pack animal stuck to the ground. Slow, dull witted, foul smelling – that’s me. Just ask anyone.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I wasn’t doing anything systematic, incidentally, as far as where I took a photo or not – in other words – it wasn’t ‘every ten feet’ or anything. Just whatsoever might have caught my eye while scuttling along.
Sometimes I like to hold the camera low, just above hip level and against the belly, swinging the screen out so I can wield the thing like it’s an old viewmaster.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Back at the entrance section to this storied marvel, on the southeastern shore of the Monongahela River. This waterbody is shaped like a coiling snake, I’d mention, and I’m never sure which cardinal direction is which.
I never bought a compass, which is something I said I would do a while ago. Just another hatched mark on my list of failures, I guess.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One last shot looking back at the bridge, in the direction of the campus of Carrie Furnace. Wish I could tell you which direction, but no compass, as mentioned above.
It’s been a rough month of June for me, what with all the doctor’s appointments and diagnostic tests. I hate being the subject of scientific inquiry, as has been mentioned in the past, but ‘you gotta do what you gotta do.’
I pointed my toes in the direction of the hole in the fence which allowed me egress here, and the final mile or so of this walk on the Great Appalachian Passage trail, here in Pittsburgh (although this was technically Homestead and or Munhall, and the other side of the bridge is in Rankin, but that’s just splitting hairs).
– photo by Mitch Waxman
These shots were gathered before the week long heat wave that affected most of the nation set in, a weather event which largely shut me down. I always refer to such times as a ‘reverse blizzard,’ but I’m an idiot – just ask anyone.
Back next week with something different at this – your Newtown Pentacle.
“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.
A real nowhere man
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A very productive constitutional walk, during which I had scuttled out somewhere in the neighborhood of about five to six miles (or – as I call it – a short walk) and then loitered around the Great Allegheny Passage’s ‘Whitaker Flyover’ pedestrian bridge – where the trains just kept on coming – was accomplished and one had reversed course for the walk back to the car.
Saying all that, it was that time of the day which I describe as ‘solar maximum’ and the weather was getting ‘shvitzy.’ I began heading back to the lot where I had parked the Mobile Oppression Platform, adjoining the Homestead Pumphouse site. From there, I’d start the roughly thirty minute drive back to HQ. One last thing, though…
I had planned on making a quick stop to wave the camera around, at this 1900 vintage ‘Union Railroad Rankin Hot Metal Bridge #35 (aka the Carrie Furnace Hot Metal Bridge)’ and to commit some photography upon it while on my way. I’ve mentioned this structure before.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Quoting from the post linked to above:
“This span was used as a rail bridge, is some 483 feet long, and is supported by three stout masonry piers. It was built to connect the Carrie Furnace and Edgar Thomson works on the northern shore to the rail network found on the south side of the (Monongahela) river, and it also served as a connection to nearby U.S. Steel plants in Homestead and Clairton, as well as offering ingress for incoming rail shipments of coal and coke, which fueled the various operations.”
Y’know, I hope to never have to rewrite that paragraph.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Saying that, the methodology I’ve been talking about since moving to Pittsburgh is now entering a different phase. There’s still an infinity of experiences that are novel and still unknown, but I’m also starting to choose certain subjects which I’ve found intriguing and will be returning to explore them a bit more deeply.
To analogize all this in an very, very NYC sort of manner, where I’m at is – ‘I figured out where some a dem subway stations is’s, now’s I’s gotta go ridin on da friggin train to see’n where’s dose mothaflowas go… feel me?’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The photos in this section are roughly from the middle of the bridge. I was walking approximately south to north here, and the approaches of the thing have been cut and demolished on the Carrie Furnace side of the Monongahela River.
This really must have been something to see, ‘back in the day.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Pretty epic views from up here, but this bridge is in an advanced state of decay. I recently had a Tetanus Booster, so I was feeling pretty good about myself right about here, but there’s all sorts of trip hazards and rusted out decking that you can easily get hurt by. Me? I’ve inhabited places like this all my life and know how not to get hurt around this sort of thing.
It’s nothing crazy, but be careful if visiting because medical bills suck.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There’s a decayed wooden walkway on the outside superstructure of the bridge, which looked just like a Darwin Award waiting to happen. No Bueno.
The section I was walking on was concrete and steel, and still pretty solid. Heavily rusted steel that you could probably punch a hole in with a screwdriver (or just your finger) was everywhere, but it’s still steel.
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 