Rolling, rolling, scuttling
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As described in prior posts, one was engaged in a constitutional walk with an ulterior purpose of capturing a few photos along the way. I was scuttling along Pittsburgh’s P.J. McArdle roadway, which that suspension bridge pictured above is a part of. The bridge overflies a set of Norfolk Southern RR tracks.
There was some kind of track maintenance operation underway that was kicking up a good amount of dust, just around the bend.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The characteristic rumble of a locomotive engine from the direction of that bend signaled that a train was about to appear. The shot above is significantly cropped out of a full frame shot, in order to provide detail, I should mention. But… a train was coming.
Hooray for me, I can be happy again.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Happily photographed, the train continued along its way and so did I. This was a relatively short walk, and I had other things to do back at HQ. I looped around the waterfront and headed back to the T light rail station, where I caught my ride back to Dormont some five or so miles distant.
Back tomorrow with something different.
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Peripheral scuttling
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The walking route which occupied this particular Tuesday afternoon has become kind of familiar to me, and it’s a path which mirrors the Monongahela River’s southern shoreline. One was scuttling along the elevated P.J. McArdle roadway. The roadway has a nice pedestrian and bike lane which is separated from vehicle traffic by a line of concrete ‘Jersey barriers.’
The roadway structure juts out from a slope and is supported by a cantilever, which sticks out from the steep side of Pittsburgh’s Mount Washington. Above me, and to the right in the POV above, I’m told that the neighborhood is called the ‘South Side Slopes,’ and down below and to the left in the shot above – it’s the ‘South Side Flats.’
This is a great Pittsburgh walk, as it’s all downhill, but you get to walk on a comfortable and graded angle. I’ve also walked up this path, and that’s a real and sweaty workout as it’s a steady ‘push’ against the elevation.
I was walking downhill, as I’m lazy – just ask anyone.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Railroad tracks are set into a berm on the landform’s base, which is one of the lines which carry the Norfolk Southern RR outfit’s rolling stock through the city. Traffic along these tracks is pretty frequent, but it’s become one of my missions to find unoccluded points of view on the line – which is somewhat easier said than done.
The leather reclining chair spotted alongside the tracks made me wonder, and more than wonder. Admittedly, there’s a few homeless camps in the area, but – wow – it must have been quite an expenditure of effort to get that heavy leather chair to this spot. Odd.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There’s a small bridge which is part of the roadway, one which overflies the aforementioned rail tracks. It’s a neat spot to get rail shots from, and it’s one of several spots where I’ve ‘gotten lucky’ in the past.
Again – to be clear – not railfanning. I just like taking photos of trains.
Saying that – back tomorrow with some Choo-Choo.
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Now, more than ever, scuttle on
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Tote that camera, lift them feets, scuttle forth – that was the order of the day for a humble narrator, after clearing the deck of other ‘have-to’s.’ The now familiar routine of climbing a hill, and then another shallower hill, found me again standing at the T light rail station here in Pittsburgh’s Borough of Dormont, waiting for a ride ‘into town.’
It was exercise day again, but I really wasn’t feeling it. The main thing I was feeling was pain in my right shoulder, and a certain bewilderment about how I managed to injure myself while sleeping. Doesn’t matter, really, as everything hurts all the time these days. Pain is my oldest and most loyal friend.
The plan on this particular day – which was a Tuesday – was to commit about three hours of time to constant movement, with the hope that I might randomly encounter a few things worth pointing the camera at.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My first destination involved what was probably trespassing, but there we are. I hung around this area and did a bit of scouting nearby these railroad tracks, but the signal boards visible behind me were all flashing steady red indicators, and there was some sort of track maintenance hullabaloo underway in the distance – so ‘No Bueno’ as far as trains a the time I was there. One hung around for a few minutes nevertheless, whereupon the fact that this was a ‘photowalk’ and not a ‘photo stand around and wait’ occurred to me.
One of my many rules, loosely followed during these photowalk/exercise day outings, is to keep moving. If there isn’t anything interesting going on when I’m passing by, it’s ‘not meant to be’ and I should keep scuttling along until something interesting collides with my path. I call this ‘serendipity,’ but I’m famously an idiot. Just ask anyone.
A humble narrator is not a patient man, but I’m working on that flaw. I’ve got an entire portfolio of flaws, just ask anyone.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s the downtown Pittsburgh skyline pictured above, as seen from alongside this set of empty railroad tracks. A South Hills bound T light rail train set was leaving the Panhandle Bridge over the Monongahela River, and crossed into the camera’s frame.
I would encounter rail traffic later on in my afternoon, I’d mention, which you’ll see ‘shots of’ in a subsequent post. The History of Rome podcast was still active on my headphone’s playlist, and was describing the reign of Emperor Tiberius and his treacherous Praetorian henchman Sejanus. Given that I’m a huge fan of the British ‘I, Claudius’ television series, it’s difficult to not picture a young Patrick Stewart when Sejanus comes up.
Back tomorrow.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
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Rain scuttling
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A few odds and ends from a rainy day walk in Pittsburgh for today.
The shot above depicts the scene from a section of the metro area called ‘Uptown.’ The skyscrapers rising out of the mist are in ‘Downtown,’ and it was everything I could do to not break out into a song from the catalogue of the ‘Little Shop of Horrors’ theatrical production.
At the end of the walk, my companion used his phone to calculate our mileage between the two parked cars, which ended up being something in the neighborhood of seven miles – if memory serves. My ‘Mobile Oppression Platform’ was waiting for us downtown, whereas his ‘two ton murder machine’ was behind us in Oakland.
I hope to never be unthankful to the good people of NYC’s Transportation Alternatives lobbying operation for introducing many hyperbolic terms to my vocabulary. A favorite from the last months I served as the Transportation Committee Chair for the Astoria community board was that when a driver placed a key into the ignition of a motor vehicle, they were entering into a state of ‘pre murder.’ Two wheels good, four wheels bad, just ask ‘em.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Speaking of murder, there’s a new Facebook group that’s sprung up which calls itself ‘Death Stairs.’ It took the Pittsburgh commentariot about three days to overwhelm the moderators, and entirely take over the group.
This lonely collection of ‘rises and runs,’ which led from ‘nowhere’ to ‘somewhere else you don’t want to go,’ captured our attentions when we walked past them and they demanded a shot or two.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s the Birmingham Bridge, connecting Pittsburgh’s peninsular section to the ‘South Side’ across the Monongahela River. There’s a few posts which I’ve offered about the span in the archives, including one where I walked over the thing. It’s a neat bridge.
Back with something different, from the Paris of Appalachia, at this – your Newtown Pentacle – next week.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
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Soggy in Pittsburgh
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Pittsburgh’s Oakland section, where you’ll find the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University and a staggering number of cultural organizations like the Carnegie Museum, is the most ‘urban’ part of the metro area – to my eyes. It’s crowded with high pedestrian volumes, stores operating at street level which are selling sandwiches and tacos, and there’s densely packed automotive traffic as well. There’s people zipping by on bikes, and crazy guys screaming ‘President got his hand in my pocket’ to no one in particular. The streets are noisy and narrow and kind of dirty… like I said – ‘urban.’
My soggy companion and I diverted from the ‘main drag’ and soon found ourselves walking down one of the many ‘alleys’ or ‘Way’ streets. They call an alley a ‘way’ here. Guess ‘way’ sounds better than alley.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The ‘Ways’ are proper but narrow streets, I’d mention, but this is where the garbage trucks operate and you see a lot of the surrounding building’s infrastructure along these alleys. There’s plenty of business addresses based along these back streets, I’d mention, as well as student housing and parking lots.
As described earlier this week, this walk was a bit of an experiment. My car was parked in the downtown area, and my companion’s was in a lot about a mile and change behind us. My friend and I’s goal involved walking mostly downhill from Oakland back to my vehicle, whereupon I’d drive him back here and we’d then go our separate ways.
It worked out, the plan, I’d mention.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This is a pretty interesting section of Pittsburgh, I’d also mention.
The post steel mill economic plan for the city is defined by the phrase ‘Ed’s and Med’s’ which indicates a ‘bend over backwards’ municipal policy to satisfy the aspirations of both the Universities (Ed’s) and the Hospitals (Med’s), and to draw in National level investments for both systems. Hey, the Polio vaccine was perfected by Jonas Salk just a few blocks way from this spot, so there’s precedent.
A few miles away, one of the most terrifying things I’ve ever heard of is being worked on – self driving and autonomous Semi trucks – so the plan is definitely pulling some bucks in from the tech industry and automotive sectors.
I’ve said it a bunch of times over the years – when there’s an example of a self driving locomotive, I’ll start taking that self driving car aspirational technology seriously. If ‘self driving’ hasn’t been sorted out on vehicles that operate on tracks…
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 