Going to and coming from…
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After executing a fairly long scuttle, along the Great Allegheny Passage Trail between Homestead and the South Side Flats section of Pittsburgh, just as I was arriving at the Sly Fox brewery for a rehydration session with a coy-Le of lovely pints of Stout, the train tracks signal arms lowered and the alarm bells started ringing.
A train was a-coming. HEY NOW!
– photo by Mitch Waxman
#3418 was heading westerly, towards Ohio. It was hauling cargo boxes and tanker cars. A ‘GE ET44AH’ model locomotive, its fairly modern by CSX standard, having been built just during the last twenty or so years.
‘Grade crossings,’ as in when a vehicle/pedestrian path is interrupted to allow train egress, are pretty rare back in NYC.
Apparently, Robert Moses made it one of his missions in life to eliminate as many of NYC’s grade crossings as possible, except at Newtown Creek. Here’s one in Blissville, one in Maspeth, there’s LIRR in DUPBO, and one that’s from East Williamsburg.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The spot I was standing on was once part of the Pittsburgh & Lake Erie rail yard back in the days of steel, and the brewery I was headed to is sited in a building that used to serve as a rail yard warehousing and intermodal operation. Railroad tracks were here first, so everything else has to wait when a train comes through. Saying that, I see people racing against oncoming trains all the time. It’s only a matter of time before I photograph something horrible happening.
Hey now?
They don’t do Guinness at this establishment, but they do offer a couple of other choices in the ‘Stout’ category which I’d describe as ‘salubrious.’ After a quick visit to the porcelain within, and then to the bar, your humble narrator soon sat down for the first time in a few hours, and slurped on a pint of grog while hoping for the next train to arrive.
Vainglorious hope, and after an hour I paid my tab and started moving again. There’s an elevated truck ramp that overflies this familiar spot, which the current owners of the property have fashioned as ‘The Highline.’ I headed up there.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Just as I got to the ‘top,’ the signal arms began to chime and another train appeared, this one heading south easterly and away from Ohio.
CSX #3200, its a GE ES44AC-H model locomotive. Same basic design as #3418, I’m led to believe, but equipped with different electrical gear and traction controls.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
You have to respect ‘nerdom’ and all the facets it may take.
There’s comics people, music people, sci-fi people, philatelists, sports people. Uncredentialed experts in their fields of study, these people nevertheless are amazing fonts of knowledge about esoteric things. Like railfans are. Respect.
As stated a hundred times: I’m not a ‘railfan,’ in terms of understanding all the nuance and detail that’s rolling past the lens. I just like taking pictures of trains, an activity which I find kind of challenging.
I’m a photo nerd, these days.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After the train passed, it was time to head back to HQ and I opted for the lazy solution to getting home – calling a ride share. It’s about $12 for that fare, as Pittsburgh isn’t terribly large and HQ is roughly five miles from this spot.
Moe the dog danced and brayed on my return, then promptly fell asleep.
Back tomorrow with something different.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
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Gap Trail: Homestead to South Side, part 3
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Your humble narrator broke off of the Great Allegheny Passage trail during a walk from Homestead to the South Side Flats, briefly, to find somebody willing to sell me a Gatorade nearby the South Side Works development, here in Pittsburgh.
Another ‘used to be a steel mill’ and ‘redeveloped as a mixed use retail/residential zone’ sort of place, this South Side Works area is. CSX’s tracks flow through an underground tunnel here, which you can definitely tell when one is passing beneath the pavement.
Having soon attained a beverage, one set out of the last leg of this scuttle. My Dracula adaptation had run its course, in my headphones, and I opted to pocket the audio device for the remainder of the day.
Situational awareness. This is the start of an area which I colloquially refer to as ‘Junkie Town.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This warm and somewhat humid day was a perfect one for slurping a pint or two of beer, thought I, and then soon reacquired the GAP trail. Passing under the Birmingham Bridge, pictured above and then to the South Side Flats neighborhood towards the Sly Fox Brewery, which is often mentioned here. Sly Fox also happens to sit along a choke point in CSX’s Pittsburgh – or Keystone – Subdivision, with frequent rail traffic.
There were lots of people clustering around the water, and interacting with a loathsome specie of feathered reptile which kids call ‘Canada Goose.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’d guess that the photos embedded in these posts from this scuttle represent about five to six miles of distance by this point, but I wasn’t keeping count on this particular day. Now that I don’t have to report progress to a Doctor anymore, it’s a lot less important for me to know it was four miles, or six miles, or whatever.
I’m probably going to buy a bike sometime in the next year, just to increase my range, but I’ll offer my usual complaint about bikes which is the same one that I do about cars – you’re traveling too fast to actually see where you are and you miss the interesting stuff. Things just shoot by you too quickly.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Pictured above is what most of the trail looked like on this stretch, a long and unremarkable vegetation tunnel. At least it was shady.
As I understand it, caring for these trails is a largely volunteer effort, although governmentally sourced from ‘Uncle Sugar’ or the Commonwealth are used for equipment and consumables, like the salt used for de-icing the path during winter months. The volunteers also have to regularly deal with landslide materials which migrate down from the prominences.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Finally, I managed to scuttle out from the boring section of the walk to a more interesting section of the City, nearby the South Tenth Street Bridge and the Color Park. As mentioned above, I was already thinking about what I would order when arriving at the Sly Fox Brewery.
I also figured I’d be shooting a bunch of trains while there, so…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Color Park is where you’re supposed to do graffiti or street art in Pittsburgh, and people take advantage of that in the same way that they used to at LIC’s 5ptz, or still do at Astoria’s Welling Court back in Queens.
Back tomorrow with the Choo-Choo’s.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
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Gap Trail: Homestead to South Side, part 2
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Pictured above is a bend in the Monongahela River, found just north west of Homestead during a recent walk, here in the Pittsburgh ‘zone.’ That span in the distance is the Glenwood Bridge, a vehicle bridge which carries Route 885 between the neighborhoods of Homestead/Hays and Squirrel Hill.
The vegetation along the Great Allegheny Passage rail trail thinned out just a bit here, allowing me a chance to wave the camera around.
I had a distinct sensation of being watched, but couldn’t discern where my observer might be. Figured it was probably a security camera or something.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Norfolk Southern’s #7002 was just sitting there, all inert. Luckily, a window in the verge presented, which allowed for a somewhat clean shot. As mentioned yesterday, this particular scuttle didn’t get terribly interesting for me until the very end, which you’ll see in a couple of days.
A certain amount of my concentration was focused on the actual action of walking. Despite it having been a year since the ankle situation started, I’m still rebuilding the atrophied musculature. You don’t really think about walking, instead you just ‘do it,’ like breathing. When you’re forced to relearn the procedure, it makes one quite aware of how you ‘carry yourself.’
I’ve noticed that my left foot tends to turn outwards by 10-20 degrees during strides, a left over from the ‘protecting the ankle’ period, and I’m trying to consciously fix the gait issue while I’m walking…
…and taking pictures… while listening to Christopher Lee’s unabridged performance of ‘Dracula.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s the 1894 vintage Beck’s Run Pumphouse, if you’re curious. A bit of signage adorns the fence – here’s a zoom in on it, if you want the official story from PGH2O – Pittsburgh’s version of the NYC DEP – which handles sanitary and drinking water for the majority of the area.
A bend in the river, this is where the Monongahela begins moving in a mostly western direction towards its admixture point with the Allegheny River, where the two waterbodies form into the headwaters of the Ohio River.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
An office complex of some kind faces out onto the trail. I’m led to believe that there’s ‘Gub’mint’ work happening therein, labors of the sort that one does not pry into. Apparently, there’s a fairly significant intelligence community presence in Pittsburgh. The Rand Corporation is based in Oakland, near the Universities, for instance. Naval Intelligence also has offices in the city, or so I’m told. There’s also Department of Energy facilities nearby, one of two which had ‘DOGE’ land on them.
I continued on. This part of the path was familiar to me, having walked it previously sometime in the last three years.
Still kind of boring, but that feeling of being watched just continued.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The King Conan Towboat passed by, on the Monongahela River, handling barges of minerals.
Things get a lot more interesting for one such as myself the closer to the center of things you get. More activity, infrastructure, etc. Points of interest.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s when I noticed where that feeling of being watched came from.
I wanted to scoop that kitten up and ‘put it in my pocket,’ but I’ve got enough problems dealing with Moe the Dog to even think about adding anything else to my list of ‘have-to’s.’.
Back tomorrow.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
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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
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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.
The Newtown Pentacle 