Mundane funsburgh
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Our Lady of the Pentacle led the charge on a recent weekend day, when she announced that she’d like us to attend an ‘Oddities’ convention at Pittsburgh’s Convention Center, which is found along the Allegheny River on the so called ‘Golden Triangle.’ It was your standard sort of ‘con’ show, with individual vendors and artists tabling in booths and selling or displaying their wares. Taxidermy was a big part of this ‘oddities’ dealie, but there were all sorts of people selling all kinds of ‘weird’ stuff.
Personally, I grew colossally bored after about 45 minutes. So I announced that I was going to take a powder for awhile and meet up with Our Lady (and a couple of friends) after they had explored the offerings. It was basically a shopping trip at this point, which is something I don’t find fun. I headed outside into an atmosphere bitter cold and heavy wind.
That’s when I heard it. Diesel.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The Fort Wayne Rail Bridge, and I should mention that I had left my ‘superzoom’ lens at home and was armed only with an 85mm prime lens, was allowing egress from the central peninsula of Downtown Pittsburgh and across the Allegheny River to the ‘North Side’ for a Norfolk Southern’s train allowing it access to the trackage found along the Ohio River.
Wooie!
Wish I had the zoom with me, but I kind of like these shots of the Norfolk Southern’s transit for some reason.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It was hauling tanker cars, ones which were too far away for me to have any idea what was in them. Gotta say that when you see a train going by and the screed on the tanker car says something like ‘WARNING! Molten Sulfur,’ it does give you pause. Law of averages says that eventually something’s going to go badly, somewhere. Remember East Palestine, in Ohio, when that train exploded and burnt? About 70-80 miles from my house in Pittsburgh, that was.
Of course, when I lived in Manhattan, 911 happened six miles from my house, so you’re really not safe from disaster anywhere. I’ve always strived to be an optimist, Y’see.
Back tomorrow.
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Cola Street
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Circumstance recently found your humble narrator on Pittsburgh’s Cola Street, where one of the City’s more eye catching residences (302 Cola Street, well described in this post from brooklineconnection.com) is found. Colloquially referred to as ‘the colors house,’ #302 is an eye catcher which you can’t help but notice while transiting through the central part of Pittsburgh.
I couldn’t help myself from activating the car’s hazard lights and then waving the camera around for a bit. What a view.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The enigmatic #302 is pictured above, but I didn’t want to dwell on it overly as one of its residents was busy doing spring cleaning and I didn’t want to violate their privacy. Apparently, the architect of the building is the owner and this build was a dream home for the family.
I’ll tell you this, it’s impossible not to notice the #302 from anywhere in Pittsburgh that you’ve got a view of the Monongahela River and Mount Washington. In a sea of green, brown, and gray it’s an eye catcher.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It took a bit of hunting in the archives to find this shot, from a 2023 walk on the PJ McArdle roadway, a local road cantilevered against the face of Mount Washington on a diagonal. That little grouping of homes is Cola Street, and the ‘colors house’ is seen on the left.
Back tomorrow with something different.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
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Odds and endsburgh
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As promised, a few odds and ends shots from a recent walk which didn’t quite fit into prior posts, but which I like nevertheless. That’s the T light rail, much discussed, transiting off of the Panhandle Bridge towards its temporary route through the neighborhood of Allentown.
Spring like weather is supposed to flood into Pittsburgh this week, with the chances of a 70 degree day being a real possibility mid week. I’ve got a walk that I’ve been planning on taking for a while, when the weather warmed up a bit, which will thereby likely happen on Wednesday. Cross your fingers, this will be a good one, I think.
I’ve attended a couple of lectures on the history of Pittsburgh in the last few weeks, something I’ve been avoiding since arriving here at the end of 2022. One talk discussed the Monongahela Incline, the other focused in on a new book about the City Steps of Pittsburgh. I have said book sitting on a table in my living room, and plan on devouring it one night this week.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After my stalking of the T was finished, I continued along my merry way and spotted two guys riding on a couple of those big wheel electric things. I’d break my neck in the first ten seconds on one of those gizmos.
One didn’t end his day at that nearby brewery by the train tracks, although I did hang around those particular tracks for a few minutes. Wasn’t in the mood for ‘drink’ and I decided to just head back to HQ. Splurged on a cab, a Lyft actually, and was greeted by the very first driver I’ve ever had to complain about to the service, and ‘narc’ on. What a jackass this kid was.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
From later on during the week, during my travels, I found myself up on Pittsburgh’s Troy Hill and became fascinated by an old house covered in Ivy. This is such an interesting place, Pittsburgh is…
Back tomorrow with something different, at this – your Newtown Pentacle.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
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Subdivisions, Monongahela Style
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Yes, that is a Rush reference for the title, but Mr. Peart and his fellows have no other connection with this post.
These captures are from midway along a short walk I was taking, after riding on the T light rail to the center of things. Everything just kind of lined up for me when that CSX freight train appeared, just as a T train set was transiting over the Panhandle Bridge from the South, heading toward the so called Golden Triangle of Pittsburgh.
This felt great, especially since I had taken a ten minute sit down on the Smithfield Street Bridge, after experiencing a bunch of discomfort in the healing but still quite tender ankle, and I would have missed the shot if I hadn’t needed to sit down. I’m as sick of experiencing this ankle business as I’m sure most of you are hearing about it, but this injury taken a fairly central position in, and had a substantial impact on my life for the last six months. I try to ‘keep it real’ here, and as the ankle has been and will continue to be a big part of my deal right now… Y’know…
Oww!
– photo by Mitch Waxman
These are the same tracks along the Monongahela River which have become kid of regular players since I moved out here to Pittsburgh. CSX’s Pittsburgh Subdivison is the official name for this infrastructure. The lead locomotive is CSX#789, and it had another ‘DPU’ (diesel power unit) in line right behind it. I had used my snazzy scanner radio to listen in on the fog of radio communications, and when I heard an automated defect detector (which is about a mile away, I reckon) describe #789 as having 335 healthy axles, I got busy figuring out the proper exposure and all the other stuff too. That’s exactly why I bought the radio, darn it!
CSX #789 was built as an ‘SD70MAC’ but was upgraded to an ‘EMD SD70MAC’ by GM’s Electro-Motive Diesel division. It’s all a bit confusing, but as far as I’ve been able to work it out, the thing was created in the 1990’s.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’ve got a few odds and ends from this walk which I’ll show you next week, but I’m going to end this week on the shot above. Before you ask, automobiles. That’s likely what’s in the train’s cargo cars – automobiles.
Back next week.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Buy a book!
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Penn Station, and the T
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Due to ongoing construction in various spots across the line, Pittsburgh’s ‘T’ Light Rail is once again going to its otherwise unused Penn Station stop. This station is kind of a gem, but there we are.
I’ve brought you here before, in the post ‘Hullabaloo, too.’ In reflection, the light was a lot better in May than it was on the day when these shots were gathered. I’ve read that there’s some beef between the Feds, whose white building found alongside the tracks is pictured above, and the transit people regarding use of this station and right of way. Homeland security, security risks, blah blah blah.
I don’t know enough about the situation to have an opinion, truth be told.
After riding into town on one of these T train sets, your humble narrator decided to stick around a few minutes and get a few shots of the milieu.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
They were coming and going, I tell’s ya. A bus shuttle would bridge over the construction work underground, whereupon another T journey to the end of the line could start. Me? I decided to debark the thing and then start walking towards the Monongahela River and cross the waterbody on the Smithfield Street Bridge.
The ankle was giving me problems. The latest wrinkle involves it ‘clicking’ into a posture which is uncomfortable or just somewhat painful, resulting in limping or foot dragging going on. I’ve got instructions from the Doc for this sort of thing, which involves ‘sitting down.’ I’d be able to safely do that about a mile away, and just had to deal with the discomfort while getting there. This section is part of the zone occupied by a crowd of junkies, so any public seating that could be utilized for a sit down has been removed. The Docs have trained me to walk a certain way during these intervals, which involving comically and consciously shooting my left knee upwards during strides. Sigh… my life…
It looks like I’m practicing to be in a marching band, but it works and resets the ankle back to its proper position. A big part of my injury was that I didn’t just break my ankle in three places, I also dislocated my left foot off of the leg assembly. It was just hanging there, all loose.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’d spent a good amount of time under the panopticon of cameras mounted to the Federal Building (there’s a couple of other Fed office building properties nearby, State, FBI, Homeland Security, and Immigration are all in this neighborhood) but there’s likely other agencies based here. There’s also a giant post office nearby, I’m told. I began painfully scuttling towards a known ‘sit down’ spot.
Downtown, yo.
Back tomorrow, 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.
The Newtown Pentacle 