One Potato
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A birthday scuttle was underway, and your humble narrator was hoping to see a few locomotives along the way. Sometimes, you get lucky.
My path followed the Great Allegheny Passage bike and pedestrian trail down the shoreline of the Monongahela River, and this section of the facility offers several commanding views of Pittsburgh’s downtown cluster of office buildings, and several bridges, along the way.
It’s also mirrored by the Pittsburgh Subdivision’s right of way, owned by the CSX railroad outfit, so there’s a pretty good chance of seeing a few trains running through what’s basically a choke point for CSX’s operations.
If trains were Persian soldiers, and these tracks were Thermopylae, that would make me Leonidas. That’s madness, you say?
Dis is Spartah!
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I spotted the first of what turned out to be several passing locomotives as it was transiting beneath the Fort Pitt Bridge. All of the land in this area used to be a rail yard owned by the now defunct Pittsburgh & Lake Erie RR outfit. Their yard property has been redeveloped as ‘Station Square,’ which hosts restaurants and bars as well as a couple of hotels and a Soccer Stadium in modernity. It’s also where the docks of the Gateway Clipper tourist boats are found. Saying that – CSX’s subdivision is still very active.
The three surviving U.S. Steel mills are found to the southeast, and CSX has an intermodal yard just west of Pittsburgh in an area called McKee’s Rocks. This location is more or less the middle point between those two other areas of interest. Lots of traffic.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
CSX #148 got close, and a humble narrator started a-clicking the shutter button as it did. Choo-Choo.
#148 was built in March of 1996, when the most popular toy in America was the ‘Tickle Me Elmo’ doll, and the #1 song on the national charts was ‘the Macarena.’ How popular was that song when #148 was spawned? Here’s Hillary Clinton clapping along with it at the DNC convention just a few months after #148 went to work.
#148 is a GE AC44CW model locomotive, I’m told.
Back tomorrow with more Choo-Choo.
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West End Girls
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A recent scuttle played out on what turned out to be a humble narrator’s latest birthday, which occurred during an interval of tolerable climate.
It’s been one heck of a hot summer out here in the Paris of Appalachia, with high temperatures and humidity defining entire weeks. It’s always a quandary for me – I need to walk, and walk, and walk for health reasons, but then you run into dangerous atmospheric conditions that preclude being outdoors. What are you going to do?
You can fight City Hall, but you can’t argue with the weatherman. Or a Fire Inspector, as they are omnipotent.
This particular soirée into the milieu of Pittsburgh’s arcane street ‘grid’ began at the West End Bridge, spanning the Ohio River. This path would carry me to the southern shore of the Monongahela River, the Great Allegheny Passage trail along it, and ultimately to that brewery nearby the CSX Pittsburgh Subdivision tracks which I regularly visit.
First, I needed to get across the bridge.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Quoting from a prior post describing this bridge:
“There’s a steel tied arch bridge near the center of Pittsburgh, one which spans the very mouth of the Ohio River (formed up by the convergence of the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers), and it’s called the West End Bridge. West End Bridge’s construction was declared as accomplished in 1932, and the thing was built by Pittsburgh’s own American Bridge Company (steel and span) and the Foundation Company (foundation and masonry piers). West End Bridge was originally just under 2,000 feet long.
After a sprucing up and redesign in the 1990’s, which saw the addition of pedestrian and bike lanes, as well as the removal of several vehicle approach ramps on its northern side, the West End Bridge was and is 1,310 feet long.
There’s 66 feet of clearance over the water, it’s 58 feet wide in totality, and the bridge carries 4 lanes of traffic through a 40 foot space. West End Bridge is a challenging and unforgiving span to drive over, I would mention, given how narrow the travel lanes are.”
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Down below, there’s a Towing outfit which maintains a series of docks for their Tow Boats, as well as a fleet of barges.
The West End Girls from the title of this post are pictured above – The ‘Gale R. Rhodes’ and one labeled as ‘CTC.’ CTC stands for Campbell Transportation Company, which is presumptively the operator of this particular docking complex and probably not the name of the vessel.
I couldn’t find much out about either of the boats, as neither one was displaying a call sign number visible from the POV I was inhabiting. Call sign numbers are the key to identifying random maritime vessels you might encounter. Just saying.
Back tomorrow.
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Lookie loo
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As a humble narrator navigates through his daily rounds, here in Pittsburgh, moments often occur that cause a moment of reflection to manifest. The insane terrain, the disturbingly heterogeneous housing stock… everything here is so different than the world I grew up and lived in most of my life – which is just 400 miles away on the ocean coast. It seems like it’s an entirely different country here.
More accurately – it’s a different country back there, in the archipelago city-state of NYC which squats just off the coast of America. This is the actual ‘country,’ and the megalopolis which spawned me is the exception rather than the rule. These days, I live amongst the Americans. Just yesterday, I saw some bloke open carrying a holstered pistol at CVS when I was picking up a prescription, which struck me as odd. Expecting trouble? He was picking up hemorrhoid cream.
Nobody else seemed to notice, or find it odd.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I get around, here.
Spotted this house in a neighborhood somewhere in the middle of Pittsburgh. Wasn’t intending on taking a photo of this house for any particular reason, instead, I was just tuning up the camera’s ‘exposure triangle’ while in the front seat of the car – for current lighting conditions and focused in on the first thing which caught my eye. Look at that joint, though – what an interesting and quirky building that is, ain’t it? Especially so for a residential structure found in an urban neighborhood.
I’ve had to redefine what I consider as ‘urban’ since moving out here nearly two years ago. It’s a whole other kind of city, Pittsburgh.
There are areas in Pittsburgh which sport a ‘density’ that begins to touch some of the outlier neighborhoods of NYC, but the de facto suburbs in New York are FAR more populated and ‘dense’ than even the dead bang center of Pittsburgh is.
It’s a whole other banana out here, in fact it’s a plantain in comparison. Starchy, and not as sweet, but quite tolerant of high cooking temperatures.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There are a tremendous number of ‘cul de sac’ streets in Pittsburgh where the only way out is the way you came in, a quirk of the region’s unique geography and Appalachian terrain. You see these ‘No Outlet’ signs everywhere, indicating that you’ve arrived at one of those cul de sac’s and you’re either ‘hanging a U’ie’ or reversing back out. Also ubiquitous is signage which admonishes one to ‘Watch Children,’ an odd municipal command in a region of the country which is so absolutely preoccupied with Pedophilia and human trafficking. I try to pretend that the kids aren’t there, or at the least are just large and hairless squirrels.
It’s my belief that these signs are indicating that the local kids are up to something sinister, so I’m keeping an eye on the youngins. I’ve seen a lot or horror movies, and a surprising number of them are set in Pennsylvania. The kids are up to something here, according to the signs, so watch out.
Back next week with something different at this – your Newtown Pentacle.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
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Instituendi vigilantes
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As described yesterday, a night out at Pittsburgh’s Sly Fox Brewery allowed for some fun socializing time, as well as multiple opportunities to photograph passing rail traffic. The Pittsburgh Subdivision tracks of the CSX outfit run directly past the brewery – and since I like both beer and trains – it’s become a regular ‘spot’ for me to kill a few brain cells and spend some camera time.
Our Lady of the Pentacle was accompanying your Humble Narrator on this particular evening, so food was ordered, and we ended up hanging out at the establishment for a few hours with a friend.
Good times, I tell’s ya, you’re lucky if you got ‘em, good times.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
CSX was having a fairly busy night, and there were trains moving through pretty frequently. The drill goes like this: I’m sitting there, joking around and sipping on a pint when the signal arms begin chiming, and then a train horn blares in the distance. A humble narrator leaps to his feat saying ‘here we go’ and scuttles over to the fencing separating the tracks from the public seating area. One rapidly figures out the camera’s exposure triangle for the current conditions, and then gets busy.
The trains are moving quite a bit faster than perception suggests, and the lens I was using operates best at narrow apertures (f8) so a higher ISO (800) is called for. Ideally, shutter speed should be at least about 1/500th of a second in this sort of scenario. That freezes the action, and the higher ISO allows for detail without the shadows consuming all the detail.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
When it got actually dark, the 24-240mm zoom lens had been swapped off the camera in favor of the 35mm f1.8 lens which replaced it. The sensor ISO sensitivity setting was jacked up to ISO 6400, and the shutter speed reduced to the lowest I could go without motion blur becoming a problem – about 1/200th.
Back tomorrow, with something different, at this – your Newtown Pentacle.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Buy a book!
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Trio impedimenta
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A warm Friday night revealed that a humble narrator was back at the Sly Fox Brewery, in Pittsburgh’s South Side Flats neighborhood, photographing passing rail traffic while inhaling a couple of drinks. This time around, it was a cream ale which struck my fancy, rather than the Pilsner I normally favor. It was a fairly productive evening, and Our Lady of the Pentacle was there as well. Me?
Can’t resist a train shot. I’m particularly pleased with the shot above, wherein light and circumstance conspired to offer a dramatic moment as CSX #170 rolled into frame.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
CSX #170 is a GE AC44CW model locomotive, one of 2,834 such units built sometime between 1993 and 2004 by General Electric Transportation Systems. On this particular summer evening, it was also nicely lit as it hurtled along the tracks.
It’s odd to me… the locals here in Pittsburgh don’t even seem to notice the trains flowing past, except as an inconvenience which interrupts the flow of automotive traffic. I guess when you’ve grown up with something so ubiquitous, it just fades into the background. Sort of the way that pausing a conversation while the FDNY is screaming past your house in NYC seems normal.
Wonders, I tell you. Wonders!
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My understanding of things is that these tracks are called the Pittsburgh Subdivision by CSX. The right of way here was originally established by the Pittsburgh & Lake Erie RR back in 1879. Said tracks, which long time readers will tell you I’ve been haunting since moving here at the end of 2022, seem to be busiest in the late afternoon and early evening although there’s intermittent traffic moving along them all day long.
Back tomorrow with more Choo-Choo.
“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 