Posts Tagged ‘Allegheny Valley RR’
No scuttle, no peace
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Pictured above is an Allegheny Valley Railroad train set negotiating itself over the Fort Wayne railroad bridge, which spans the Allegheny River and the train is heading towards Downtown Pittsburgh. This bridge, and the particular direction that the AVRR train is heading, lead to a set of tracks in the center of the city which Amtrak and Norfolk Southern also use to head eastwards.
As mentioned a few times in this story, this scuttle was playing out on a warm day, and a humble narrator had spent the couple of weeks prior sitting on his butt at home. I was not enjoying the humidity or warmth as I haven’t fully acclimated away from winter yet, and in my defense it was forty degrees not two days before these shots were gathered. I was thereby in a full sweat, and every step was increasingly an act of will even though the first mile of my intentions had barely been expressed.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One was scuttling along the section of the Three Rivers Heritage Trail which is found on the north shore of the Allegheny River. It’s not exactly a demanding route, given that it’s graded and paved, but after my long somnolent period – agony. My back hurt, and so did my butt. I was sweating profusely and not feeling so great. The drill is to lean into it, tough it out, and get past thoughts of discomfort though. You can sit and whine about it at home later, I told myself. It’s not like you have a choice about exercise, it’s a requirement.
While pedantically negotiating with my lizard brain, I couldn’t help but notice a little blue house which seemed to be the sole survivor of a lost civilization, nearby the former Heinz Factory.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The trail is well wooded, and there are long intervals during which you’re marching through a tunnel of trees and vegetation. That’s nice.
Last time that I scuttled through here during the early winter, there were dozens of homeless encampments observed along the path – tents and lean to’s surrounded by middens of garbage. I’ve heard that the gendarmes were sent in to clear the area of such habitations, and the effort seems to have been successful at accomplishing its stated goal. I do wonder where all the street people have moved on to, though.
Right about when I was shooting the photo above at a clearing in the wall of vegetation, of a tug and barge doing some sort of construction duty with a ‘Dick’s Sporting Goods’ advertising blimp overhead, that’s when I really started craving some sort of hydration. I seldom carry a water bottle with me, and my NYC born habit always involves the statement that ‘I’d stop at a bodega somewhere and grab a Gatorade or something.’
The problem with Pittsburgh, as I’ve discovered, is they ain’t got no bodegas out here. It’s ‘car country’ and the best you’re going to do is find a gas station with a convenience store attached to it or happen across some random 711 or McDonald’s, but those are far and few between.
Back tomorrow.
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Serendipitous scuttling
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Our Lady of the Pentacle underwent a medical procedure back in October, and thusly has had to go visit the Doctor a few times since for post procedural checkups. This entire scenario of hers takes place at Allegheny General Hospital on Pittsburgh’s North Side, and I’ve usually got an hour to an hour and a half to kill while she’s in with the Doc.
I parked the Mobile Oppression Platform at a meter spot and took myself a short walk, thereby, while a light snow was falling. I was heading over to, and ultimately hanging out, on an overlook that sits above a set of railroad tracks.
Just yesterday, I described Allegheny Valley Railroad as being like a ‘white whale’ – rarely seen, and never if you’re actually looking for it. Just to make a liar of me…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It was a pretty busy interval, rail traffic wise. These are Norfolk Southern’s tracks, and a good amount of mid afternoon activity was underway. These rails feed into a set of tracks that lead north easterly along the Allegheny River, and also allow egress onto the Fort Wayne Rail Bridge – which leads to a track that’s set pretty much through the center of the City, and are a primary freight pathway eastwards towards the ocean coast. Amtrak uses those same rails, too.
The air was brutally cold. As mentioned, a light snow was underway, but atmospheric temperatures were in the low 20’s and a stiff wind was blowing. I was wearing my ‘Pittsburgh Winter Coat,’ which is quite warm and mostly water repellant.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Regardless, I still had some time to kill and the trains were rolling by one after the other. I’ve got a whole insulation system I use for this sort of weather condition, with my sweat shirt hood pulled up and over the brim of my baseball cap and the jackets hood up over that. I lose peripheral vision doing this, but it keeps my face and eyeglasses dry and forms a pocket of warm air around my ears and neck.
The spot I was standing on is a small street bridge over these tracks which has recently been closed to vehicle traffic, as it is structurally unsound.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
From behind me, another train heading west appeared. I bathed in the hot diesel fumes it was pushing up above it, which felt like a summer breeze but smelt like the apocalypse.
This is the same set of tracks leading to the trench through Allegheny Commons Park which I had been haunting in early December.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A triplet of engines set off for points east next, which is right about when Our Lady texted me to say that she was done with the Doctors and required pick up in the Mobile Oppression Platform. I scuttled back towards the MOP’s metered parking spot, which took me back along the fences of Allegheny Commons Park.
I heard the rumble a few seconds before the next train was coming my way, and was able to run over to a somewhat opportune spot in time.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The White Whale was back, heading south eastward along the tracks.
Mind you, if I was specifically trying to get a shot of the AVRR, I’d still be standing there a month later. That’s just the way it goes for a humble narrator.
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.
Black & Gold
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One has been hunting for this set of shots since the leaves began to turn. Allegheny Commons Park, and the 4 track railroad trench that runs through it nearby the National Aviary on Pittsburgh’s North Side, is where this particular location is found. The trees which line the trench are Ginkgos, a specie whose leaves turn bright gold in the fall. The primary source of traffic on these tracks is the Norfolk Southern rail outfit, whose trains are primarily black.
Kismet, huh? Black + Gold = Pittsburgh.
That’s Norfolk Southern #4243, heading south east on the trench’s track #2. 4243 is a rebuilt GE AC44C6M model locomotive, providing 4,400 horsepower worth of traction.
These were actually a surprisingly difficult set of shots to get. I had to keep returning and returning to the location, as I was completely out of sync with the comings and goings of locomotive traffic. One day, I sat there for more than an hour and nothing. A couple of days later, two hours and nothing. On a third day, I showed up with a sandwich and a thermos of coffee determined to just wait it out.
That’s the interval during which I got the shots in today’s post. I keep on saying ‘it’s a lot like fishing, this rail thing.’ You show up, drop your hook in the water, and hope you get a bite.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Norfolk Southern is a HUGE company operating literally hundreds if not thousands of locomotives on North America, and their rolling stock is a quite commonly sighted commodity around Pittsburgh. Less commonly witnessed is the Allegheny Valley Railroad, a feeder line rail outfit local to the Pittsburgh area, pictured above.
I’ve been hunting for these guys too, and have described it to my new friends here in Pittsburgh as being a bit of a ‘white whale,’ as far as rarity and my desire to get a shot of them. I’ve hung around their tracks in Pittsburgh’s Lawrenceville, but have never spotted one in the wild.
Luckily for me, one appeared here on the North Side, heading north and westwards on the trench’s Track #1. AVRR #6006 was hauling empty mineral cars and garbage containers.
#6006 is a 1993 vintage locomotive, part of a group built for Conrail, but ended up being owned by Norfolk Southern. AVRR’s 6001-6006 locomotives were rebuilt and upgraded before coming into the smaller outfit’s service, and came online for AVRR in 2021.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Track #3 was suddenly occupied by Norfolk Southern #7663, which was headed southeastwards. There are multiple ‘rights of way’ which Norfolk Southern uses in Pittsburgh. These particular tracks lead to a junction, one which allows egress either along the north shore of the Allegheny River or to a crossing of the Allegheny at the Fort Wayne Railroad Bridge which allows access to a set of tracks which are run through the center of the city (and are the same ones that Amtrak uses).
There’s another NS right of way found along the Monongahela River on the south side of the city. #7663 is a GE ES40DC locomotive built in 2007.
A group of ‘old white guys with expensive cameras’ – aka rail fans- had formed up at the point of view which a humble narrator had been stalking.
I had a few nice conversations while we collectively waited for the action to start. One fella had driven in from Ohio, and a father and son in law combo had come in all the way from Baltimore.
A couple of Pittsburgh natives were there too, including one talented fellow who clued me in to a couple of POV locations which I’m going to explore over the winter months.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Track #4 saw a return trip of AVRR #6006 occur, which was hauling what seemed to be a full train’s worth of cargo rather than the clearly empty one that it had had taken north west. In between shots, I ran over to use a nearby Porta Potty to blow some ballast.
I cannot mention this enough – as a former New Yorker – the wonder I continually experience in Pittsburgh regarding the fact that they deploy Porta-Potty bathrooms at nearly every public space you might find yourself at, including nearby the spot I was occupying.
Acknowledging human biology and public health by funding a simple solution for keeping people from having to piss in the street like dogs, without spending tens of millions of tax dollars on ‘comfort stations’ (which are seldom open) in random parks… just imagine that.
They do a lot of things right, out here in the Steel City.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
All of these leaves have turned to slime and rotted away by the time you’re reading this in early December.
There was about a ten day interval during which the Ginkgo leaves were golden. One of my fellow photographers was armed with one of those radios that serious railfans carry which allowed him foreknowledge of when a train might be approaching and he announced that this was going to the end of the show for a couple of hours.
My desire to capture this scene was sated, and I packed up my kit in preparation of heading back to HQ. One informed the two fellows from Baltimore about the Brewery location along the CSX tracks on the South Side which I’ve shown y’all several times. This was information which they eagerly received, and I offered my observations to them about what time those tracks seem to be busiest.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This is a wider version of the squared off shot of NS #4243 in the first shot, and presented ‘out of sequence,’ but I really like it. Captured seconds prior to the square cropped one in the first/preview image.
I’ve been trying to mix things up a bit lately, as you’ve likely noticed. Any reaction to these experiments? I think the square ones are a little friendlier to ‘the phone’ format, or at least they render up a bit larger than the horizontal landscape shots do.
As always, if you want to take a closer look at any of these photos (or… ahem… buy a print from Flickr and help support a humble narrator) click the image, and it’ll open the Flickr page which hosts it and offers a mechanism to order. I’d make a few cents on the transaction.
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.
My October obsession, part 1
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’ve displayed shots of the freight rail traffic moving through a trench at Allegheny Commons Park previously, and mentioned my desire to return in the late autumn when the Ginkgo Trees which overfly it turn to their autumnal coloration. The most common heraldry you see down on the tracks belong to the Norfolk Southern RR outfit.
Black trains, yellow foliage – very ‘Pittsburgh,’ no?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As it turned out, I had been quite lucky in prior outings at this location, as far as frequency of traffic goes. A couple of days before these photos were captured, I had sat here for two hours without anything interesting happening. This time around, I waited for about 45 minutes, but all the trains were going the wrong way. I wanted to capture one with the train heading towards me. I’ve come to analogize this sort of activity as being a lot like going fishing. You prepare, get there, drop a hook in the water. As far as catching a fish? Depends.
As a side note – the locomotive in the shot above and below belonged to the Allegheny Valley RR outfit. AVRR has been a bit of a ‘white whale’ for me, as I knew that they existed but hadn’t managed to witness one of their locomotives ‘in the wild.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Funnily enough, this ended up being one of those times that I was quite in tune with a large group of people. A crowd of ‘mainly old white guys with expensive cameras’ were gathered here each and every time I made the attempt to get ‘the shot.’ Pleasant conversation and a sharing of knowledge was on hand, but we were all a bit frustrated by the lack of train traffic – which is pretty uncharacteristic for Pittsburgh.
I was glad that I got these, but my desire was to capture a shot of the trains coming towards me remained. Upon returning to HQ, I informed Our Lady of the Pentacle that I’d be returning to this very spot in a couple of days, this time with a water bottle and a sandwich. My plan was to wait it out, as long as it took.
That later effort paid off, as you’ll see next week 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 