Posts Tagged ‘Beechview’
Seldom Seen, indeed
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Another recent scuttle was undertaken at the ‘Seldom Seen Greenway,’ a trail nearby HQ in the neighboring community of Beechview here in Pittsburgh. This is about a 15 minute drive from home, and one regularly brings Moe the Dog here for his exercises. Moe stayed at home on this particular day, “protecting” Our Lady of the Pentacle.
Me? I was hoping to catch a train. That arched structure supports freight rail tracks up above, ones which are frequented by the Wheeling & Lake Erie line RR. The tracks are a bit of a climb from street level, I would mention.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Thanks to Moe pulling me all the place, in his excitements, I had already found a trail leading up to the level of the tracks. Scuttle, scuttle, scuttle. It was a warm day, but quite temperate and comfortable. ‘Sweat shirt and shorts’ weather, if you will.
The W&LE peeps only seem to roll through this area a few times a day, so I was rolling the dice as to whether or not I’d get any shots up there. It’s always worth doing a bit of scouting, though.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The shot above looks more or less eastwards. There used to be other active tracks up here, by observation, but in modernity you’ve got a single set of steel rails. It’s fairly common to see CSX or Norfolk Southern moving multiple trains a day on their private tracks through Pittsburgh, however there are a few smaller outfits which pass through the area but not as frequently. There’s one outfit on the south shore of the Allegheny River, which I’ve been hunting for when I’m in the neighborhood, but they seem to be a ‘white whale.’ I’ll get a shot or two of them eventually.
One hung about for a bit, but nothing was coming my way. I’m led to believe that Seldom Seen Greenway occupies a plot of land that used to be an 19th century unincorporated town or ‘Potters Village.’ Grain of salt there, I’ve only seen one source for that, which is never a good sign as far as veracity goes. Still, interesting idea.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I was all lined up for the shot, were a train to suddenly smash into view. These tracks overfly the masonry arch pictured in the first shot, and the Saw Mill Run waterway which flows through the area.
One has learned to listen for trains coming. You don’t hear the squealing of the steel wheels on the rails until they’re quite close, but there’s a distinctive vibration and rumbling sound that’s unique to locomotives as they approach.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Y’all don’t suppose that the Queens Cobbler followed me to Pittsburgh, do you? I’ve been seeing a lot of abandoned single shoes, again.
Frustrated, the time allotted for exercising both myself and the camera began to run short, and a trip back down a wooded trail to the entrance of Seldomly Seen Greenway was undertaken.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Of course, just as I was walking under the bridge that I had been walking on moments earlier – the Wheeling & Lake Erie train set come roaring through. Next time, I’m heading up there with a sandwich and a thermos of coffee and I’ll just wait it out. Dang.
Back tomorrow.
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Frustration Friday
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A humble narrator was not at all happy, when as that lovely Wheeling and Lake Erie freight train appeared, a personal hullabaloo occurred. While acquiring focus, and before I had pointed the camera in a direction conducive to a pleasing composition – my body suddenly lurched sideways and then forward. My left arm began flinging about, with a sharp pain at the wrist.
An ear splitting, high pitched whine followed by a percussive basso shout penetrated my skull, and then I was pulled forward and back again as my left arm flung about uncontrollably. Was it an ischemic event? No, it was a canine one.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It seems that Moe the Dog had spotted another dog during the roughly 15 seconds during which I had looked away from him, and he tranced out into a manner best described as “losing his god damned mind.” He sure told that other dog ‘what for.’ The cheek of it, walking past Moe.
Afterwards, Moe seemed to think this was exactly what I’d like him to do and he was happy as a little clam. I missed the train shot, so I took one of a quite pleased with himself dog instead.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
We walked back to the car, where I discovered that a bug had vomited on the engine hood. I’ve got a special seatbelt for Moe which attaches to his harness, so I put him in the back seat (where he likes to vomit) and then set about cleaning the bug puke off the car. Good thing I did, as I later learned that bug puke is basically acid and would have eaten away at the paint’s finish. Puppy puke, on the other hand, has yellow bile in it and smells the same way that licking a battery’s terminal tastes.
Everything’s great, all the time. Just another day in Paradise, that’s me.
Back next week with something else, at this – your insane Puppy and Bug Puke Pentacle.
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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.
Seldom Seen Greenway, addendum
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Yesterday, I described the ‘Seldom Seen Greenway’ trail in Pittsburgh’s Beechview section, and mentioned that there was a second level to the place found above the brick lined trestle pictured above. This second level, as I discovered, hosts active rail tracks. I found that out while doing a bit of research on the place after getting back to HQ from the location.
That’s why I found myself back there a day or two later. I had to take a look at what, where, why, how – all that.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It wasn’t that difficult getting all the way up here, but it was a bit complicated getting back down the steep incline while managing my camera and pack. These are freight tracks, ones which are somewhat infrequently used – once or twice a day, I reckon. I’ve seen video of trains moving along the tracks here, which display the polished steel rails you’d associate with active RR tracks. A Wheeling and Lake Erie train set was moving through in the video I saw, but I couldn’t tell you if this is exclusively their right of way or not.
I hung around up there for about a half hour with my fingers crossed, but then I got bored and slid back down the steep hill to the greenway below. I’ll be back, next time with a sandwich and thermos bottle of water, and just wait it out. Trains are a lot like fishing.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I shot a few shots down below, with nothing terribly special to show for the effort, frankly. The nearby Saw Mill Run Boulevard, named for this waterway, is a primary arterial roadway that connects to the Liberty Tunnel on one side and the West End Bridge (amongst other destinations in either direction) on the other. It also connects to two other primary arterials called Banksville Road and West Liberty Avenue. These three roadways have secondary and tertiary high volume roads that branch off and lead out into the residential neighborhoods of the South Hills in this part of Pittsburgh.
Back tomorrow with something different 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.
Seldom Seen Greenway
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
About a 15 minute drive from HQ in Pittsburgh’s Borough of Dormont is the neighboring South Hills community of Beechview. Along a very busy arterial roadway called Saw Mill Run Boulevard is found a 3/4 of a mile long trail called ‘Seldom Seen Greenway.’ A recent visit was paid.
There’s a rail trestle at the entrance, and the pathway in from the parking area follows the flowing waters of the Saw Mill Run waterway. Based on olfactory observation, Saw Mill Run receives a bit of wastewater flow from the surrounding residential areas.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The rail trestle at the entrance has a finely wrought brick tunnel, which is something that kind of jumps out at you. A lot of time and effort went into the masonry, and given that what you’d normally encounter in a spot like this would be unadorned concrete, it makes me wonder why the expense was undertaken to create this sort of fascia.
The entire path is graded. Pavement is present. It seems there’s a group who looks after the place, but this is an ‘official’ public place and recreational path.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There’s opportunity to get down to the water from the path, although in many places that opportunity is either quite steep or obstacles like patches of Poison Ivy occlude one’s intentions to do so. The sloping hillsides leading down to Saw Mill Run are fully wooded.
The waterway itself is largely shallow and only a few inches deep, but there’s a couple of spots where the bottom drops away to a few feet and the water flows quickly across the gaps. My guess is that if you were a teenager in Beechview, this is one of the places where you would go to escape parental or adult oversight and smoke the devil’s cabbage.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Every time I try to say what kind of a bird a bird is, I just get it wrong so instead I make up names for the Avians. Thusly, your looking at a Nine Fingered Radish Hen in the shot above.
I actually do know that’s a duck, so you don’t need to tell me that. What kind of a duck? Ask an Audubon, Bro.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Above the trestle at the entrance there are two other levels of rail infrastructure. After returning to HQ and poking around on the internet, I discovered that the top level tracks are still active. On this first visit though, I didn’t climb up there to investigate.
I’m actually quite pleased to have found this place, so close to HQ. This will be a great spot to take short walks when time is short. There’s also a dedicated ‘Seldom Seen’ parking lot, so double win. As you’ll discover at the end of this post, I’m now seriously in need of this sort of place.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’m going to require a portfolio of spots like this one, after all. Near the house, separated from traffic and distractions. There’s lots of training underway here in Dormont. What kind of training, you ask?
Meet the newest member of the family: Moe the Dog. He’s 5 months old, and whereas he only weighs about 35 pounds, he’s nevertheless a ton of fun. That’s my new Pennsyldoggie.
“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 