Posts Tagged ‘CSX’
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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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!
“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.
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
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“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.
Ferrea via
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A humble narrator decided it was time to blow off a bit of steam and headed over to the Sly Fox Brewery, found in the South Side Flats section of Pittsburgh, to quaff a couple of beers with a friend and shoot some passing CSX rail traffic while doing so.
As mentioned in prior posts, another new lens has been added to my kit, a superzoom which allows focal lengths of 24-240mm. This kind of ‘reach’ is something I’ve been craving, and it more or less completes my kit of zoom lenses. There’s officially two camera bag configurations I work with now – the ‘bag of primes’ and the ‘zoom bag.’
The primes are low light or night lenses with wide apertures, as a note, and the zooms are narrow aperture daylight lenses.
I’m very pleased with myself about the shot above, by the way.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Same train, different POV for the shot above.
Apparently, #998 up there is a GE ES44AC model locomotive. One does not carry any of this train information in my head, btw, and I’d be lying if I said I did. When I’m shooting, what’s going through my mind is focus, composition, exposure, etc.
Occasionally, I’ll ‘know’ I got something special (hey, scroll up and enjoy that first shot again) but my long time habit is to collect massive numbers of images when in the field and then sort it out when I get home.
I’ve got friends who can look at a passing train and say ‘they used the wrong screws on that horn,’ but that ain’t me.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Next up was CSX#148, which was hauling Coke. I normally avoid naming minerals or cargo unless I know for sure what it is, but the cars 148 was pulling were labeled as being the ‘Coke Express.’ No doubt heading for one of the U.S. Steel plants just east of here.
Back next week with more, and I mean “MORE” train oriented stuff 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.
Quid habeo
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After a short walk on a very warm and humid afternoon your Humble Narrator settled into a pint of Cream Ale at the Sly Fox Brewery, in Pittsburgh’s South Side Flats. Eagerly, I awaited the chiming of railroad signal arms at the grade crossing of the CSX tracks found alongside the business.
There are outside tables here, in an urban park setting alongside the Great Allegheny Passage trail and the Colors Park. I didn’t have to suffer inactivity long before I heard the bells and horns, and those signal arms started to move.
First up was CSX #4736, an EMD SD70MAC model locomotive which was built in 2003.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
From the opposite direction, CSX #4050 soon thundered into view. A rebuilt EMD SD40-3 model engine, it was built in 1981.
As a note, I was using that new superzoom lens, mentioned last week, to shoot these photos. Thereby, these qualify as ‘test images’ wherein I was pushing the thing’s cooperation with my camera’s autofocus systems and try to see where the thing fails.
It performed like a champ, I’d mention.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Also from the same direction, CSX #3312 next appeared. It’s a GE ET44AH model train engine, one of General Electric’s ‘Evolution Series’ locomotives which have been in production since 2003.
All told, I drank two of those Cream Ales and then began my journey back to HQ.
Back tomorrow with something very 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.
The Newtown Pentacle 