Posts Tagged ‘CSX’
Walking here
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As mentioned yesterday, I’ve been having a devil of a time with the sort of aches and pains one associates with age, and particularly so in my legs and feet. To be fair, I’ve got a full resumes worth of injuries to the roadway interface that are the source of my troubles, but this has been a literal pain in the butt for the last few weeks. Best thing to do is exercise, get the gears spinning, and stretch out all of the meaty rubber bands contained within. Best thing to do, for me at least, is lean into it.
I headed over to the Monongahela River’s South Side frontage, here in Pittsburgh, and got moving. This was a much shorter walk than the one mentioned earlier this week, about four miles – I’d reckon.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I seem to be the only person in Pittsburgh that focuses in on the T light rail. It ain’t the 7 train back in LIC, as far as cinematic good looks, but there’s something about the T service which I find visually interesting.
One really wasn’t ‘photowalking’ on this particular day but the camera is always ready to go, and so am I. You can happily wear your headphones on this trail, and I was revisiting an old favorite – Mike Duncan’s “History of Rome” podcast – as I scuttled along.
It reminded me of a forgotten opinion I hold that Lucius Tarquinius Superbus (the last and worst king of Rome before the Republic) is one of the dumbest sounding names in all of western history. I’m often surprised that Trump hasn’t added a ‘Superbus’ onto his name.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Luckily, a CSX train came shooting along the tracks, hauling coal. That’s the Fort Pitt Bridge on the left, and the Smithfield Street Bridge on the right. There’s a fence between you and the tracks in this section, one which is about five feet high, I’d guess. Not hard to shoot over it.
Back next week with more from the Paris of Appalachia, at this – your Newtown Pentacle.
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Squaring up
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Another of my constitutional scuttles occurred on one of the rare sunny days which the Pittsburgh Metro area has enjoyed in recent weeks, a scuttle which played out along the Monongahela River. The Mobile Oppression Platform was parked in an adjoining municipal park’s lot, and so off I went.
First steps were when I noticed the Towboat ‘Sierra J’ towing a small fleet of barges, in a westerly direction towards the point where the Monongahela’s transmogrification occurs, after an admixture with the Allegheny, and it becomes the Ohio River.
There’s a lot of flowing water around these parts.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Next up and along my way, CSX #6926 came roaring by, hauling a mixed up bunch of car units behind it. There was coal, and automobiles, and a lot of random cargo boxes trailing behind it.
This walk was from the 31st street bridge to the Fort Pitt Bridge, which is somewhere in the area of about 3-4 miles. There and back again, I guess my walk was about 7.5 – 8 miles, thereby, which I kicked out in a little over two and change hours.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This particular path has become fairly familiar to me, and by now I’m sure to you. Its range is along the Three Rivers Heritage Trail, which follows the Monongahela River and is entirely separated from the travel lanes of vehicle traffic. Only foot and bike traffic are allowed. There’s a couple of fairly noisome gaps on the trail, but it’s nothing terribly over the top or dangerous.
There is an opportunity to gain some altitude along the route, which I did to capture the shot above, depicting the T light Rail crossing the Panhandle Bridge and is framed up by the Liberty Bridge and a concrete factory.
Back tomorrow.
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South Side Train
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A humble narrator is taking the week off from the usual folderol, and on offer are single shots captured sometime in the last year since relocating from ‘Home Sweet Hell’ back in NYC to Pittsburgh.
Pictured above is a CSX freight train at a grade level crossing on the South Side section of Pittsburgh, with the Birmingham Bridge behind it.
Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah, Kwazy Kwanzaa, and Happy New Year to you all. 2024 is going to be a real whopper, I think.
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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.
Thanksgiving Choo-Choos
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Happy Turkey day, all. As described in prior posts, one was executing a long walk across the municipal center of Pittsburgh when it started to rain. It was absolutely pissing down, and I deployed my umbrella. The section of the city I was scuttling around is absolutely lousy with passing trains, so I decided to capture some of the Choo-Choo action.
That’s Norfolk Southern #1162 in the shot above, which is a location and composition I’ve wanted to capture for a while now. It’s an EMD SD70ACe model locomotive and relatively young by railroad standards, coming online in April of 2004.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
In what’s surely become a familiar location to long time readers by now, I headed down to a reliable grade level crossing for the CSX outfit nearby a brewery. I ordered a drink, and sat at an outside but sheltered table while waiting for a few trains to arrive.
CSX #868 came roaring through first. It’s also a fairly modern setup, having come online in April of 2008. That’s an ES44AC-H model, built by General Electric.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
CSX #3173 was next. Same model and make as the #868 mentioned above. It was raining significantly at this point, so the big difference is that this one was all wet from the rain.
Taking photos at night is old hat for me. Taking photos of enormous things moving at 30 mph is another matter. You’ve kind of got to focus and then track them as they’re going by twisting the waist. Challenging.
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.
Scuttling with trains
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
On the south side of the Monongahela River, where a scuttling narrator found himself walking on the Three Rivers Heritage trail, and CSX #2720 was framed up all nice against the Fort Pitt bridge after it hurtled into the frame, here in Pittsburgh. I knew 2702 was coming, as I had heard signal arm alarm bells ringing from about a half mile distant, and one was desirous of making sure that I ‘got the shot.’ I had ceased experimenting with my two new lenses for a moment, and installed an ‘old reliable’ onto the camera – the 35mm f1.8.
This sort of ‘photowalk’ catch as catch can thing is a whole lot easier when you’ve got a zoom lens on the camera, but that wasn’t the point of what I was doing on this particular day. Test the new glass and get some exercise, that was me.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There wasn’t any cargo being moved around on #2720, instead it was one of several locomotive engines that were coupled together and moving westwards on the tracks. I continued along the trail’s path, with the ultimate goal of arriving at that brewery I’ve been enjoying hanging around at, and rehydrating myself with a pint of Pilsner.
After quaffing my glass of beer, there were a few more lens tests which I wanted to perform in low light, and my plan was to ride the T light rail back towards HQ. I absolutely treasure the days when I don’t have to drive and can leave the Mobile Oppression Platform back home, in the driveway. The pluses of owning a car are many, but there’s also the whole responsibility thing and sometimes I just want to be ‘foot loose and fancy free,’ if you know what I mean.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Another CSX train – #4228, pictured above – came roaring towards me. Where this shot was gathered, there’s a grade crossing of the tracks and a couple of those signal arms with the bells. That gave me the time and warning required to swap out the 35mm for the 16mm, and test out its focus tracking performance.
Where the shot above fails for me revolves around the wide angle distortion, which distracts me. The big discovery, mentioned earlier in the week, about this particular lens is that your subject needs to be in the dead bang center of the frame or the image distorts oddly. Live and learn, huh? That’s the whole point of testing a gizmo and seeing what it can do and where it fails.
Back next week with more – from the Paris of Appalachia, 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 