Posts Tagged ‘CSX’
CSX in the rain
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
To start with, as a humble narrator is punching away at the keyboard and writing this very post – he’s just suffered through a root canal procedure at one of the local Dentists here in Pittsburgh. This wasn’t a bucket list assignation, I would mention, instead it’s the result of me not exactly winning the genetic lottery when it comes to dentition. Ultimately, it’s just pain. I’ve felt worse.
Conversely and regarding the photograph above, captured on an evening during which I was feeling considerably less pain – since I was at a bar – one was lucky enough to witness another parade of CSX freight trains navigating along the CSX Pittsburgh Subdivision along southern side of the Monongahela River. That’s CSX #296, which is positively modern – a General Electric built AC4400CW model locomotive which hit the rails in September of 1997 – or so I’m told. It was pulling carloads of coke and coal in an eastwards direction.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Next up was CSX #916 – an ‘ES44AH’ model locomotive also built by the guys and gals at General Electric. It was hauling cargo boxes and tankers, heading westwards.
The worst mouth pain I ever experienced was the time that I got kicked in the mouth during a biker bar fight on the west side of Manhattan. This is before the gentrification dealie really got going in the Meat Market zone, and I caught the toe of combat boot as it smashed vertically into one of my front teeth. That one hurt for a long while, mainly as I didn’t have the cash on hand to visit a dentist. I still feel it sometimes, mainly when trying to eat a hard pretzel.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The life I lead now is quite different, as compared to those days. Back then, when an injury occurred which didn’t involve bleeding to death, I’d just kind of suck it up. I’ve been stabbed, beat up… heck, I once had a guy work me over with a baseball bat back in the Brooklyn days. Once, I broke my drawing hand, during an interval when I was working as a professional comic artist and illustrator. My ‘pay the rent’ job had to get done, so I propped the brush into my swollen digits and then used masking tape to sequester my broken hand around the thing in order to get the job done. To this day, my right hand’s pinky finger still sticks out at an odd angle. It looks like I’m drinking tea from a comically small cup, all the time.
That’s CSX #5206, a GE ES40DC model locomotive. As you can see, it was starting to rain, but I kept on drinking beer and pointing the camera at passing locomotives.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
By the time that CSX #568 came along, hauling cargo boxes and tanker cars, the rain had become steadier just as it was starting to get dark out. My lens got wet, as you can tell from the streaks, but there’s something I really like about that one above.
I’ve got a million injury tales, as a humble narrator is both a real klutz and has a long history of annoying people so much that they are compelled to rain blows upon me. The most recent major ‘owwie’ was that ghoulish crush injury to my left big toe that happened (at home) near the end of 2019, which is the reason why I was limping when the pandemic came around. That was a real joy, I tell’s ya. Thing is, I used to heal like Wolverine, but not so much anymore in my dotage.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A second shot of #568 was my favorite of the session, with the droplets of rain suspended in the head lamp illumination of the locomotive.
I don’t really talk about the heart attack these days, but that happened too. It’s the ‘levee breaking’ moment for a humble narrator, and the juncture moment by which I divide my life into ‘before and after.’ I guess that moving out of NYC to Pittsburgh is another such moment, and it’s something I’d have never even considered prior to that experience. The experience changed me profoundly.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After about four pints of beer, I was half in the bag and it was time to head back to HQ in nearby Dormont. Luckily, just after paying my tab, CSX #7271 came roaring through. It’s a GE AC4400CWM model. Frankly, I don’t remember what it was hauling, as I was on my way out.
The Root Canal business has been a real pain in the butt, or noggin more accurately. Expensive procedure, but I’ve been experiencing quite a bit of excruciatingly annoying pain for the last few weeks whenever ingesting cold beverages or eating anything that required serious chomping. It’s part of the whole medical journey I’ve been on since getting to Pittsburgh.
Excellent health system here in Pittsburgh, I would offer. A marked contrast to the rushed experience of NYC’s system. Same science, of course, but the Docs here take their time with you since they’re not as worried about paying their landlord’s an exorbitant rent.
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Nightsburgh beckons
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Yessir, I went back to my ‘drink beer and photograph trains’ bar again, and got that swell looking CSX shot above. I’m playing around with crops a bunch for some reason, as in the square one above. The normal proportion I use is literally the size and shape of the camera sensor, but it’s been brought to my attention that social media sites like Instagram ‘like’ 1 to 1 or square formatted images as opposed to the usual rectangular ones.
Before you ask, I’ve been populating several websites with images in the last year. Lots going on at the moment. If you’re an Instagram user, maybe give me a follow? I’m trying to build up a presence there.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I timed my visit fairly well, with a 7 pm arrival at the bar, and sunset occurring at 8. I got busy, tripod and all that, as the burning thermonuclear eye of god itself began its descent behind Ohio. Afterwards, I walked over to T station for a light rail ride back home.
That’s the less interesting side of the concrete factory along the Monongahela River I’ve mentioned a few times. I’m starting to feel the urge to do some night shooting soon, hence “Nightsburgh.”
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Some sort of hullabaloo up the line had occurred shortly before I arrived at the T light rail station, one which affected the service that I use.
Ended up having to call a Lyft to get back home, but there you go. Price of living in a medium sized city, I guess.
Back tomorrow.
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Heavy and Light
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Back to a photo of CSX #916 in the shot above, which was mentioned in a post a couple of days ago. It ended up being the only train I’d get photos of this particular evening, while carousing at a bar nearby its right of way.
After several hours of quaffing beer, it was time to get back home. One settled his tab, and scuttled off to the T light rail to catch a ride back out to Dormont, where HQ is found, nestled amongst the South Hills region of Pittsburgh.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
While waiting for my chariot to arrive, this quartet of motorcycle enthusiasts caught my attention. Pennsylvania doesn’t have a helmet law for bikers, which is bizarre to an ex-New Yorker such as myself, who used to hang around a Manhattan Meat Market bar frequented by Hells Angel and Pagan alike (no ‘colors’ at the bar was the owner’s rule.)
It’s fairly routine to be driving along a PA. highway at 60-70 mph (speed limits are different here) and have some dude on a Harley road bike scream past you, with nothing protecting their head beyond sunglasses and a bandanna. Bold, I tell you. Bold.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Finally didst the T arrive, whereupon one surmounted the light rail for the ride back home. Luckily, the air conditioning onboard the T was going full blast, an atmospheric modularity sorely needed after having just spent several hours outside in August heat and humidity.
Back tomorrow with something utterly 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.
Light and heavy
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A recreational night out was recently on my agenda, so a quick trip on Pittsburgh’s Light Rail service – dubbed ‘The T’ – carried me to the south side of the Monongahela River and the figurative center zone of the City. I was heading back to a certain brewery located alongside CSX’s (street grade heavy rail) Pittsburgh Subdivision tracks, where I had photographed an absolute parade of trains during a prior visit. The beer is pretty good there, too.
Despite my better judgement, I’ve started reading up on the history of Pittsburgh’s public transit services. Saying that, I absolutely refuse to become historically literate about the thing. No. J’ refuse.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The neighborhood surrounding my destination is the sort of place I feel most comfortable in; industrial, desolate, broken pavement, heavy truck traffic, homeless encampments, etc. This spot has garnered a lot of my interest in recent weeks, as it is fascinating visually.
It’s also a spot where you definitively want to be wearing a hat in the late afternoon, as the burning thermonuclear eye of god itself radiates directly upon you with virtually zero vegetation blocking its influence.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A few people have asked why I don’t find a schedule for trying to catch shots of passing trains like the one above, here in Pittsburgh. First off, there isn’t one – or at least there isn’t one which is publicly available. Secondly, my observation of the situation reveals that what controls the frequency of rail traffic here are the shift changes and industrial needs of the nearby steel mills, which is where the rail traffic is concentrated, and that’s a subject which I have near total ignorance of.
That’s CSX #916. I’m told it’s a ‘ES44AH’ model, built by General Electric, and the engine produces 4,400 HP worth of motive juice. If you wish to be bored to tears reading about all the nuances which this model offers – click here.
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.
CSX parade
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
CSX #62 was the first locomotive to pass by the Sly Fox Brewery, here in Pittsburgh, as a humble narrator ‘rehydrated’ himself with several pints of beer after a long walk on a hot day. As a note, regarding anything I’m passing along about these trains in todays post – make/model etc. – is based on a ‘scratch the surface’ level of google search. I freely admit that this subject is one that I’m absolutely not an expert on. I like taking pictures of, and having a general knowledge of, locomotive stuff but that’s it. If something is incorrect here, please share the skinny in the comment section.
Supposedly, this is a ‘GE AC44CW’ model 4,400 HP locomotive, built in 1995. It was hauling a staggeringly heterogeneous load – tankers, cargo boxes, etc. That was the first one.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Next up was CSX #5426, a ‘GE ES44DC’ which was loosed upon the nation’s rail system in 2007. It was also hauling a mixed up collection of various forms of cargo boxes. Both of these trains were heading towards the Ohio River side of the city.
Right about this point, I headed into the brewery and ordered a second beer and a cheeseburger. I had earned that burger, dammit.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
From the opposite direction, heading away from the Ohio River in the direction of McKeesport, CSX #7247 hurtled past the lens. I’m led to believe that this model is a ‘rebuilt GE CM44AC’ but I have no real idea what that means.
It was also hauling a conglomeration of random cargo cars.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Next up, and heading for the Ohio, was CSX #5209. This train is the same model GE ES44DC as CSX #62 in the first shot, and I’m told it has been hurtling around North America since 2005.
Burger quaffed, second drink guzzled, I headed back inside the brewery to purchase more fortification, as well as a tall glass of ice water. It’s critical to mix some water in when you’re drinking beer. It’s nice to catch a buzz, I always say, but being drunk is a miserable experience. At least it is for me.
A fumbling idiot with no dexterity, absolutely zero emotional or behavioral barriers, fairly useless.
That description is applicable to me when I’m still sober, by the way. Drunk me… that can be chilling.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Heading the other direction, away from the Ohio, CSX #5101 showed up next. It’s a GE AC44CW, same model as #62, and I have no idea when it started juggernauting around America’s rail system. Other than that it was built sometime between 1993 and 2004, when General Electric was still producing this model of locomotive.
I should mention that I had some company, two young guys whom I had struck up a conversation with on my way into town on the T. They were talking trains, and when they said ‘heritage unit,’ I realized they were railfanning, I turned them on to my ultimate destination at the brewery and they met me there. Turns out the two guys I was hanging out with were employed in one way or another as Railroaders. One of them was a sales agent who booked space on a competing company’s trains, and the other worked as a freight train conductor for that same entity.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
By the time that CSX #7238 appeared, I had basically spent as much time at the brewery as I had done walking around. The bar was closing up, and we were bid a fond adieu about 9:30 pm.
That’s a ‘GE U30C’ model train, and nearly as old as I am having come out of the factory in 1969. It was doing mineral hauling, with cars that were emblazoned with the logo of ‘coke express.’ That means that they had been working on delivering the stuff to a steel mill further up the Monongahela River, and were heading back to the Ohio side empty.
I took the ‘T’ back home, and Our Lady of the Pentacle was floored when she saw that my normally grim visage had been replaced, as I crossed the threshold by a hideous imposture of a smile upon my face.
Back tomorrow with something different.
“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 