Posts Tagged ‘CSX’
Winding down
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Whew, that was kind of an epic walk I showed y’all this week, huh? Wait till you see the next one, which made this week’s one seem like a stroll. After descending down that crazy flight of stairs shown in yesterday’s post, a humble narrator scuttled across the Monongahela River using the South Tenth Street Bridge, and soon found himself back to the increasingly familiar South Side section for my transit connection.
To connect with the T Light Rail at the Station Square stop, I’d need to walk a fairly negligible distance – if it’s even a mile I’d be pretty surprised. I opted to use one of the rail trails to negotiate the distance. Our Lady of the Pentacle and I had a social engagement this particular evening back in Dormont, if memory serves.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It’s fairly obvious why I followed this particular path, ain’t it?
As you may have noticed, I’ve crossed a certain boundary in terms of how I’m looking at things in Pittsburgh, and beginning to get granular in my explorations rather than doing the broad stroke stuff. We’ve also crossed the six month point, in terms of leaving NYC behind. It’s become ‘normal’ – waking up and going to sleep here.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I was rewarded for my choice of path when a freight train came roaring through, which put the cherry on top of my photo sundae.
Back next week with more from the Paris of Appalachia, at this, your Newtown Pentacle.
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2 trains and a boat
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Luckily, the car needed gas. Nearby the gas station I’m currently fueling up at are a set of freight tracks which are used by the Wheeling & Lake Erie RR, pictured above. I’ve driven up to the pump and discovered this train passing by, driven away from it and witnessed the train arriving…
This time around, after topping off the tank, I parked the car in an industrial driveway and sat around in it for about a half hour, eventually getting lucky enough to catch a shot of the thing as it steamed along.
A Class 2 regional railroad, Wheeling & Lake Erie is a modern operation started in 1990 that uses the name of Jay Gould’s original 1880-1949 company. W&LE ended up becoming part of Norfolk Southern, until the larger company started selling off parts of its portfolio of assets and in 1990 the modern company was born. They serve areas of Northern Ohio and Western Pennsylvania, and now I have a photo of one of their trains. Apparently, their Engine 6982 was built in 1971, and rebuilt in 1995. It’s apparently an EMD SD40-2, but not being a true railfan – just a guy who likes to take pictures of trains – I had to look that one up.
If you disagree with make, model, etc. you’re probably right, so please share it with the rest of the class in the comments section.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I was at a fairly cool location in Pittsburgh which I’ve visited in the past – West End Overlook Park – when I noticed a CSX train hauling cargo down the Monongahela River toward its intersection with the Ohio River. That intersection is more or less in the shot above, I guess. Those orange and black shapes at bottom left are barges of coal.
Twice I got lucky with trains. Twice in one afternoon. This has been driving me nuts, as a note, being surrounded by cool railroad stuff and not having the ability to get some shots of it because I’m driving or my timing is off. There’s always something. Saying that, I’ve begun to develop an idea of when some of these trains seem most likely to come through, and where I should be lurking about to get my shots of them.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I promised a boat in the title, and there you are. There’s a towing operation based right about where the West End Bridge, pictured above, is found. As of yet, I haven’t figured out how to get down to their base and say hello. Saying that, I know where they are, so that’s some sort of progress. Things here are beginning to become “familiar.”
Back tomorrow.
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It’s a train!
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After scuttling about for nearly an hour along the waterfront in Pittsburgh’s South Side section, a humble narrator found himself at an ‘at grade’ rail crossing. Contrary to normal habit, I decided to sit down and wait. I played with my phone for about twenty minutes until I heard the train horn in the distance and then the signal arms descended.
That’s a CSX freight train, and it was hauling minerals. Specifically, the cars were labeled with the screed “Coke Express,” so there you are.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The locomotive is of the General Electric ES44DC type, manufactured sometime between 2004 and 2010, which provides about 4,400 HP of locomotive power. If interested in the nitty gritty – check out this railfan page. I like taking pictures of trains, but don’t really “nerd out” about the things.
The cars that the train was pulling were filled with hot Coke, which is what you can turn coal into via an industrial process. It left behind a contrail of coal and coke dust, and the park smelled like an unlit BBQ after it passed by for quite a few minutes and until the prevailing wind blew the odor away.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After walking back to the Mobile Oppression Platform, which is what I call the car, I drove back up the hill towards HQ. Stuck at a red light, I couldn’t resist getting a shot of what the locals refer to as “heavy traffic” leading into the Liberty Tunnel. Said tunnel is bored through Mount Washington and leads to the South Hills region where HQ is located.
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.
Speeding Locomotive
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’m a bit behind schedule today, so a single archive image captured back in August is on offer for this second day of March. That’s a CSX train rocketing through Pittsburgh. 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.
There and back again
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s the Birmingham Bridge which a tugboat is navigating up the Monongahela River under, here in Pittsburgh. Where the bridge comes back to land on the southern shore, seen on the right hand side of the shot, is where my car was parked. Due to construction, my original plan to walk across Birmingham Bridge was thwarted, and also due to that project a humble narrator was forced to just keep on going in a generally westwards direction until a river crossing manifested itself. This is from the northern shoreline of the waterbody, and I needed to get to the south side and then back to my waiting automobile.
That’s the quandary. I solved it by doing what I do, which to just keep on walking. Scuttling, actually, but let’s call it walking. Luckily, an apparently quite energetic young woman jogged past me, hopping a couple of feet into the air with every stride, and since she seemed to know where she was going I kept an eye on her path.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The path which that fitness enthusiast blazed led me directly to the South Tenth Street Bridge, which I’ve actually mentioned before. The bridge connects several levels of the north side area together, including leading up to Duquesne University via a very steep staircase set against a bluff. There’s also a vehicle only tunnel punched through the base of the bluff which leads out to local streets. On the river facing side, you can navigate down to the waterfront and it’s trails, as well as to ‘for pay’ parking lots surrounding several governmental buildings. On the other side of the river, the bridge enters the South Side Flats neighborhood. That’s where I needed to go, to find my way back to the car.
Luckily, protected pedestrian and bike paths on bridges are pretty common hereabouts. One hung a left, and away a humble narrator went.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It was a pretty pleasant walking experience, actually. Separated from vehicular flow by steel girders, but few chain link sections of fencing. One of my most sincere complaints about NYC DOT’s Bridge operations revolves around the prison yard fencing that they throw up everywhere they can. One of my proudest moments along Newtown Creek was convincing the NYS DOT not to chain link the new Kosciuszcko Bridge and instead install a model of fence which didn’t occlude the views. I talked them into creating a fence not dissimilar to the one surrounding Calvary Cemetery, arguing about visual continuity with the designers. It’s just a coincidence that the width between the bars of that fence happen to be 1/2” bigger than the barrel of my favorite lens. Coincidence, I say.
It’s only about 1,200 feet across, the South Tenth Street bridge, so it’s a fairly quick walk.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I heard it right about here, I’ll cryptically mention.
The ‘quality rolls’ place in the background was some kind of metals mill, not too sure about what they roll or the quality thereof. As has been the case every time I’ve left the house for the last month, I’m not pretending to myself that I’m going to “photograph” anything (I’ve taken a lot of ‘crime of opportunity’ photowalk “shots”) and that my order of the day continues to be scouting in pursuance of future photo outings which will be more in depth.
Is it a Morning thing? Summer or Fall thing? What time of year do these sticks and twigs flower? All that.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As mentioned, I heard it back on the bridge. Luckily for me, the crew was stuck at a signal and I had all the time in the world to get into position before they blew the horn and started moving.
I have been extremely unlucky as far as timing goes when it comes to freight rail. That construction detour back on the Eliza Furnace Trail on the north side of the Monongahela River actually set me up. Serendipity, I tell’s ya, serendipity.
That’s a CSX train set, on the Pittsburgh Subdivision. There were tanker cars in the line, but who the hell knows what was in them or maybe they are empty inside. A couple of weeks ago, I saw a photo of a CSX unit towing Army Tanks and military looking container boxcars along these tracks. Was there ammo on board? Who knows? There’s supposed to be a ‘no hazardous material’ rule within the city’s limit, I’m told, but is that enforced? By who? Is there a formal compliance agreement between the carrier and the State or the Feds? Have dirty rotten cheaters gamed the system?
Who knows?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That derailed Norfolk Southern business in Ohio is about 50 miles away from HQ. I’ve been watching the social media ripples of the event splashing about, and all I can say is that maybe when the Union wanted to go out on strike last month we should have listened to them and the members if Congress shouldn’t have engaged in a rare bipartisan alliance to crush their right to strike. Joe Biden joined a long list of American Presidents who have orchestrated against Labor when the industry involved is Rail – and that includes FDR, Truman, Nixon, Reagan etc. This sort of thing goes beyond party, btw, and has nothing to do with that. It’s national security, supply chain, mega capitalism.
Vital industries depend on rail, and the last thing you’d want to do is increase the amount of volatile material that travels around the USA in trucks. The fact that the sort of disaster which the people in Ohio, just an hour’s drive west of here, are living through is rare and comment worthy is a testament to how good American rail workers are at their jobs, and how robust the American Rail system actually is. The problem right now is success, as in the success of the company in the eyes of Wall Street.
Not enough butter is getting spread over too much bread in the name of growing the profit margin, in order to make Norfolk Southern and CSX look good to the Wall Street hedge fund managers. That’s why corners get cut, maintenance deferred, and the trains and yards are undermanned.
“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 