Posts Tagged ‘CSX’
Scuttling, diagonally
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As described yesterday, your humble narrator was out for a short walk.
Not an exodus, nor a crossing of some hostile desert, this time around it was all familiar territory.
One was loathsomely scuttling down the diagonally cantilevered PJ McArdle roadway, here on the face of Pittsburgh’s Mount Washington. I’ve walked this way several times over the last few years.
That’s the Monongahela Incline, pictured. It’s a funicular railway.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Every now and again, one needs to relax a bit, take it easy. Ruminate.
I’ve really been getting around, in the last six months in particular.
A lot of attention has been paid to Pittsburgh’s North Side in the last six months, and to several other ‘zones’ around the city which I have some sort of intellectual interest in. Troy Hill, East Liberty, East Street Valley, Perry Hilltop and the Swindell Bridge, Skunk Hollow, Brighton Heights, lots of new and novel sights for me.
This scuttle was a bit more like visiting a relative’s house, I’d venture.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My day was abbreviated, due to an incoming weather system promising to bring thunderstorms and tornadic warnings to the area. It was quite a nice day at the time I was out and about, climatological wise, otherwise.
Happily, I was wearing a new pair of Merrell hiking boots, after discovering that I had ground my older pair’s soles down to flat.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Speaking of flat, when I got down to Carson Street, the Via Majorica of the South Side Flats section – a wrecker towing a bus was observed. I whipped the camera forward, and the two guys driving the thing saw me and started vamping for the shot. Sweet.
Me? I wanted to go shoot a picture of a train and also drink a beer.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Hey Now! CSX #3346 shot through the usual spot and satisfied my urge. I had a singular glass of suds, and then walked back towards the T light rail which is about a half mile or so away from this spot.
All told, maybe three miles in total, if we’re stretching it.
Specific ‘leg work’ for the day involved hyperextension of, and stretching the tendons, leading into and out of my ‘bad’ ankle joint while walking downhill. Accomplished mainly via a series of walking postures.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Finally, a ride back to HQ in Dormont on the T light rail, and yet another happy reconciliation with a dog named Moe, and a woman called ‘Our Lady of the Pentacle.’
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.
Failure of intent
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Ok, I’ll admit it, I willingly attended a Governmental meeting here in Pittsburgh. I’ve been doing historic research about Pittsburgh, too.
I was talked into it, but there was food laid out for the meeting, so that’s a tax refund – right? It seems that Allegheny County, which is a Governmental layer more or less synonymous with the municipality of Pittsburgh geographically, was publicly releasing an environmental plan that’s been in the works for a few years.
I figured that I’d work a scuttle into the endeavor, and found myself starting said walk at the top of Mount Washington, and specifically use Sycamore Street for the descent. Fun.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This ‘plan’ wasn’t actually much of a plan, it was more of a wishlist visioning document without any mandated deadlines for its recommendations, which didn’t carry a budget along with them. Ambitious plans filled with terminology like ‘decarbonizing’ and ‘human powered’ populated its pages.
A presentation was given, and then attendees were led into a room with the easels and signboards, where people connected to the agency wanted to hear opinions and reactions to the plan. I saw the person who talked me into coming to this event, and made a bee line for her signboard.
I felt that I needed to point out that nobody but nobody is going to replace their gas stove with an electric one without some sort of tax incentive to do so. The expensive nuances of removing a gas system and having an electrician come in to pull new power lines up through the gas pipes isn’t something they thought of, nor is a funded mechanism to handle the tonnages of gas stoves and furnaces which would headed for landfills or recycling.
Also, that when a government says ‘we should do a thing’ without any sort of a timeline included in their statement, that’s just politicians talking about the ‘way things should be,’ and they don’t have any way to pay for this policy position they admire.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Hey Now! CSX #104 was crossing underneath me while I was crossing the Smithfield Street Bridge, to get to the County building where the meeting would take place. I should mention something here…
I’ve given up. Nothing matters and nobody cares. The only thing which can stop people from pouring battery acid into water reservoirs is the threat of Police enforcement – and even then – not so much. I honestly believe that the best we can do at this point – environmentally speaking – is to try and manage the ‘new normal.’ It’s too late. We missed the window, as a culture, to do anything about the climate problem.
The County’s plan is solid in its logic. Its mandates are unfunded.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The cost of retrofitting the ‘installed base’ of water heaters, furnaces, stoves and so on is massive. Just doing the government’s buildings represents a price that would double taxes for a decade.
The only way to achieve a changeover to devices fueled alternatively to manufactured gas is to either mandate the replacement and create a tax scheme to forgive and absorb the expense, or to just change the zoning laws for new construction and gradually move over to the newer/‘cleaner’ technologies in the fullness of time as housing stock is demolished and rebuilt over the decades. The latter is the sort of approach that NYC is taking.
NYC is also embracing a farcical rooftop solar agenda, but that’s a different tale.
Suffice to say, I’ve seen a lot of environmental plans presented by lots of very smart people, and it’s ultimately always a wish list or a ‘vision’ plan that you’re consuming. Important to do, mind you, but still just a wishlist.
I wish that I was rich, taller, and better looking. That’s my vision plan.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The catering at the event was very political.
They had gluten free, and vegan, and all the other options which you’d need to have for a public ‘do.’ The food was prepared by a non-profit which specializes in providing the first steps for street people towards having a hirable skill set. Everybody I met was super nice, and friendly. I did my best not to talk to anyone, but that didn’t work as I was approached several times, and once they heard the Brooklyn accent…
I actually had to say it several times: ‘Hi, I’m Mitch Waxman…’ sigh…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I found the whole thing slightly depressing, as I often find such gatherings. They are very happy and peppy in public, however, the political people here in Pittsburgh. Genuinely nice in person.
I walked back across the river and caught a T light rail back towards HQ. Hope that this plan gets funded, and that they figure out a great way to sell it to those who will automatically be hostile to it.
Try this:
Hey, Y’see those people over there… whom you don’t like… well, those other people that are standing behind that curtain over there want to take something away from you, and give it to them. Me? I’m the only one who can stop that… even though I’m actually one of those people behind the curtain… I’m the ‘good one’ who cares about you, your kids, your dog, and Veterans – of course. Vote Quimby.
Back next week 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.
Accidentally, Homestead
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
So… yeah.
Failing to follow a detailed itinerary, which I had prepared in advance, with a literal turn by turn set of directions in the notes app on my phone, ignoring the carried prophylaxis against directional confusion offered by a compass… your humble narrator instead found himself staring down the barrel of a faraway place called Homestead.
There’s a waterfront rail trail I could have picked up from there to get back ‘to the center,’ but it’s a photographically boring route for most of that scuttle. It was also getting quite hot out.
Also, there was no freaking way that I was going to go and walk back over that steep hill which I had just surmounted. Bah!
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The 1936 vintage Homestead Grays Bridge is what this one is called.
Spans the Monongahela River, and over on the opposing bank was once found the United States Steel Homestead Steel Works. These days, that land which once made steel is a shopping mall.
I’m here a bunch for mundane ‘business of life’ tasks all the time, but always with the car. Dog food and paper towels at Costco, burgers at Red Robin, catch a movie at the IMAX – that sort of stuff.
In the distance, that’s not a continuation of the bridge, instead it’s a terrestrial road leading down a hill. I cannot say it enough times, how insane and challenging the terrain is, here in the Appalachians.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Hey, it’s the water of the Monongahela River. The muddy color, I’m told, is caused by sediments the waterway picked up on its north western journey through West Virginia.
They’ve got rivers out here which flow in all sorts of directions.
Since NYC is the logical center of all reality, and everything else in the world is just a distorted reflection of or a reaction to the Five Boroughs, it blows my mind that all global rivers don’t follow north/south axes like the Hudson does. What cheek…
I mean, it’s obvious, right? Right? RIGHT?
As a note, yeah I know about the Nile… it’s just interesting that my brain constantly jumps back to the ‘rivers naturally flow north to south’ paradigm, all the time.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Lucky for me, I was distracted by and got to shout ‘Hey Now!’ once again, as Norfolk Southern #6998 appeared.
It was at the head of a group of three locomotive engines, and they were hauling bucket cars filled with a black mineral – probably coal or coke, but can’t say for sure – so – mineral.
It also reminded me that I had to go food shopping at Aldi pretty soon.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One debarked the bridge, and headed for a decision point.
The atmosphere was fairly warm, and the first stage of this scuttle had been a lot more strenuous than I had intended, due to that steep and unending hill. I walked through the shopping mall, which was largely shaded. Debating my next move while doing so…
Bah… better to clip things off. Discretion, valor, all that.
Can’t believe that I walked the wrong direction. Again. Gah!
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Another ‘Hey Now!’ buoyed the flagging personal opinion about my own capabilities and efficacy.
CSX #7106 hurtled by, hauling a long line of double stacked cargo box cars. I was in front of the Costco anyway for this shot, so I went inside and bought one of their footlong hot dogs and drank a half cup of lemonade.
Cooled down a bit in there, but your humble narrator was spent. A quick but expensive rideshare cab ride ensued, and then I was once again confronted by Moe the Dog at HQ back in Dormont.
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.
Lots and Lotsa Hey Now!
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This most recent of scuttles finished as many do, with your humble narrator rehydrating at what’s now called the ‘Burghers Brewery’ on Pittsburgh’s South Side. Hey… it’s really close to the T Station!
This time around, I was trying out a new brew of theirs – an Irish style Red Ale called ‘The Red Funicular.’ It was good. That’s my review.
Hey Now! CSX #503 appeared, heading northwesterly.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I had finished my earlier peregrinations by crossing the Monongahela River, via the Smithfield Street bridge, pictured above.
The masonry of that bridge was designed by John Roebling, and the steel structure above is by Gustav Lindenthal. That’s the designer of the Brooklyn Bridge, and the designer of the Queensboro Bridge – back in a superior City, for the curious.
It should be mentioned that the Newtown Pentacle time warp has actually increased in severity recently.
The photos in this series of posts were captured on the 21st of May, and the very words you’re reading were encoded a month later at the end of June. At this writing, I’ve got close to a thousand shots which haven’t been processed yet – just sitting there on my computer’s hard drive – so hopefully I’m going to be able to continue with my longish ‘lead time.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
CSX #3165 elicited a ‘Hey Now!’ when it turned up in the very same spot that #503 formerly occupied, less than twenty minutes earlier. I headed inside for a ‘reload,’ and paid my tab. Two is plenty for me, these days.
I used to be able to outdrink Russians when I was a kid. Was always the last one awake at a party, me. A lot of that was paranoia, I’d imagine.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Just as I was exiting the establishment with my final boss of a beer in hand, CSX #3409 appeared and was headed in the opposite direction, southeasterly, towards the steel mills and ultimately – Maryland or West Virginia.
Hey Now!
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Man, I got lucky on this particular day. Hey Now!
That’s CSX #5465 rolling along there, just as I downed the last of my second beer. I returned the glassware to the brewery, and began a final set of steps to get back to HQ, where Moe the Dog was likely wondering what the heck had happened to me.
Moe is a worrier.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A ten minute walk saw me at those ‘Station Square’ platforms offered for the T light rail service, which carried me back to HQ.
Moe was fairly indifferent five minutes after my return to HQ, but I did get a very emotional greeting from him – barks and squeals.
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.
Just step right up, and hear a tale…
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Chokepoints. Pittsburgh is full of them. Especially so when you’re on foot. I’ve mentioned this a few times. It’s a city which is set up entirely for the convenience of automobile and truck drivers, and for vehicular ‘flow.’
That latter concept is a city killer. You want people to park their cars, walk around to local shops, and spend their money. This ‘system’ of highways facilitates the exit of that money to distant suburbs, and other municipalities, where it will be spent and the sale will be taxed by a different municipality instead. You want your citizens to spend money as close as possible to where they earned it.
Also – It really sucks to be a pedestrian in areas like this. Street crossings, in particular, are fairly scary. Meh!
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One scuttled up the ramp to the Fort Duquesne Bridge. This section of Pittsburgh’s ‘North Shore’ where it’s found received quite a bit of attention during the late winter and early spring here at Newtown Pentacle.
Mainly so due to the presence of two ‘T’ Light Rail stations nearby the stadiums, which allowed one such as myself a quick and easy ‘debark’ point from a mass transit service that tracks back to HQ in Dormont.
Essentially, anytime I’ve gone ‘out’ for a scuttle in the last year or so, the plan has always involved using mass transit for at least one leg of the effort. Partially, this is economic, but it’s also kind of become a ‘challenge thing’ for me. Let’s see how far away I can start a walk, and…
For this particular day, the rideshare dropped me a couple of miles north for my starting point. The challenges offered by any choice in my route were;
a) finding a path which hadn’t already been polluted by my presence but was still photogenically ‘interesting,’ b) figuring out a roundabout way to get back to the T, c) not getting squished by a car while crossing streets.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’ve been noticing odd things.
While walking over the Fort Duquesne Bridge, I was keeping an eye out for what looks like a former pedestrian path, one which has been abandoned and intentionally clipped off. It breaks off of the riverfront trail, and is attached to an onramp of this bridge.
There’s a concrete barrier, pictured, which blocks the path towards the Point State Park, but the counter side of that path leading from the park is still accessible. Weird.
Go figure, huh?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Another closed pedestrian lane is present up on the bridge itself.
Normally, this POV is locked away from prying eyes, but the gate was unlocked and just hanging open, so I cracked out a shot. This pathway just terminates, at a spot where there were likely stairs or a ramp connected once, but which would now just offer a dead drop into the Allegheny River, from high above.
Fun.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The path from this area was pretty simple:
Bypass Downtown Pittsburgh by skirting its edges, and then cross the Monongahela River via the Smithfield Street Bridge. Ultimately, I was heading for that familiar brewery on Pittsburgh’s South Side where the CSX tracks are found and I like to shoot trains.
Still had a decent amount of walking to accomplish.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Hey Now! Speaking of CSX, and the southern shoreline of the Monongahela River…
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.
