Posts Tagged ‘Light Rail’
McNeilly Station
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Another day, another walk in search of extant evidence of coal mining in the South Hills section of Pittsburgh, while avoiding any contact whatsoever with the NFL Draft at the end of April here in Pittsburgh.
This outing required me to transfer lines on the T, which was a new experience for one such as myself. The Red Line was ridden to the South Hills Junction stop, where a Blue Line T unit was boarded. This line runs along the Saw Mill Run waterbody, and to a section I was keen to visit, traveling on tracks that are cantilevered out from a hillside/heavy rail berm which in turn overlooks the busy Route 88/Library Road corridor.
I’ve been doing a bit of reading about coal. It’s been decided that in order to wrap my head around the complexities of Pittsburgh’s history, it’s best to start at the beginning – before glass, iron, or steel. Start where they started, basically.
The latter industries of glass and steel are consequential of the available fuel supply, so that’s where I’m trying to develop some understanding.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This T station is about two or so miles from HQ in Dormont, and is found at a two lane local road’s intersection with Library Road. This is a route which I routinely find myself driving along, called McNeilly Road, but this was the first time I walked it.
This is a tertiary arterial road, connecting traffic from Route 19 Truck/West Liberty Avenue to Route 88/Library Road, and at it’s intersection with Library Road is the T station that is dubbed as ‘McNeilly Station,’
So… coal.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The reason that the freight railway was built through here, and the berm which it rides atop that this T station is cantilevered out from, was coal.
A now defunct coal business’s railroad built this right of way a century ago, with tracks that ultimately led into a rail tunnel punched through the prominence of Mount Washington, about six or seven miles away. The mined fuel would be railroaded out thusly, to the Monongahela River shoreline, and delivered to the riverfront piers and rail yards.
McNeilly Road was another one of the ‘corridors’ where historic coal mining took place in Pittsburgh’s South Hills. In 2008, a nearby property owner was surprised when a renovation project at the T station revealed an open mine portal extant on their property. McNeilly, like nearby Bridgeville, was one of the spots where the coal seams were relatively close to the surface.
The entrance to a mine is called a portal. I learned that.
See… I’m smart, not dumb, like everybody says…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The Saw Mill Run waterway snakes along at the base of the elevated station, through concrete channels and then under a 1931 vintage road bridge, at the intersection with Library Road.
All of this coal talk has also made me quite aware of the Saw Mill Run’s ‘watershed.’ Said watershed is highly contaminated with urban street runoff, sewage, and a truly staggering amount of acidic mine water.
No bueno.
Yes, I do plan on returning here with the whole kit and getting all artsy fartsy in the future. Near future, I think.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The metal structure is the trestle which the T runs on, and the masonry structure is part of the forementioned berm which heavy rail uses. It’s quite a monumental structure, I’d add.
Pedestrian concerns seem to be an afterthought in this area.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Notice the sidewalk in the tunnel… sigh.
My plan for the rest of this scuttle was to push up McNeilly Road, from Library Road to West Liberty Avenue. As it turns out, there’s a significant change in elevation between the two sides, something you’re not really aware of while driving along it in a car. Part of Saw Mill Run mirrors this road, flowing behind commercial properties on its (mostly) southern flank.
Back tomorrow with more.
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Overbrook Junction
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As described last week, your humble narrator (who cares nothing for the sporting world, and pathologically hates crowds) was avoiding Pittsburgh’s ‘Big Show’ on the North Shore, where the NFL Draft event was playing out.
Weirdo that I am, I decided that it would be a great interval to go look for remnants of large scale coal mining operations that were once extant in the Bethel Park (and here at the tippy tip of Castle Shannon) suburb, and also visit Andy Warhol’s grave.
Today’s post is from the end of that day’s efforts, when I was heading back to HQ via mass transit – specifically on the ‘T’ Light Rail.
Overbrook Junction, thereby, is pictured today.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I should mention, in accordance with a long standing critique I’ve been offering about how bad Pittsburgh people are at signage and predictive wayfinding, that there are actually two platforms here at Overbrook.
One for the Red Line, and one for the Blue and Silver lines. You won’t know that unless you already know that, as the tiny and out of the way signage delineating the two stations has long ago had their pigment faded away by sunlight. Everybody knows where to go…
It has been mentioned that an annnoying cultural ‘custom’ in Pittsburgh is referring to modern locales through the contextual filter of times past, or landmarks which no longer exist, due to the presumption that the person you’re instructing has the same cultural/social background that you do.
Allow me to explain, then, from the perspective of a former Brooklynite, who is often confused by them:
‘Hey, I’ll meet you after lunch, around the corner from where Smith’s used to be, by the statue.’ That’s what the Yinzer might say.
The Brooklyn born response would be:
‘you’re an icehole, I don’t have any ‘effin clue what ‘effin time you eat ‘effin lunch, or where something ‘effin used to be during the ‘effin 1970’s. In the rest of the ‘effin world, we use – y’know- actual clock based ‘effin times, and the same sorts of ‘effin street addresses that the ‘effin Post Office and the rest of the motha ‘effin world does.’
Then you’d hiss at them like a surprised stray cat, and think about maybe punching them in the head to knock some sense loose in there, but don’t. At least I do, the hissing I mean, not the hitting.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There’s an elevated freight rail trestle nearby, used by the Wheeling & Lake Erie RR outfit, and the road pictured above is a tertiary arterial street which intersects with the secondary arterial Route 88/Library Road nearby, and also heads northwest towards Mount Lebanon, and eventually Dormont, in the other direction. There’s multiple street grade crossings of the T here every hour, where the light rail units exit the station.
I’m absolutely ‘hep’ to get a shot of the W&LE crossing through on that trestle, but haven’t figured out a good time of day to lurk there.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This one looks back at Library Road, a scene which caught my eye for some reason. Again, I’m currently enrapt by this coal story. These areas, where I’m spotting unnatural or artificial shaping of the ground, are on my radar and are something I’m ‘looking for.’
I’m not trying to ‘blow the lid off’ or expose anything hidden, I’m actually just tying to understand. The past harvest of bituminous fuel hereabouts is hardly a secret. The locals really don’t seem to want to talk about it, which is also odd.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
While waiting for my ride, I became fascinated by this broken window at the station. What can I say, I’m nearly sixty and I still run after fire trucks while yelling ‘firemen, firemen.’ Shiny.
One roughly shambled over to the correct platform for the Red Line light rail, photographically sated for the moment.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It took about ten or so minutes, after the south bound T pictured above passed by, before a north bound rail set arrived and carried my carcass back to Dormont.
This was the first of several ‘coal explores’ which occurred the week of the NFL Draft.
Back tomorrow.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Buy a book!
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Library Road, or part of it anyway
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As you might recall from recent folderol, your humble narrator was hiding away from the tumult of the NFL Draft, during the last week of April, by hunting around Pittsburgh’s Bethel Park area.
I was looking for remnants of the massive footprint that a series of coal mines once enjoyed in this area. After visiting the grave of Andy Warhol, one’s feet were again pointed at Route 88/Library Road.
This coal thing with me kind of started while driving along this route. ‘It’s a modern road, set up in the 1930’s and 40’s, why is it serpentine?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The answer was – of course – railroading.
Significant trackage used to exist here (beyond the elevated tracks of Wheeling & Lake Erie, pictured above), servicing a series of coal mines found along the Saw Mill Run waterway, which is a quick flowing urban stream. Said waterway should be regarded as a bit more of a ‘watershed,’ if you wanted to get a bit more ‘nitty gritty’ about it.
Saw Mill Run is fed by hundreds of smaller springs and streams, which trickle down out of the steep hills surrounding it. A primary arterial street called ‘Saw Mill Run Blvd.’ more or less shadows its path.
Saw Mill Run has been mentioned here quite a few times.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My rather hazy and still forming picture of things hereabouts suggests that the right of way used by the T light rail runs more or less in the footprint of the defunct Saw Mill Run RR, which carried mined coal to the Ohio River waterfront via a tunnel punched through Mount Washington.
Library Road narrows suddenly, and of course the thing that they didn’t have any room for anymore was sidewalk pavement. One was thereby forced to divert.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Nearly every stage of life is covered by that shot up there – the school’s playground is childhood, handicap parking is for the middle aged, and there’s a cemetery up on the hill. Neat, and very efficient. That’s ‘thinking ahead,’ right there.
Truly, the lengths I went to in the name of avoiding the NFL Draft, held in Pittsburgh in the last week of April, were ‘outré.’
To maintain my pedestrian access to sidewalk pavement, and not get squished by a pickup truck on Library Road, where the sidewalk just disappears I diverted to a small bridge, carrying an intersecting local road over the Saw Mill Run waterway.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Coincidentally, this adjusted path just happened to follow the tracks of the T Light Rail service. Fancy that.
There are three lines currently; Blue, Silver, and Red.
Red is the one which flows through Dormont, where HQ is found. All three terminate to the southeast behind a shopping mall, and the antipode of that spot is found on Pittsburgh’s North Shore, nearby Acrisure Stadium. They’ve got some sort of ‘hop on-hop off’ dealie going on with the fares, which I’m kind of hazy about the rules for, but it seems that when you pay a fare there’s a grace period during which you can transfer onto another T, or a bus, or one of the inclines.
It’s all very confusing. Nobody in Pittsburgh fully explains things. You’re just expected to ‘know.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One was scuttling towards a nearby T station called ‘Overbrook,’ where I’d be able to catch one of the ‘Red’ line rail units back to HQ.
This is a pretty little section of Bethel Park, have to say. There’s quite a few local shops, and I often see people actually walking around here, while I’m driving through. It’s a dichotomy.
I generally end up driving through this section a few times a week during my daily rounds. There’s quite a few interesting spots here, beyond the whole coal angle which I’m currently fascinated by.
Back next week with more, 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.
Squeaky wheel
Thurs
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A few random shots from the end of a satisfying scuttle. I swear, the working guys have no idea how esthetically pleasing I find these sorts of arrangements they leave behind. They’re artists, and don’t even know it.
I was moving through the area surrounding Allegheny Commons Park, which has a trench running through it for the railroads.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Norfolk Southern #1832 came through, heading north/west. It was hauling short blue cargo boxes, of the type which sewer solids are shipped within. Likely heading towards the sewer plant nearby the McKees Rocks Bridge, or Ohio. A lot of things nobody else wants end up in Ohio. I’ve been there, and really – they pretty much sent their best to Washington in Vance.
Stay out of Ohio, you’re not ready for what you might see there.
Regardless, one haughtily scuttled on.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This truck caught my eye. I was intrigued by those Doberman silhouettes silk screened on the thing. Also, that’s one crazy truck, yo.
My steps carried me into the ‘ceremonial center’ section of the Coty of Pittsburgh, where the Stadiums are found, and where there’s coincidental opportunities to board the T light rail service and ‘get out of dodge.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
See that mound on the right side of the shot? Coal mine’s historical entrance, as it turns out.
As I mentioned a few posts ago, this coal thing suddenly brings everything into a place where it makes sense. I’m not ‘smart enough’ to really delve into the topic here yet, but I’ve started reading up on the Pittsburgh Coal Company Trust, and others.
Heck of a story there. Eventually, I’ll know enough of it to point y’all at primary sources on the subject.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The T station came into sight, just as one of the light rail units rose out of the tunnel that it travels under downtown within, and climbed up the truss to the terminal stop opposite Acrisure Stadium.
Most of the Yinzers I meet ‘poo-poo’ the T, but I ride it all the time.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My chariot arrived, and as soon as those doors opened, I was ensconced in a seat. This was about a six or seven mile walk, all told. I had a nice time, and nobody threw any rotting fruit at me, for a change.
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.
Shiny, happy, Pittsburgh
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A comedic attempt at ‘cleaning things up’ has been underway for a bit here in Pittsburgh. Anticipation of the NFL Draft event has driven the local Government into a paroxysm: cleaning hillsides of trash, power washing the graffiti away, breaking up homeless encampments…
If they put this much effort into things regularly…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
On the final steps of a fairly long scuttle, and I think this one was about 8 or 9 miles – walking up and down hills, and then long empty streets, and then to the terminal stop on the T Light Rail.
Days like this one involve a one way cab ride to the top of wherever I’m going that day, and then picking my path back to mass transit if at all possible. It’s mainly about cost, this, and not bookending my day with $20+ cab rides.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Saying that, what you’re going to seeing in the next couple of weeks involved exactly that. Pittsburgh is a motor vehicle based city, after all.
I don’t drive when out on my excursions, usually, as I’d have to find my way back to the car and that limits how far I can wander away from it.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Across the street from Acrisure Stadium, and the entrance to the T light rail station above.
I’ve been enjoying these north side walks, incidentally. Physically challenging and revelatory in many ways. There’s a couple more of these in the pipeline, so hoping that y’all find them as interesting as I did.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
‘Upstairs’ at the T station, and my chariot is arriving.
I’ve also ventured out of the state since these photos were captured. Used the car for that, obviously, but you won’t be seeing those posts for a bit.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I poured my pre corpse into a seat, onboard this Red Line T.
A bit of organization needing handling as far as my camera bag goes, a task which was accomplished while riding the service.
Soon, I was back in Dormont where Moe the dog squealed as I walked in.
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 