Posts Tagged ‘McKees Rocks’
America’s deadliest wild animal
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As described yesterday, one had a bit of time to wait until a CSX Freight train cleared through, an interval spent organizing his immediacies.
Camera straps, backpack stuff, straightening out my shirt so the buttons descend in a neat fashion rather than being pulled over to one side by the camera strap – all that sort of stuff. I exist in a web of straps.
Once the train passed through, I was free as a bird again. Hooray.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
America’s deadliest wild animals, however, had wandered onto the vehicular road bridge over Chartiers Creek. Traffic had halted as these two rather confused fawns were trying to figure out how to escape the pickle they found themselves in.
I helped by waving my left hand in the direction they should go and yelling something like ‘Bip, bip, bip’ at them. It doesn’t work with Moe the Dog, but I figured I’d give it a shot here.
One can report from a scientific ‘trial and error’ experiment, on two distinct species of animal, that yelling ‘Bip, bip, bip’ and gesturing does not translate well into either the doggish or deermerican languages.
As an aside, I am increasingly convinced that whomever it was that took care of Moe when he was a puppy, way before we adopted him, spoke Spanish around him. He always responds energetically when I tell him ‘tu estas un loco perro’ or say ‘Oye, tu estas un Moe.’
Maybe that’s the answer… my lunatic dog might be bilingual.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I always think to myself that deer look like giant mice. I’m an idiot.
Luckily, these spirits of the forest decided to skedaddle, and ran down the shoreline to Chartiers Creek, which is kind of where they belong.
Deer don’t attack humans, necessarily, and they certainly aren’t predating us. Instead, the 400 Americans who die (on average) every year due to interacting with these deer, the country’s most dangerous wild animals, do so due to car crashes.
Not bears, mountain lions, or even ticks. Deer. Deer kill more Americans than any other critter.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One last shot looking back at McKees Rocks.
Now, I was in the grip of a familiar problem. The section of Carson Street between McKees Rocks and my next destination is a de facto highway, and ‘no bueno’ as far as walking it. There are sidewalks for most of the way, but with heavy traffic moving along it, often at double the speed limit. Last time I was here, I summoned a cab.
This time…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I finally rode a bus in Pittsburgh, lords and ladies.
Nothing extraordinary about it, it was just a ten minute bus ride, but it ‘got me out of dutch’ and deposited the physical firmament at a spot where I wasn’t quite as likely to get squished by a pickup truck.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The particular bus stop I debarked the vehicle at was the one found alongside the Duquesne Incline, whereupon a pedestrian ramp over Carson Street was utilized for this chicken to get to the other side of the road. My day was just getting started, after all…
Back tomorrow with more.
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Chartiers Creek and a ‘Hey Now!’
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Continuing with an interesting scuttle perpetrated in McKees Rocks, a Borough of Allegheny County found directly across the Ohio River from Pittsburgh’s ‘North Side.’
The blue bridge carries vehicular traffic to and from McKees Rocks’ romantically named ‘Intermodal Way’ to Carson Street, which is the main drag of the Monongahela River shoreline that allows traffic to flow to the east through the ‘South Side,’ where Carson Street eventually devolves into a de facto highway.
Additionally, the Newtown Pentacle time warp is still very much in effect, with these photos having been captured in middle June, and these words being written early in July.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Off in the distance, St. Mary’s RC church, which had served as my landmark from the Wind Gap Bridge and then in the industrial zone found along Thompson Avenue and Furnace Street Extension.
One maneuvered himself to a certain spot, where I could wait for it.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Chartiers Creek itself, looking back at the vehicle bridge that I had been standing on in yesterday’s post. After shooting this one I headed over to that certain spot, and checked my camera settings.
It’s a lot like fishing.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Luckily, I caught a bite!
Hey Now!
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s CSX #5419, and it was pulling a long line of tanker cars behind it. There was a secondary ‘DPU’ locomotive in the line, which adds extra horsepower to the equation. The train was traveling easterly.
Yeah, I was in a safe spot and all that. Zoom lens.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As you see, I had a few minutes to wait before I could resume my activities. The opportunity was taken to drink a glug of water from that bottle I’ve added to the pack, adjust the various straps attached to the bag and camera, and straighten out my clothing. Got to stay organized.
Back tomorrow with America’s Deadliest Wild Animal.
“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.
Get a lil bit lower now…
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
McKees Rocks’ Thompson Avenue ends suddenly, and there’s an intersection leading back out towards the Monongahela River side of the municipality that I followed instead. Heck yeah, I’ll be coming back here, but next time around I’m going to drive so I don’t have to shlep 30 pounds of camera gear on my back.
I really, really would like to get a shot of train coming around that bend.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’d also like to get a shot of train moving past St. Mary’s RC church nearby that bend. The church had been acting as my landmark, while moving around an unfamiliar corridor. My predetermined path, which had been decided on using the Google Maps app in advance, was sketched out in a turn by turn manner in a document on my phone’s ‘Notes’ app. The directions demanded a right turn here, onto ‘Furnace Street Extension.’
After all these years of wandering analysis, I’ve developed a certain perception about urban spaces which allows me to ‘ball park’ their age. How the streets are designed, the sorts of sidewalks (or presence of sidewalks at all) which are offered, HVAC systems or lack thereof. A big ‘tell’ is also whether or not an employee parking lot was part of the plan, when the place was built.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Furnace Street Extension in McKees Rocks, where the building stock I encountered suggests – to me at least – the 1970’s and 80’s with a smidge of ultra modern 2010’s investment thrown in. Saying that, the pathway itself is ancient by Pittsburgh standards. There used to be a number of Iron Mills found here historically in the 19th and early 20th centuries, hence the name ‘Furnace Street.’ They called iron mills ‘furnaces,’ back in the day.
Most of the land use in modernity is light industrial and warehousing. There’s a huge self-storage facility nearby, and a nightlife venue at the far end of the street called the ‘Roxian Theatre.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I tell you, New Yorkers, Pittsburgh is like heaven when and if the subject of public lavatories comes up. You can just ask people in shops to use the ‘terlet’ here, and they’ll let you. They look at you like you’ve got two heads for being grateful about it, too. You encounter Porta-Potties at every public event, and park, and sometimes there’ll just be a line of them sitting there and ready for use on the street. Nepenthe.
Amazing that it doesn’t cost Pittsburgh millions to build a single park bathroom, which is only open for a couple of non contiguous hours every third Tuesday in months that begin with a ‘J’.
Looking directly at you, NYC Parks.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One found himself back ‘out’ onto the more conventionally travelled sections of McKees Rocks, and soon I was standing on a fairly stout vehicle bridge overflying Chartiers Creek. A bunch of people were doing some sort of construction job that was centered around a utility pole.
A quick street crossing of a disconcerting intersection occurred, and I got to the other side of the bridge.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s Chartiers Creek again, with a vehicular (blue) and rail (rusty brown) set of bridges spanning it in the distance. Just on the other side of the rail bridge is Chartiers Creek’s outfall into the Ohio River.
Back tomorrow with some Hey Now!
“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.
McKees Rocks, where men scuttle…
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This post details a part of an interesting walk recently undertaken in the McKees Rocks area, a Borough of Allegheny County which is part of the larger Pittsburgh Metro area.
I’ve been to McKees Rocks a few times in the past, but usually on the literal other side of town, and this was the first time I’d wandered through this section on foot. These shots were captured along Thompson Avenue.
As is the standard with the Pittsburgh area, just because a lot is purposed towards something in modernity, the modern use of the property has little or no relevance as to the purpose which the industrial buildings on the lot were originally designed to accomplish. The particular company whose tenancy I was walking past would appear to be in the iron pipe business, but are actually in the drilling business.
It’s funny… I really can spot ‘em.
That structure pictured above is what’s left of the 1905 Taylor-Wilson daylight factory, which is an architecturally significant and historic industrial structure. Son of a gun…
quoting from sah-archpedia.org –
‘Cummings designed Taylor-Wilson to be cheap and fireproof, and also to show artistic flair. Six bays wide, sixteen bays long, and three stories high, it encloses an enormous space (160 × 120 feet) with a gently arched roof, one-story projecting aisles, and a facade dominated by a round-arched window twenty feet in height, though now boarded over. Wooden window frames were painted red to provide contrast with the intervening bands of gray concrete. Used originally for the production of custom-built machinery for heavy industry, the factory currently serves only as a storage facility.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Neat! Daylight factories were part of an effort by the ‘Captains of Industry’ in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to stave off a nascent labor and class war revolution which had been brewing in the United States since the Homestead Strike.
Back when America was ‘great,’ the strike busting and general hostility shown towards labor by the bosses had radicalized the proletariat instead of taming it. The bosses started realizing that improving conditions at the mills and factories just might ameliorate some of that class rage, and the assassination attempts they were experiencing, and also possibly tamp down the chances of a Bolshevik style revolution breaking out.
Historically speaking, prior to the New Deal, ‘which side are you on’ could be a life or death question. I know this all sounds ridiculous at the stage in history that we’re in, but anarchists and socialists were a major concern for the monied classes at the start of the 20th century. Roosevelt was famously accused of being a traitor to his ‘class.’ Don’t worry, the 2030’s are going to be a blast, so we’ll get to live through it all again during the ‘Great Again Depression.’.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Well… can confirm that these are active tracks. At least sometimes.
According to Google’s Gemini AI:
The tracks operate as an active, localized industrial “switching” and short-line corridor rather than a high-speed passenger or cross-country main line.
- McKees Rocks Industrial Enterprises (MRIE): They use the line as a primary transloading vein. Heavy materials—such as raw steel, coal, industrial aggregates, and bulk commodities—are moved off river barges on the Ohio River, loaded onto rail cars via these tracks, and staged for transport.
- Pittsburgh & Ohio Central Railroad (POHC): This is a larger regional short-line railroad owned by industry giant Genesee & Wyoming. The POHC maintains its regional operational headquarters right in McKees Rocks and utilizes interchanges with the PAM trackage to ferry chemicals, plastics, and minerals to and from Neville Island and Washington County.
- Class I Interchanges (CSX & Norfolk Southern): The Thompson Avenue trackage serves as a critical local collection point. Once the short-line switchers aggregate the industrial cars from local businesses, they funnel them out to the major national networks. They interchange with CSX Transportation (which operates a sprawling facility adjacent to Stowe Township) and Norfolk Southern at nearby Duff Junction.
Because the line curves through dense industrial corridors right past factory gates—including the PennDrill facility at 500 Thompson Avenue—trains operate at restricted, low yard speeds (typically around 8 mph) to spot cars for local manufacturing tenants.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Couldn’t confirm as I don’t trespass, but supposedly Chartiers Creek flows on the other side of these industrial lots. The waterway is on the map, but I don’t believe anything these days unless I’ve seen it with my own eyes.
I’m planning on returning to this stretch with the car at some point, so that I can sit and linger, while waiting for a train to come through. There were LOTS of great compositions encountered along the way which were just missing a train moving through them, I’d mention.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
St. Mary’s RC church was my navigational icon throughout this part of my day. My wayfinding confidence has been shaken by the two recent ‘wrong way’ decisions, described in prior posts, and now I’m a regular ‘Nervous Nellie’ about committing another gaffe. Shame!
One was in ‘full pack’ mode. I had everything with me – lenses, tripods, you name it. Forgot the railfan scanner radio, of course, but it migrated off the bag when I was slotting an umbrella into the equation.
Throughout the scuttle, I was playing around with a new addition – one of the magnetic camera filters which I had mentioned acquiring, a few posts back. This one was a ‘circular polarizer.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The polarizer gives me some control over reflections, and to a certain extent – color saturation. Particularly so in the sky, where haze and atmospheric humidity can be somewhat compensated for.
The great thing about these magnetic filters is that you just pop them on and off the lens as needed. The older filters I’ve got required you to screw them onto the lens, which is a fiddly, time consuming, and annoying task.
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.
Wiggling around, McKees Rocks
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As described yesterday, your humble narrator was involved with another exploratory scuttle in the Borough of McKees Rocks, a part of the Pittsburgh metro area here in Pennsylvania’s Allegheny County. A walk over the Wind Gap Avenue Bridge had been perpetrated, and now my footsteps were pointing in the direction of an industrial zone.
I wasn’t using my headphones on this one, as I wanted to be 100% aware of my surroundings. Lots of industrial driveways, nearby residential… if you’ve ever been certified by OSHA instructors, you know the mantra: How can I get hurt? How can I avoid getting hurt?
Simply speaking: never, ever, cross an industrial driveway without full stopping, and looking. If there’s somebody sitting inside a vehicle in that driveway, do not cross in front of it until the driver definitively acknowledges your presence. Indicate what you’re going to do next, as in point at where you’re planning on walking through.
Overkill? Yes. Not killed? Better.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s the church, St. Mary’s apparently, which would be my landmark for most of this part of the day. I like having a prominent building to use for such purpose. Given my recent idiotic proclivity towards walking in the completely wrong direction, I obviously need assistance.
The residential area is built on an elevation. The industrial area i was scuttling through is lower in altitude, and obviously built on the flat flood plains surrounding Chartiers Creek. There are also lots of rail tracks running through this ‘zone.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The path I had figured out before leaving HQ led to an underpass beneath that rail trestle pictured above. As far as I could surmise from the Google Maps app, consulted in advance, that was the iron gateway to the industrial zone, from the Wind Gap Avenue side. The truss roadway in the background is the Wind Gap Bridge, featured in yesterday’s post.
I don’t like driving on pavers, at all, but they’re not too shabby for pedestrian usage. You just have to watch out for paver bricks which have been ‘frost heaved’ out of position and create trip hazards. That’s how you’d get hurt here, with the prophylaxis against a fall down injury being ‘watch your step.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’m almost certain that these are Norfolk Southern tracks. That picture above would look pretty cool with a train in the middle of it, huh?
Unfortunately, these tracks were dead as a door nail on this particular morning. Something else I had to do evaporated on the day I visited this section of McKees Rocks, so the opportunity to get out a bit earlier than usual was taken.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The intersection under the rail trestle is the kind which has signs instructing drivers to honk their horns before turning, as the intersection is ‘blind.’ If you’re curious – here’s a Google Maps link depicting where this spot can be found.
This actually ended up being a pretty cool day.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There’s ‘routes of convenience’ for walks, which I’ve discovered here in the Pittsburgh metro area. The many rail and river trails, for instance, are cheap and convenient places for to engage with, and mass transit provides an alpha and omega to the effort. Another example of ‘frequented areas’ include my ‘North Shore’ scuttles, which are again in the reach of mass transit, specifically the T light rail.
McKees Rocks isn’t one of those easy places. It takes a bit of effort to get here, and back again.
I had a definite end goal for this McKees Rocks scuttle on this particular day, and a plan to get back to a light rail station cheaply. Saying that, there were several interesting things ahead of me.
More on all that next week – 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 