The Newtown Pentacle

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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