Posts Tagged ‘Norfolk Southern’
Catch as catch can, yo
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Our Lady of the Pentacle had a doctor’s appointment on Pittsburgh’s North Side, and thusly I had a couple of hours to kill while she was interacting with the white coat brigade. Her assignation was at that hospital building featured on that HBO show ‘The Pitt,’ as an aside.
What to do, what to do? Gotta stay busy and not be bored, for even a minute, me…
Allegheny General Hospital, as it’s known in the real world, is directly across the street from Allegheny Commons Park. Said park is the one which has that rail trench cut into it that I often visit, so…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Hey Now! That’s Norfolk Southern’s #3663 chugging along in that rail trench. I caught a bit of derision on one of the Facebook groups centered around Pittsburgh’s railroads, referring to this set of tracks as the ‘trench.’
Somebody on there said ‘I used to work for the RR, and nobody ever called it a trench.’ I asked ‘what is the proper name of this section of tracks then’? No answer.
Now, there’s around a dozen other photographers on that group who newly refer to this as ‘the trench.’
My phone chimed, a text had been received, and Our Lady was done with her business. I packed up the camera and picked her up, and we then headed back to Dormont for a fairly quiet afternoon.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The next day was an ‘exercise day,’ and this time around somebody else was driving. Specifically a ride share driver named Furkat. As soon as I heard the name, I asked if he was Uzbeki when I got in the car. There’s a sizable refugee population of Uzbekistani, Kazakh. and Afghans here in Pittsburgh who are also new arrivals to the area.
Furkat was taking me to Pittsburgh’s ‘Greenfield,’ where a medium long scuttle would begin. I took the opportunity to shoot out the window of his car, and try to get ‘the view’ from the city side of the Fort Pitt Tunnel.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
For reference, yesterday’s post had me walking across the Fort Pitt Bridge, with the walkway found on the bridge’s lower deck. The POV above and below is one which has been heavily romanticized, and is directly above the shots from yesterday. The upper deck of Fort Pitt Bridge is also ‘fablungered,’ but it’s nowhere near as horribly designed as the lower deck and its approaches are.
This is a difficult exposure, btw, due to part of the shot offering bright daylight, and the rest of it being inside of a fairly dark tunnel.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Furkat seemed a little concerned about what I was doing, but didn’t object. As long as somebody else is driving, I love the challenge of these sorts of high speed captures. It’s a real test of how well you know what your camera can do.
This was a fairly nice July day, incidentally, with temperatures struggling to hit 80 and about 60% humidity. I’d be irradiated by the burning thermonuclear eye of god itself for the entire walk, mind you, as it bobbed horribly about in the sky – so this wasn’t ‘sweater weather’ or anything…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Someday, there’ll be a parade or some event which closes this bridge and allows pedestrian access for a spell. If that ever happens, I swear that I will be present somehow, camera in hand.
Back tomorrow with where I was heading to, and what was observed.
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Hey Now! and the Big Boy
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
July 11th was a wicked hot day, with high humidity and temperature. The Union Pacific ‘Big Boy’ locomotive was scheduled to be rolling through Pittsburgh. Wasn’t exactly a secret, and thousands of people lined the Norfolk Southern tracks to get a look.
I headed over to one of my favorite perch’s and got busy. A few Norfolk Southern trains were transiting though in the run up to the Big Boy. While waiting, a crowd showed up.
Hey Now! Norfolk Southern #4251 rolled through.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Hey Now! Norfolk Southern #7651 was next up through the pass.
There were a few dozen people on the pedestrian bridge with me, over the tracks here. They showed up with chairs and food and bottles of wine.
I had a bottle of water and my camera bag with me, and some gum, and ended up standing around up there for close to four hours.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
You knew when Big Boy was on its way, and not just because of the tracker that the Union Pacific people were running on their website. A trio of Cops showed up and shooed all the lookie loos off of the ballast below in advance of the passing.
Part of the reason that I chose this particular elevated spot involved planning on ground level Police activity, as a factor.
Also: I’ve been mentioning the ‘Newtown Pentacle Time Warp’ all summer, wherein I’ve somehow managed to maintain at least a month of ‘lead time’ on these posts, and that’s the causative ‘why’ behind you seeing shots from early July in early September.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Big Boy finally arrived, spewing smoke and steam as it went.
To be honest, it all felt kind of anticlimactic, but… good clean fun.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My focus was actually on ‘focus.’
Shooting photos through a chain link fence has a high failure rate. As mentioned, I use this spot all the time for rail shots, so am thereby fairly well practiced at getting my shot through that fencing here.
Hey Now?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A long line of ‘heritage’ locomotives with patriotic paint jobs were attached to Big Boy, as well as a couple of modern diesel powered engines.
My understanding of the nature of this ‘heritage’ steam engine event is that whereas the head of the snake was – indeed – producing steam and smoke, it was actually a diesel engine further back in the chain which was providing motive power to the assemblage.
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.
South Side Hollow? and Hey Now!
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One has been working his way along the Monongahela River facing ridge line of Pittsburgh’s Mount Washington for quite a bit now. City Steps, weird undulating roadways, all that are on offer to the curious in this ‘zone.’ I’ve been boxing off and trying to experience all the pathways up here. I’m told there’s lots of unofficial pathways too, which are known to kids from the neighborhood and dearly held.
Basically, my usual plan is to get to a high point and then find a path from the ‘South Side Slopes,’ or Mount Washington, which leads down to the ‘South Side Flats.’ This particular scuttle did begin in the South Side Slopes section, but a bit further east from where I normally walk.
I got started at the intersection of Arlington Avenue and Josephine Street.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As is my habit, a fairly thorough bit of virtual ‘routing and scouting’ had occurred the night before, in the Google Maps app. My compass would be fairly useless in this area, so I had to rely on a list of ‘make a left’ and ‘turn right at’ directions for this leg of things.
There was a particular set of City Steps which I didn’t want to miss. I made it a point of recording the address of a home right next door to them so as not to walk right past them without noticing.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The South 30th street steps!
What drew me out in this direction was a video which my failing memory originally thought was from the excellent ‘Time Travel with Tim’ channel on YouTube, but instead it’s a similarly great ‘Cruising Pittsburgh’ production. Check out their video here. I was intrigued by the author’s introduced concept of a ‘South Side Hollow.’
One set his toes firmly in the direction of the steps.
Y’know what happened? I didn’t experience the stairs based PTSD this time around when walking down them. Progress!
– photo by Mitch Waxman
At the bottom of those steps you find yourself on a patch of solid ground, which the kids might call ‘Jane Street.’ There’s a lot of electrical infrastructure at the far end of Jane Street, which I imagine was once used to power up the nearby J&L steel mill, located along the riverfront.
Guessing, there.
This is more or less where the elevation of the Norfolk Southern trackage on this side of the river becomes ‘flush’ with the ground level.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Pure serendipity here, as I had just planned on scouting this area for future photo exploration, and then along comes Norfolk Southern #1225.
Hey Now!
This shot was dramatically overexposed, incidentally, but I ‘needed it’ to tell my story. Luckily, I shoot in RAW format, so there’s always a stop or two of ‘wiggle room’ for an exposure. Weird color in the sky, though.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Got this one right. Hey Now!
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.
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.
Standard, high, uniform quality
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This is the sort of post which I often describe as being ‘serendipitous.’
After marveling at a rail yard, and a bit of overbuilt pedestrian infrastructure on Pittsburgh’s North Side, your humble narrator had pointed his toes at Chateau Street. While scuttling along, the intricacy of the masonry on that building pictured above (2034 Chateau Street) caught my attentions and I stood there for a few minutes admiring it. I took a photo.
A fellow had just parked his truck, sauntered up, and said ‘Hi.’
I’m terrible with names, so he was either a ‘jim’ or a ‘rob’ or a ‘dave,’ since his name immediately exited my brain after the handshake. I asked if he knew anything about the building, whereupon he said that it housed his family’s business – the one advertised on the signage.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I mentioned my appreciation of the finery apparent in the masonry, and that the building looked ‘1920’s’ to me, opining that this sort of decorative and expensive brick work indicated that this building had some sort of grand past.
Rob/Dave/Jim laughed, and told me that the building was built in the 1920’s (good eye, he said), and that it was originally a Standard Oil Cannery operation. Further, he invited me to come inside and look around, but I declined that offer.
Rob/Dave/Jim said I should make sure to get a shot of a big, century old oil tank at the edge of their property, which is a part of the original Standard Oil setup.
This building’s tale set your humble narrator off on a spate of interesting reading, centered around this area. Specifics of the cannery operation were just out of historic reach for most of it.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It seems that Standard operated the cannery out of this site through the end of the Second World War, whereupon the property was sold and converted over to be the HQ of an interstate trucking company in the 1950’s. Said trucking company specialized in unloading cargo from rail cars and then onto a truck bed, for localized delivery. ‘Intermodal’ is what that’s called.
I also learned that in 1963, Pittsburgh pretty much annihilated another living ‘mixed use’ neighborhood, which was found right here, in the name of urban renewal, progress, and erecting more high speed roads and ramps. The neighborhood was flattened, and its rubble used to land fill in the Ohio River, creating its modern coastline.
This ‘zone’ is largely flat, thereby, and this 1963 project is ‘why.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s the Standard oil tank, back there.
Of course, there’s oceans of nasty chemicals in the ground down below the surface, floating around on the aquifer. Researching this former Standard Oil property revealed yet another set of surprises about Pittsburgh’s past, which will – of course – lead to other scuttles around this fairly interesting area.
According to old maps I’ve seen, the original waterfront facing street around these parts was actually Chateau Street, where I was walking, which is why Standard was here as they had access to both docks and rail.
Me?
It’s a ‘walk,’ not a ‘stand around and ponder,’ so I leaned back into it.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The plan for the rest of this effort was to head south, cross the Allegheny and then the Monongahela Rivers, have a quick beer at that brewery with the trains, and then catch a light rail ride back to HQ in Dormont.
From the point in space pictured above, the peregrinations prior to arriving at the light rail would require around four to five additional miles worth of walking.
Another abandoned and condemned house caught my attention.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Whereas I’d be pretty jazzed to have a rail yard just on the other side of my back yard, I can understand how that would grind on you. Moe the Dog would definitely not enjoy this.
Hey Now! Norfolk Southern #9871 just kind of appeared, hauling a set of specialized track geometry and testing cars. Neat!
Back next week with more from the Paris of Appalachia – 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.
