Posts Tagged ‘Norfolk Southern’
Cassandra Railroad Overlook
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As described last week, your humble narrator decided to take a day trip and get out of Pittsburgh for a bit. I visited a Railfan Park in Pennsylvania’s Cresson in the last post, and then headed over to another spot in nearby Gallitzin – where there’s a rail tunnel that is meant to provide one with a nice photographic opportunity, but nothing was happening there and I moved on.
My third stop for this particular day was in nearby Cassandra, where another railfan focused overlook park is found.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There’s a rail trench carved out of the landscape here, which is adorned with wire netting along its sides. The net wires are electrically connected, and the entire system is designed to vouchsafe against a locomotive barreling into a landslide at full speed. As I understand it – were a landslide to occur, the falling rocks would hit and break the cables, which have an electrical current running through them. If the circuit breaks, a signal is sent down the tracks, and train traffic halts until workers can arrive and assess/correct the situation. Neat!
This spot is around a two hour drive from Pittsburgh, a bit over a hundred and change miles away from HQ. Distance is very different out here than it was back in NYC. A hundred miles of driving back home would be a grueling marathon of stop and go’s in standstill traffic that took all day, whereas out here a hundred miles is experienced at highway speeds on relatively open roads.
Your problem, as a driver, is not exceeding the posted speed limits.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Hey Now! A train’s a coming.
I spent my time waiting for this train to arrive joking around with a couple of old codgers that had driven here all the way from… Ohio… to spend their day watching trains. They told me that they make this trip about once every couple of weeks. Wow.
…Ohio…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s Norfolk Southern #1145, pulsing down the tracks at Cassandra.
This would be the last series of shots I captured, before having to head back to Pittsburgh. I had left HQ around 8 in the morning, arrived at Cresson around 10, and these shots had to have been captured somewhere in the early afternoon. I was going to be getting back to Pittsburgh sometime around the start of rush hour, and on a highway at that, so this was the only train I shot at Cassandra Overlook.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As you’re reading this, the ‘Big Boy’ locomotive has already passed through this spot at least once, and I’m sure that an absolute calamity’s worth of people filtered though Cassandra to get a photo of it.
I’m hoping I might catch the thing in Pittsburgh, but it’s not really a high priority shot for me.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Speaking of Pittsburgh, that’s where the track that this train is traveling on goes to. Same ‘road’ as the one which I normally show you from the pedestrian bridges in the South Side Slopes, and the one which runs in a trench through a park on the North Side.
Back tomorrow with something different – at this – your Newtown Pentacle.
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Cresson Railroad Observation Platform
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
First off, The Newtown Pentacle Time Warp (patent pending) is still in effect. Your humble narrator has somehow managed to maintain at least a month or so of ‘lead time’ on these posts recently and is chronologically disconnected. The photos in today’s post were captured at the very start of May, and the words you’re reading were typed out at the end of that same month. Fun, huh?
So, I decided to take a road trip. Loaded the car up with camera gear, a cup of tea and a bottle of water, and then set off in an easterly direction from Pittsburgh. A bit longer than two hours worth of driving found me in Cresson, Pennsylvania, where a ‘proper’ railfanning park and observation platform can be found. Neat!
Ummm… Hey Now! That’s Norfolk Southern #4259 pictured above.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Basically a huge patio deck, the observation platform allows one some elevation. There’s seating, and a couple of spots where you can escape the sun. Cresson is perilously close to Altoona and the Horseshoe Curve, meaning that that the tracks leading aways from that bit of mega-infrastructure are chokepoints that literally ‘everything’ needs to travel through.
I’d heard of this spot, and few others near it, so the resolve to ‘check it out’ grew in my brain. Cresson Railroading Park is found here on Google Maps.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Hey Now! NS #7230 is pictured above, which seemed to be doing ‘switcher’ duty.
Have to say, this was a pretty pleasant morning for me, and train sets were rolling through about every fifteen minutes. There’s a LOT of other rail stuff in Cresson which I want to get photos of, including a Wye. I’ll definitely be coming back here in the future.
Likely in the fall, I think those BW locomotives of theirs will look really cool against an autumn backdrop.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This section of Pennsylvania is ‘feature rich.’
Multi day ‘explores’ in this zone include: Johnstown (of horrific flooding and mass casualties fame), Altoona and the Horseshoe Curve, and there’s also a host of other historical RR goodies in this area, left behind by the Pennsylvania Rail Road Company.
yeah… HEY NOW! NS #4673 passed through next.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Hey Now… NS #7648 arrived next, heading westerly.
Both of the larger subjects – Johnstown and Altoona – will be receiving my attentions sometime this year as well. I have to develop a shot list for each zone, and when those lists grow long enough to warrant overnighting there in a motel or AirBNB, I’ll go. Saying that, Cresson and my other destinations on this particular day were ‘one and done’s’ so any return here is a day trip. It’s only a two hour drive.
Very much car country, this.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’m all out of Hey Now’s.
Norfolk Southern #4212 was the last train I shot before heading back to the Mobile Oppression Platform (a Toyota), and firing up the engine to get to my next destination, which you’ll see next week. Hurray!
Enjoy the fireworks.
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Buy a book!
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Third of Syacamore
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Continuing with a scuttle down Pittsburgh’s Sycamore Street, in today’s post. Your humble narrator found his ‘bad ankle’ left leg cramping up midway through a walk down the face of Mount Washington, and a quick sit-down was enacted. When the symptom subsided, I took advantage of a singular POV – above – and back to being in movement.
If you stop moving, you’ll stop moving.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Sycamore Street is composed of a series of sharp switchbacks which conquer the verticality of route for motorized vehicles. The overflying ramp is part of the PJ McArdle Roadway, which follows a gentler path across the face of Mount Washington and allows vehicular egress from ‘down there’ to ‘up here.’
Get out of the house and experience something real, don’t look at your phone for as long as you can.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A ‘Bernie Hole’ was discovered in the fencing along Sycamore Street, which provided for an interesting point of view, including a cat seat over the Norfolk Southern RR tracks, and a fairly familiar area.
At the right hand side of the shot is the Liberty Bridge, nearby that brewery where I photograph CSX RR traffic frequently, for context. The flowing water is the Monongahela River.
Don’t stand in the past, it was prologue, and you’ve only got today.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Luckily, I had the ‘super zoom’ lens on for this particular outing, and was able to get all the way in on CSX #893 transiting beneath the Panhandle Bridge, which the T Light Rail uses. As it turns out, this particular ‘Bernie Hole’ offered me a POV on several cool features.
(It’s actually a surveyors hole, cut into the fencing. My old pal Bernie Ente was notorious for ‘opening’ fences back in Queens along the LIRR and all around Newtown Creek, so any fence hole is thereby a ‘Bernie Hole.’)
All the world’s evils begin with loneliness.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A cool work train appeared on the Norfolk Southern tracks. The locomotive is pictured, but it was hauling multiple cars worth of lumber ties, and they had an entire car devoted to the heavy equipment used by this crew. Those are photo links to Flickr, by the way. Neato.
Everybody sleeps alone, even when sleeping next to someone.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This one is from the base of Sycamore Street, showing how crazy steep this street actually is. When driving up, you really need to step on the gas to get past all those crazy switchbacks. Cool pathway.
Back tomorrow, with something pretty different.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
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“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.
Lake Elizabeth, and 2 Hey Now’s
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Swindell Bridge to North Shore, part six.
After walking down from Federal Street, here in Pittsburgh, and then through a section of the Mexican War Streets neighborhood, your humble narrator soon found himself loathsomely occupying a two cubic meter patch of the space at Allegheny Commons Park.
They’ve got a manmade lake in there, dubbed ‘Lake Elizabeth.’
I was just passing through, on my way to a rail trench which bisects the park. This is a cool location for railfanning, and there’s usually a few guys (it’s always guys, you don’t meet many lady rail fans, or at least I don’t) sticking a lens through the fences here. I’m often one of these guys.
That horrible thing with the camera, over there, too terrible to behold – that’s me.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Hey Now!
Norfolk Southern’s #4309 appeared. It was a train. That’s all I’ve got to say on the matter.
Also, I very nearly fumbled these shots, due to being a clumsy idiot.
I’d spend the rest of the afternoon in a broad ranging self critique after nearly fumbling them, as that’s all it takes to set me off into a spell.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One of the ‘things’ which you have to manage, when wandering about American Cities with a camera, are the various straps, pouches, and cases that the ‘gear’ lives in. It’s important to pat down your pockets periodically to ensure that everything – lens caps, etc. – are where you think they are. A little bit of ‘OCD’ is actually helpful.
I was right in the middle of doing all that when this train showed up, which meant that I had to position the camera and set the exposure triangle in just under a second or two to ‘catch the shot.’
Whew!
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One moved to another position, on the bridge which carries local streets over these trenched tracks in the park, and another Norfolk Southern train appeared, heading in the opposite direction to the former one.
Hey Now!
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Your humble narrator was ‘enroute’ to a light rail station where a ride back to HQ awaited, and given the peculiarities of Pittsburgh’s street layouts and river crossings, the path that brought me here is one which I commonly transit through.
Lucky for me, this train trench turns this ‘zone’ into what I call ‘a feature rich environment.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I still can’t run, but I did ‘quick step’ across the bridge to other side to get a shot of the train’s transit. Black minerals, likely coal or coke.
Back tomorrow with the penultimate steps of this scuttle.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
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All sideyed, at Conway
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As described yesterday, during a lament about a Shell Plant found further north/west along the Ohio River, I had some rather mundane stuff to take care of ‘up here’ – about 25 miles north of Pittsburgh ‘proper.’
I had planned a couple of hours of ‘me time’ into the obligation, and spent about an hour of it lurking on a street called ‘Fourth Avenue’ in Freedom, PA., while staring at the Norfolk Southern Conway Yard.
Positively, there are better angles to see this gargantua of a rail yard from, but killing time is killing time, even if it only offers ‘profile’ shots.
from Wikipedia:
- Freedom is a borough in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, United States, along the Ohio River. The population was 1,496 at the 2020 census.[3] It is 25 miles (40 km) northwest of Pittsburgh and is part of the Pittsburgh metropolitan area. Originally founded as a steamboat-building town, it later became known for producing oil and caskets in the 20th century.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One was sitting in the car, fairly obviously, and for some reason I love this shot from within the Mobile Oppression Platform’s cabin, accidentally captured while pulling my camera out of its bag.
I’m going to have to do a bunch of research on Conway Yard, and figure out locations for better points of view. Also, have to make sure that the camera is shut off while within its bag.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One set of switcher locomotives caught my eye, as they shuttled lines of train cars from one track to the next. They had an atypical paint job for Norfolk Southern, which usually means that it’s got some ‘one off’ pollution control or fuel saving gizmo at its heart. Something they’ll roll out for politicians or investors to see at press events.
Notably, Conway Yard was once a prized property of the Pennsylvania Rail Road company.
from Wikipedia:
- Conway Yard (also known as Conway Terminal) is a major rail yard located in the boroughs of Conway, Pennsylvania, and Freedom, Pennsylvania, 22 miles (35 km) northwest of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, along the Ohio River. It was the largest freight yard in the world from 1956 until 1980. It is currently owned by Norfolk Southern (NS) and is one of the largest yards in the United States and on the east coast.
- Conway is the only remaining large operation of the four early-20th century PRR yards. NS processes 90,000 to 100,000 cars per month (as of 2003). The site occupies 568 acres, with 181 miles (291 km) of track and a storage capacity of over 11,000 cars and is a hump yard.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I must’ve been hanging around Freedom for about an hour, waiting for something interesting to happen. As I often say, my kind of photography is a whole lot like fishing. You can’t make a fish bite a hook.
So – That’s what Freedom, PA.’s Fourth Avenue looks like, incidentally, directly paralleling the rail yard. These shots were gathered right about here. Nice residential homes, most likely built under the ‘mill town’ model.
All the reading I’ve been doing about coal has kind of bled into me recognizing the sorts of homes which would be offered to miners. I’ve come to be able to recognize these ‘miner houses,’ but there seems to be several prevalent styles of residence which can fit into either description. The ones above are a few notches higher on my ‘size, livability, and quality’ meter than miner houses are.
The latter form are essentially brick boxes with as few a number of windows as the bosses could get away with installing. You’ll see some of those in the near future.
Coal is a fascinating subject, but this post is about Conway, the existence of which is – tangentially speaking – consequential of coal, but there we are. It’s all connected.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A Towboat was navigating down the Ohio River, which was visually interesting, but these shots really disappoint me and I actually considered not running them. It’s that patchwork of horizontal lines. There’s nothing technically wrong with them, it’s just… I dunno.
I’ll definitely be back to this ‘zone’ sometime this summer, but I have a bunch of googling to do first. ‘Rail fanning locations near Conway Yard’ is likely going to be one of my first queries to the Googleplex before I do. I also imagine YouTube is going to come in handy here.
I had to get on with the utter mundanity which had brought me up north, so a last shot or two of those long horizontal lines, with trains in them, were cracked out before firing up the MOP’s engine and hurtling off into space again.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Neat, huh? Good thing I had that green swoosh to frame around. Bah!
Mitch’s rules of composition include: ‘triangles!,’ ‘Z’ shapes, and that whereas one thing in a shot is best, three is cool too, but there should no more than five. Odd is better than even. Establishing shot, medium, up, down, all around, close up. Pay no attention to the man behind the camera, folks, he’s busy.
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 