Posts Tagged ‘Norfolk Southern’
Mundane funsburgh
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Our Lady of the Pentacle led the charge on a recent weekend day, when she announced that she’d like us to attend an ‘Oddities’ convention at Pittsburgh’s Convention Center, which is found along the Allegheny River on the so called ‘Golden Triangle.’ It was your standard sort of ‘con’ show, with individual vendors and artists tabling in booths and selling or displaying their wares. Taxidermy was a big part of this ‘oddities’ dealie, but there were all sorts of people selling all kinds of ‘weird’ stuff.
Personally, I grew colossally bored after about 45 minutes. So I announced that I was going to take a powder for awhile and meet up with Our Lady (and a couple of friends) after they had explored the offerings. It was basically a shopping trip at this point, which is something I don’t find fun. I headed outside into an atmosphere bitter cold and heavy wind.
That’s when I heard it. Diesel.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The Fort Wayne Rail Bridge, and I should mention that I had left my ‘superzoom’ lens at home and was armed only with an 85mm prime lens, was allowing egress from the central peninsula of Downtown Pittsburgh and across the Allegheny River to the ‘North Side’ for a Norfolk Southern’s train allowing it access to the trackage found along the Ohio River.
Wooie!
Wish I had the zoom with me, but I kind of like these shots of the Norfolk Southern’s transit for some reason.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It was hauling tanker cars, ones which were too far away for me to have any idea what was in them. Gotta say that when you see a train going by and the screed on the tanker car says something like ‘WARNING! Molten Sulfur,’ it does give you pause. Law of averages says that eventually something’s going to go badly, somewhere. Remember East Palestine, in Ohio, when that train exploded and burnt? About 70-80 miles from my house in Pittsburgh, that was.
Of course, when I lived in Manhattan, 911 happened six miles from my house, so you’re really not safe from disaster anywhere. I’ve always strived to be an optimist, Y’see.
Back tomorrow.
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Making the donuts
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Great success, for one such as myself, materialized in the form of that shot above. That radio scanner which I’ve recently acquired was on ‘scan’ mode, and despite it getting stuck on the National Weather Service channel (I really need to reread the instruction book) a few times, the thing soon locked onto a Norfolk Southern radio channel and thereby I knew this train would be crossing in front of me in advance of its arrival. YES!
Norfolk Southern #4334 was just one of several locomotive engines providing diesel power to what looked like a coal train. It was probably coal, but unless you know what something is for a fact… you always have to qualify your observations as an opinion, informed or otherwise.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The T light Rail made another one of its many intrusions into frame as I scuttled along. The particular zone I was walking into should be quite familiar to long time readers by now. I’ve been attracted to this section of the Monongahela River shoreline for a bit now. Frequent rail traffic, a brewery, and out door seating? If you were trying to set a trap for me, these factors would be an irresistible bait.
Particularly right now, as the ankle has healed sufficiently for me to resume my walks but is not far enough for me to be ‘daring,’ one finds himself missing the overwhelming flatness of those concrete devastations surrounding a ribbon of municipal neglect called Newtown Creek. I need to charge back up at her font of corruption, fill my soul to the brim with the black mayonnaise and the NAPL sauce. She misses me, I can feel it.
When it warms up a bit, I think that I might go home for a visit, just me and the camera for like 72 hours or something. Maybe.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A second Norfolk Southern train appeared, this one carrying shipping containers and tankers while heading in the opposite direction of the likely coal train. My plan was now fairly simple, head over to the brewery and buy a beer, then sit down and wait for CSX to show up.
One should mention that I was actually enjoying myself, which is a rare treat these days. Exercise, photos, and fun? What’s going on here in Pittsburgh?
“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.
Ambulans mortem
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A humble narrator was out for an early walk, on a particular section of Pittsburgh’s Great Allegheny Passage trail, found in the Homestead and Munhall areas. After marching to the Whitaker Flyover bridge, which spans a grouping of rail tracks parallel to the trail, I was rewarded with a less than sudden appearance of a Norfolk Southern train set.
‘Less than sudden’ means that they were changing crews about a half mile away, and that I stood there for around a half hour waiting for the thing to move into position for the shot above. Sheesh!
The flyover bridge is a somewhat recent addition to this milieu, I’m told, and was installed along with another trail connector bridge found a couple of miles away in Duquesne, to ensure continuity for the GAP trail and to avoid having the citizenry using the trail crossing the very active tracks down below. I’ve learned this from signage.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My schedule for the day was cramped, and I had allocated just a few hours for the outing. Time was short and I was glad of the fact that the crew change finished up and the train started moving. It passed under the bridge I was standing on, and started heading roughly westwards. I altered my perspective, and got blasted with engine exhaust.
Me? After gathering these shots, I changed lenses back over to the big 24-240mm zoom.
The bridge sports a chain link fence, which negates usage of that larger lens. Instead, I had been using a ‘nifty fifty’ at this point, as the size of that lens easily fits into the diamond pattern of standard chain link.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A shlep still stood in front of me, and I had to scuttle back to where the car was parked a couple of miles distant to get on with the rest of my appointed rounds for the day. I had also left my water bottle in the car, and was looking forward to having a good long suckle from its icy content.
Back tomorrow, with something just a little 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.
Waves or particles
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A humble narrator needs a break right about now, which is why single image posts depicting rail traffic observed in the greater Pittsburgh metro area will be greeting you all week.
Above is a shot of two Norfolk Southern trains snaking through the South Side Slopes section of Pittsburgh.
“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.
Sicut ambulans hic
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Before you ask, the Latin title above means ‘I’m walking here.’ See, I just saved you a Google. I’ve included latin titles this week to make it seem like I’m better educated than I actually am, but it’s all just a ‘Fugazi.’ Often, I’ll intentionally create the impression that I’m dumber than I actually am by mispronouncing words. I’ll say ‘spahtoolah’ instead of ‘spatula,’ as an example. In reality, my intellect is best analogized as being an institutional beige/gray wall with a badly framed picture of a kitten on it which bears the motto ‘What, me worry?’
As you may recall, last Friday’s post ended with a humble narrator mid walk and heading down the roughly 12 stories of ‘City Steps’ that the kids call ‘German Square.’ Well, the kids of the 1920’s at least, but they likely referred to themselves as ‘Kinde’ back then.
My return to this installation was initiated by wanting to impact all of those muscle groups which I had strained and sprained on my first outing – the front of the thigh, sides of the knee, the ligaments between, and those calf muscles which reach down into the top of the foot from the shin, the entire lower back. This is a really good workout for those particularly hard to reach areas, and the views are sick.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My inexorable march would lead to one of Pittsburgh’s Light Rail or ‘T’ stations, where I’d board a train and ride out to its terminal stop in South Hills Village – which is a shopping mall complex of some size. It’s not exactly pedestrian friendly where I was heading, and my journey was cloaked in fear and loathing. A Doctor’s appointment awaited me, which was set to address an ‘out of nowhere’ medical condition which has recently asserted itself.
The fear and loathing part involved the nature of the practice itself, which is Ophthalmology. Last time that I visited the Optician to update my glasses prescription, the Doc spotted something worrying and advised me to climb up the eye doctor food chain to a ‘retina guy.’ The retina guy confirmed the condition and after a thorough examination, ordered me to return on the very day these shots were captured, for further examination and possible treatment.
What’s the treatment, asked I?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Hypodermic injection into the eye, said the doc. ‘Don’t worry,’ he continued, ‘we’ll anesthetize you.’ I needed to be anesthetized right there, after hearing about that nugget of nightmare fuel.
My friend Steve Bissette (the legendary cartoonist and illustrator) offers a lecture, periodically, which traces the roots of horror in graphic narrative, and presents an overview that begins with the invention of the printing press and passes though the lurid ‘EC comics’ era of the 1950’s, and into the modern era. He categorizes several motifs that have always gotten a rise out of people during this talk.
One is the ‘hand mutilation motif,’ and there’s also the ‘eye mutilation motif.’ Both thema offer a visceral and instinctual reaction from the viewer – it’s deep down monkey stuff.
Thoughts of the ‘Zombie 2’ Lucio Fulchi film (content/trigger warning on that link) thereby assumed a front and center position in a humble narrator’s mind, during the month long interim between my first visit and the one scheduled for later in the day.
Paroxysms of anxiety erupted within, but all I could do was to keep on walking. My fate was binary – it would be ‘either’ or it would ‘or.’ Given that I had zero agency to affect things one way or the other… I couldn’t worry about things outside my control.
More apprehension, and raw existential terror, 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.
The Newtown Pentacle 