Posts Tagged ‘Pickman’
One Potato
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A birthday scuttle was underway, and your humble narrator was hoping to see a few locomotives along the way. Sometimes, you get lucky.
My path followed the Great Allegheny Passage bike and pedestrian trail down the shoreline of the Monongahela River, and this section of the facility offers several commanding views of Pittsburgh’s downtown cluster of office buildings, and several bridges, along the way.
It’s also mirrored by the Pittsburgh Subdivision’s right of way, owned by the CSX railroad outfit, so there’s a pretty good chance of seeing a few trains running through what’s basically a choke point for CSX’s operations.
If trains were Persian soldiers, and these tracks were Thermopylae, that would make me Leonidas. That’s madness, you say?
Dis is Spartah!
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I spotted the first of what turned out to be several passing locomotives as it was transiting beneath the Fort Pitt Bridge. All of the land in this area used to be a rail yard owned by the now defunct Pittsburgh & Lake Erie RR outfit. Their yard property has been redeveloped as ‘Station Square,’ which hosts restaurants and bars as well as a couple of hotels and a Soccer Stadium in modernity. It’s also where the docks of the Gateway Clipper tourist boats are found. Saying that – CSX’s subdivision is still very active.
The three surviving U.S. Steel mills are found to the southeast, and CSX has an intermodal yard just west of Pittsburgh in an area called McKee’s Rocks. This location is more or less the middle point between those two other areas of interest. Lots of traffic.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
CSX #148 got close, and a humble narrator started a-clicking the shutter button as it did. Choo-Choo.
#148 was built in March of 1996, when the most popular toy in America was the ‘Tickle Me Elmo’ doll, and the #1 song on the national charts was ‘the Macarena.’ How popular was that song when #148 was spawned? Here’s Hillary Clinton clapping along with it at the DNC convention just a few months after #148 went to work.
#148 is a GE AC44CW model locomotive, I’m told.
Back tomorrow with more Choo-Choo.
“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.
West End Girls
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A recent scuttle played out on what turned out to be a humble narrator’s latest birthday, which occurred during an interval of tolerable climate.
It’s been one heck of a hot summer out here in the Paris of Appalachia, with high temperatures and humidity defining entire weeks. It’s always a quandary for me – I need to walk, and walk, and walk for health reasons, but then you run into dangerous atmospheric conditions that preclude being outdoors. What are you going to do?
You can fight City Hall, but you can’t argue with the weatherman. Or a Fire Inspector, as they are omnipotent.
This particular soirée into the milieu of Pittsburgh’s arcane street ‘grid’ began at the West End Bridge, spanning the Ohio River. This path would carry me to the southern shore of the Monongahela River, the Great Allegheny Passage trail along it, and ultimately to that brewery nearby the CSX Pittsburgh Subdivision tracks which I regularly visit.
First, I needed to get across the bridge.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Quoting from a prior post describing this bridge:
“There’s a steel tied arch bridge near the center of Pittsburgh, one which spans the very mouth of the Ohio River (formed up by the convergence of the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers), and it’s called the West End Bridge. West End Bridge’s construction was declared as accomplished in 1932, and the thing was built by Pittsburgh’s own American Bridge Company (steel and span) and the Foundation Company (foundation and masonry piers). West End Bridge was originally just under 2,000 feet long.
After a sprucing up and redesign in the 1990’s, which saw the addition of pedestrian and bike lanes, as well as the removal of several vehicle approach ramps on its northern side, the West End Bridge was and is 1,310 feet long.
There’s 66 feet of clearance over the water, it’s 58 feet wide in totality, and the bridge carries 4 lanes of traffic through a 40 foot space. West End Bridge is a challenging and unforgiving span to drive over, I would mention, given how narrow the travel lanes are.”
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Down below, there’s a Towing outfit which maintains a series of docks for their Tow Boats, as well as a fleet of barges.
The West End Girls from the title of this post are pictured above – The ‘Gale R. Rhodes’ and one labeled as ‘CTC.’ CTC stands for Campbell Transportation Company, which is presumptively the operator of this particular docking complex and probably not the name of the vessel.
I couldn’t find much out about either of the boats, as neither one was displaying a call sign number visible from the POV I was inhabiting. Call sign numbers are the key to identifying random maritime vessels you might encounter. Just saying.
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.
Lookie loo
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As a humble narrator navigates through his daily rounds, here in Pittsburgh, moments often occur that cause a moment of reflection to manifest. The insane terrain, the disturbingly heterogeneous housing stock… everything here is so different than the world I grew up and lived in most of my life – which is just 400 miles away on the ocean coast. It seems like it’s an entirely different country here.
More accurately – it’s a different country back there, in the archipelago city-state of NYC which squats just off the coast of America. This is the actual ‘country,’ and the megalopolis which spawned me is the exception rather than the rule. These days, I live amongst the Americans. Just yesterday, I saw some bloke open carrying a holstered pistol at CVS when I was picking up a prescription, which struck me as odd. Expecting trouble? He was picking up hemorrhoid cream.
Nobody else seemed to notice, or find it odd.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I get around, here.
Spotted this house in a neighborhood somewhere in the middle of Pittsburgh. Wasn’t intending on taking a photo of this house for any particular reason, instead, I was just tuning up the camera’s ‘exposure triangle’ while in the front seat of the car – for current lighting conditions and focused in on the first thing which caught my eye. Look at that joint, though – what an interesting and quirky building that is, ain’t it? Especially so for a residential structure found in an urban neighborhood.
I’ve had to redefine what I consider as ‘urban’ since moving out here nearly two years ago. It’s a whole other kind of city, Pittsburgh.
There are areas in Pittsburgh which sport a ‘density’ that begins to touch some of the outlier neighborhoods of NYC, but the de facto suburbs in New York are FAR more populated and ‘dense’ than even the dead bang center of Pittsburgh is.
It’s a whole other banana out here, in fact it’s a plantain in comparison. Starchy, and not as sweet, but quite tolerant of high cooking temperatures.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There are a tremendous number of ‘cul de sac’ streets in Pittsburgh where the only way out is the way you came in, a quirk of the region’s unique geography and Appalachian terrain. You see these ‘No Outlet’ signs everywhere, indicating that you’ve arrived at one of those cul de sac’s and you’re either ‘hanging a U’ie’ or reversing back out. Also ubiquitous is signage which admonishes one to ‘Watch Children,’ an odd municipal command in a region of the country which is so absolutely preoccupied with Pedophilia and human trafficking. I try to pretend that the kids aren’t there, or at the least are just large and hairless squirrels.
It’s my belief that these signs are indicating that the local kids are up to something sinister, so I’m keeping an eye on the youngins. I’ve seen a lot or horror movies, and a surprising number of them are set in Pennsylvania. The kids are up to something here, according to the signs, so watch out.
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.
Moist
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One has been informed by several members of those age cohorts which follow my own, that the word which forms the title of this post makes them vaguely uncomfortable. My response to this usually involves mentioning the packaging og supermarket cake mixes like Betty Crocker’s with their promises for the finished product, and then questioning them what about why this word is so disturbing to them. It’s vague, their discomfort is, I’m told.
Pittsburgh and its environs received a near record amount of rainfall in April, which caused the rivers to swell and burst their banks. It was quite a hullabaloo. Thereby, the entire Pittsburgh region was overly moist.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s Point State Park, with its iconic fountain, positively buried beneath an admixture of the Monongahela and Allegheny River’s respective waters. As is my practice, I wanted to get no where close to such conditions, and a visit to the community of West End and its Overlook Park – which are several hundred feet higher in altitude than the water – was enacted.
My time here was somewhat limited, I’d mention, as Our Lady of the Pentacle would be requiring a ride home from some social ‘do’ she was attending. One got busy with the camera in the allotted interval.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A low laying bank of mist, and a precipitant one at that, blew in from the direction of the Ohio River. The precipitation caught and diffused the emanations of the burning thermonuclear eye of god itself, as it was dipping behind Mount Washington. There were a few other photographers at work up here, I’d mention – a couple of drone guys, and about three or four other stills shooters.
A kid standing next to me was obviously new to the ‘scene’ and had brought zero preparation with him for inclement atmospheric conditions. I had my umbrella with me, and a ubiquitously present and quite absorbent kitchen towel which I always carry, in case I have to wipe the camera down after a blast of rain comes through. You never know.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A rainbow set up behind Mount Washington and I made sure to get a shot of that. The flooding in Pittsburgh has since reversed, and the waterfront trails and the flooded park in the first and second shots have reopened for public inspection and use. Such is the nature of things, I guess.
For those of you who have accused a humble narrator of ‘drinking the kool aid’ on the subject of climate change, over the years, I’d ask – is the weather and your expectations of its seasonal variants different these days from when you were a kid? Does the winter seem warmer, the spring wetter?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Looking westwards, over the Ohio River, towards the bands of rain which the storm was blowing in, is what’s depicted in this shot. The ridge lining the start of the Ohio River Valley had already plunged the area into shadow, but the shot was a bit underexposed – purposely – to allow the rain some visibility.
Just as this shot was being executed, my phone chimed with a message from Our Lady that she was ready for me to come and fetch her. Five minutes, I replied.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Looking back at Downtown Pittsburgh with its flooded shorelines, just as the various office buildings began to light up for the night. The gear was then packed up, salutations offered to the young fellow standing next to me who owned an overly moist camera, and soon I was behind the wheel of the Mobile Oppression Platform and heading towards Our Lady.
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.
Wassup in Sewickley
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Sewickley is a Borough in Pennsylvania’s Allegheny County, found about 12 miles northwest of Pittsburgh proper, and is home to about 4,000 people. It’s quite a lovely and seemingly well-off suburb, I would mention.
There’s a park and a boat launch along the Ohio River, the access road of which is pictured above as it tunnels under the Norfolk Southern tracks which I’d been shadowing all afternoon and has been mentioned in prior posts. In the shot above, the tracks are carried above the boat launch tunnel, with the Ohio River in the background.
After one walked through the tunnel, surprising a couple of people who were surreptitiously enjoying some cannabis, one discovered that the views attainable here weren’t terribly photogenic so I walked up a nearby hill to try and find a POV.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The Sewickley Bridge came into frame at the hill top, a 1981 vintage truss which spans the Ohio and carries State Route 4025 – which connects Sewickley to Moon Township on the south side of the river. I’d be driving over that bridge before the afternoon was over, on my way back to HQ.
One scuttled about, and I received a phone call from an old friend while doing so, who’s been referred to here as ‘The Hermetic Hungarian.’ We caught up and discussed the issues of the day while I scuttled about and crossed my fingers that I might get a shot of a train, after haunting these tracks in different locations all afternoon.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Wishes do come true, apparently, as Norfolk Southern #4781 came roaring into view. I’m told that’s an ‘EMD SD70MAC’ model locomotive.
That probably means quite a bit to someone versed in the railfanning hobby, but as is often stated – I like taking pictures of trains, and photos always need subjects to focus on. Trains are also sort of difficult to photograph, especially so when they’re under full steam and cooking along their way. Not railfanning, however.
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.
The Newtown Pentacle 