Posts Tagged ‘Pickman’
Hey Now! In Skunk Hollow
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As described last week, your humble narrator found himself scuttling through a ravine in Pittsburgh that’s called ‘Skunk Hollow.’
Mostly deserted, but I like that, as it makes me wonder whether or not I’m a ghost. This scuttle was originally meant to revolve around just scouting, but I ended up back at HQ with hundreds of shots from the walk.
I knew rail moved through here, but this was a Sunday afternoon and I wasn’t expecting to see anything.
As I’ve stalked the various RR’s, a bit of experiential knowledge has begun to infest the brain box, and discernment of the movements of rail through Pittsburgh has creeped in – just a bit. I’ve found several ‘choke points.’
‘When’ they’re likely on the move, and ‘where’ to look. It’s pretty much the same mentality as hunting and stalking a game animal, really.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Out of nowhere, Norfolk Southern #4012 appeared. Prey!
As intoned in the past, you hear a freight train before you see it. Sometimes you’ll get faked out by a heavy truck’s engine while it’s going up a hill, but there’s an unmistakable shimmer of vibration in the air when a freight train gets close to you.
Given the location, my guess would be that this train is heading straight through the ‘Golden Triangle’ peninsular section of Pittsburgh, and will then be rolling through the Amtrak/former Pennsylvania RR station downtown on its way to points north and west via the Fort Wayne rail bridge, but that’s a surmise and an assumption too. Guess.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The Norfolk Southern unit was hauling mineral cars, presumptively full of coal or coke, but I can’t say for sure.
I’ve been doing no historic research at all here in Pittsburgh, of course, but have been doing some light reading on the coal industry. Fascinating world, that.
I’ll be talking about that subject here in about a month, which should let you know that once again these posts are going to be scheduled well in advance of publication date. I allowed my ‘lead time’ to evaporate a bit to catch the photos up with the seasons so you’re not looking at snow in April, and whereas these photos were captured on the first of March, the words being attached to them are being typed on the 16th of the month.
I’ve had three distinct ‘adventures’ since then.
Lots and lots of cool photos are in the pipeline, and I think I’ll have most of April’s ‘content’ covered pretty soon.
No intention exists for rehashing those routes I was forced into by the ice and snow anytime soon, although I did walk through that ‘north side near Allegheny Commons Park’ side of the city just yesterday. Had to get home via the Light Rail, and that’s where the nearest station is.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
At this bend in the road, Lorrigan Street transmogrifies into Neville Street for a spell. It’s uncommented upon by signage. There’s a contracting company down here, and based on what’s was in their vehicle fleet, I’d guess that they’re in the earth moving business.
One was as happy as I could be, it was all downhill from here, after all. I had just seen a train, which I was hoping for… so ‘win.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I had resigned myself to just waving the camera around, when I heard it coming, over my shoulder.
The air started to vibrate, a thrumming sound pulsed into the local vicinity, and a screaming high pitched metal sound echoed.
‘Steel on steel, the worst sound around,’ is another of my little aphorisms.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Hey Now! That’s the White Whale! Allegheny Valley RR in the house!
I should mention, regarding the shots in tomorrow’s post, of this rail unit, that I was very pleased with myself soon after this particular interval.
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.
Skunk Hollow
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One had been desirous of perpetrating this scuttle before the verge grows back, as vegetative cover obscures detail and annoys me.
This is Lorrigan Street, looking back and up the hill at the area discussed yesterday. You can take the boy out of Brooklyn, but the Brooklyn boy is always going to spin on his heels occasionally to see if he’s being followed by some creature of the streets.
Disappointingly, I was all alone. So lonely…
As you’ll see in the coming weeks, one has fully reactivated himself. A maelstrom wrapped up in a filthy black raincoat has been observed blasting about Pittsburgh, in all sorts of unseemly places.
I’ve seen things… wonders… I tell you… wonders.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The Ella Street Steps were encountered.
Apparently there’s a bit of local affection for these stairs from what I’ve seen online, but oh my goodness were they in a bad state of repair. One of the series of posts coming your way in coming weeks will show off a set of steps which look closer to collapse than these, but ‘jeez louise.’
Spalling, cracking, separation of structural members, subsidence, shifting foundation moving out of ‘plum’… this structure had it all.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Look at that. The only thing holding this set of stairs together is gravity. All the pieces are just resting on each other, which is why it still stands. Bah!
As described in the past, the City Steps of Pittsburgh enjoy the legal status of being streets or sidewalks, and provide pedestrian access between the shifts of elevation common in the Appalachian landscape.
I can recommend Laura Zurowski, Matthew Jacob, and Charles Succop’s recent ‘City Steps of Pittsburgh’ book for a cogent history of this unique infrastructure, a publication which builds upon earlier volumes on the subject by author Bob Regan, with photos by my pal Tim Fabian.
Laura Z is quite active on Instagram under the handle ‘Mis.Steps.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Glorious, that’s how I’d describe this part of my long scuttle. I had outfitted the camera with an omnivore lens – my 24-240mm one. Glad I did, as I was constantly dialing back and forth between the wide and telephoto range.
Little did I know what awaited me at the bottom of this incline.
Well… I kind of did know, since I had clicked through here on the Google Maps street view before leaving HQ, and had previously walked through the other path through the ravine, but I’m also just trying to build some dramatic tension there for Monday and Tuesday’s posts…
Let’s just say ‘Hey Now!,’ and leave it at that for the moment.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There are multiple rail ‘rights of way’ laid down in Skunk Hollow, along with one of the bus ways. Three of the area’s four major freight rail operations roll through here, as does Amtrak. If only there was a brewery with out door seating and a view nearby…
I was hoping for trains, which… well, once again… that’s for Monday and Tuesday next week, yo.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Very, very interesting place for one such as myself, but I’m known for my love of insalubrious valleys, concretized devastations, and urban wastelands.
Back next week with lots of Choo-choo – including what I consider to be one of the best locomotive shots which I’ve captured since living 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.
Over the top and down into
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As described in yesterday’s transmission, your humble narrator was on a mission. After an intriguing walk – more than month prior – along a path that threads though a valley/ravine which is found in the more or less dead center of Pittsburgh, I wanted to return and explore this ‘zone.’
Problem in the interim was ice and snow, and the sure knowledge that this out of the way industrial focused strip was likely the very last place to have gained the attentions of the plow and salt brigades.
Had to wait for the melt, so I tried to do a little bit of reading on the subject, and this place seems to be another one of Pittsburgh’s historical black holes.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Obviously, I’ve got a lot more experience with the ‘black hole’ thing back home, so let’s use that as an example for what I mean.
The history of NYC is almost entirely written from the perspective of and about Manhattan. There’s also a lot of Brooklyn ‘stuff,’ but it’s a very specific part of the Borough which is well documented. Slavery in NYC during the Dutch vs. British periods, and the financing of the slave trade by insurance underwriters on Wall Street? Crickets. Anti immigrant riots? Mentioned, but mostly crickets, except in the case of St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral. NYC’s ethnic neighborhoods being consciously created by Tammany to build ethnic voting blocs? Crickets. Newtown Creek…
The historic record of Pittsburgh is one punctuated by groups of oligarchs deciding to spend some of their moolah on churches, libraries, or schools, and the historic record thereby speaks glowingly about the Mellons or Fricks as being great and generous human beings, as well as public benefactors. Ignore their strike breaking and rapacious income levels.
The ‘record’ generally skips past spots like Skunk Hollow, whose scant mentions (which I’ve been able to find) include that ‘it’s a place where the low people gather to listen to jazz and drink.’ The low people were specifically described as ‘Negroes, Jews, and the Irish.’
My kind of spot, then.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The funny thing about all that, is what’s down here was and is super important, and especially so to the history of 20th century Pittsburgh. Another abandoned home is seen on the hill, behind that massive retaining wall.
For this section of the day, the street I was walking on was called ‘Juniper Street,’ which invisibly transmogrifies into ‘Lorrigan Street,’ then ‘Neville Street,’ and it eventually becomes ‘Sassafras Street’ as it rejoins the local grid at an angle between Lawrenceville and Bloomfield.
For any new readers, I refer to an area which isn’t in one neighborhood or another as existing in the ‘angle’ between them.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Looking back over my shoulder, and as usual – where is everyone?
I’m currently nurturing a fun delusion that I’m dead, and exist only as a phantom blowing along the empty streets while dissipating into the atmosphere, but that idea’s just Cotarded.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The path began shedding altitude as the Bloomfield Avenue Bridge came into view. The businesses along this route were light and medium industrial.
As you’ve probably discerned, at the top of this hill is an auto mechanic who has a small junkyard worth of spare parts and ‘beaters’ arrayed about their property. Further down the road, there were material handlers, dump trucks, back hoes and other heavy gear parked here and there, so likely some sort of construction and earth moving outfit. Neat.
The ravine started to plunge in altitude, as the plateau which Bloomfield squats upon really came into focus. This is fairly obviously a hydrological valley, but the only water flowing through – which I could observe – was a drainage channel set in along the bottom of that giant hill.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Yet another abandoned home.
Pittsburgh experienced a full on demographic collapse after the steel industry began pulling up stakes here. Many of these abandoned structures are in deleterious condition, as a note.
The theory which I’ve been offered – by local knowledge – is that the house belonged to a parent or grandparent, and the modern day inheritor of the property had long ago left Pittsburgh and hasn’t looked back. The abandoned property likely owes back taxes, or the cost of upkeep for the building is too much, or the modern day owner has just disappeared and there’s no one else to contact about upkeep. I’m told that Pittsburgh has a condemnation procedure which is incredibly bureaucratic, time consuming, and expensive to navigate, so…
Lots of abandoned homes with no line of clear property ownership to pursue for a condemnation.
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.
Hey now!, and a boat
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A triplet post for this final installment of a fairly long scuttle that began on Troy Hill, crossed the Allegheny River and then proceeded through Pittsburgh’s Downtown to the Monongahela River and then finally over to the South Side Flats section. At this final destination, the CSX Pittsburgh subdivision’s locomotive traffic flows along their right of way, often offering a wandering photographer the opportunity to say his favorite thing:
HEY NOW!
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Presumptively, those rail cars are filled with either coke or coal, but since I don’t know for sure – let’s just call it minerals. This sort of specificity has gotten me in trouble with the sort of people who see everything through a political filter. ‘Freaking liberal pansy boy,’ call it coal. Well, in response, I don’t know – for a fact – what it is. Looks like, smells like, but ‘fact’? Can’t swear on a Bible about something? Then you should speak in general terms about it. That’s the mantra.
The locomotive was heading ‘towards Ohio,’ which is something I can actually say categorically.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Out on the water, a Towboat was negotiating itself against the river currents. I watched it for a bit, but it didn’t seem to be docking so I headed back out to the streets. A rideshare chariot was summoned and soon I was back at HQ and fending off the attentions of Moe the Dog.
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.
Allergic reactions
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The last installment from a recent walk around Pittsburgh, along one of the waterfront trails in the central part of the city. Pictured above is one of the inclines, ‘the red one,’ as I might call it.
The air temperature was dropping rapidly, with the wind kicking up. With every step, my will to continue this walk was evaporating.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One was bemused, by the signage and the evidence on the ground, indicating that the sign was in fact telling people that something interesting might be up on the hill, which the sign rendered as forbidden. You might as well tell children that they will never figure out where you hid the Christmas presents.
The sign should have said ‘pay your taxes, this way.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Locomotive traffic had fallen off, after those two trains moving under the West End Bridge had passed. One continued along, however, passing beneath the Fort Pitt Bridge.
This weather thing has been getting in my way. I was all set to attend two walking tours – two weekends in a row – which I had to back out of due to the ice and snow which has been glazing the steel city of late.
Have to constantly remind myself that due to the orthopedic incident, I have limitations now. Best to be conservative in my efforts for the next few months, and not risk any new injury. Tremulous, me.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The trail itself was perfectly clear of ice and snow, I should mention.
Regardless, my battery was starting to really run down. It wasn’t just my stamina that was ebbing, I literally mean that the camera battery was running low, as the cold reduces the amount of charge it can hold over time. A quick battery swap and soon I was back up to full power, camera wise.
Saying that, I was getting a bit bored. Luckily, the podcast I was listening to was in the process of introducing Caesar, and focusing in on the part of his career nobody ever talks about – when he was a populist lawyer, before he went to Gaul and became a general.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The T passed by me on the Panhandle Bridge, but I’d ready decided that I was going to summon a rideshare car for the ride back to HQ.
Normal custom for me would be to visit the Sly Fox Brewery and have a pint or two of beer, but it was far too wintry to sit outside and suffer the vainglory of hoping that a another train might pass through. I spent my beer money on a cab home instead. Brrr.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I hung about for around a half hour or so, anyway, and still nothing was coming through. Bah!
The car was summoned and soon I was fending off the affections of Moe the Dog back at HQ, in the Dormont section of Pittsburgh.
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.
The Newtown Pentacle 