Posts Tagged ‘Pittsburgh’
Rear View Mirror
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A humble narrator is stretched a bit thin for content at the moment, given that most of the last month has been consumed by a medical drama experienced by Our Lady of the Pentacle. She’s doing great, after an elective but necessary set of procedures, although I don’t want to puncture her privacy by talking specifically about it here. She suffers enough, my bride, via her husband’s ‘open book’ mannerisms and his incessancy.
Today’s post includes shots which didn’t make it into the daily posts over the last few weeks. Pictured above is the driver’s side POV from the Mobile Oppression Platform, gazing back at a massive traffic jam I found myself trapped in one afternoon after a horrific vehicle collision which occurred about a mile ahead of this position, on a road called Liberty.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Since shooting this series of shots of CSX trains rolling past that brewery I like to carouse at, there has been little opportunity for such hedonist pursuit. There’s a whole series of train shots coming at you in the next couple of weeks, many gathered in the short intervals of Our Lady’s Doctor’s appointments.
Moe the dog has been utterly confused by all of this unfamiliar activity, as the world has not been explicitly revolving around his constant need for fun, play, and tiny mammal terrorizing. It’s been a 7 a.m. to midnight kind of deal for me, as you literally can’t take your eyes off of him lest he start chewing on the Declaration of Independence or continue with his attempts to commit Squirrel genocide one bite at a time.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’ve also been uncharacteristically static, not getting my exercises in. All of the internally lubricated parts have stiffened and my knees have started making popcorn sounds when I’m walking up stairs. Luckily, Our Lady has received a cautioned ‘All Clear’ from the Docs and I can soon resume my peregrinations again.
The shot above depicts the Saw Mill Run waterway running through a narrow st the oft mentioned, and nearby to HQ ,‘Seldom Seen Greenway’ trail.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Before all the drama began, during a visit to the nearby community of Homestead, this absolute unit of a church caught my eye just as the burning thermonuclear eye of god itself was setting. Can’t tell you much, or in fact anything, about it other than it was quite stout.
I’ll be back, and hopefully will be able to get inside of it for a lookie-loo.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One remains fascinated by the T light rail here in Pittsburgh. Can’t tell you why, except to say that street cars are something truly novel to me. You can take the boy away from the subway, I guess, but…
This one had just dropped me off in the Dormont section of Pittsburgh.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Another CSX unit rounding the bend nearby that brewery on the South Side which I’ve been attending, this one from either late August or early September, is pictured above. I cannot for the life of me figure out the schedule these companies abide by. Sometimes there will be three or four trains in an hour, whereas others you can sit there for three hours and nada. At least there’s beer. The Norfolk Southern people seem a whole lot busier here in Pittsburgh, and you’ll see a few examples of that in the coming weeks.
Anyway, the interval of staying at HQ to care for a recuperating Our Lady of the Pentacle seems to be at an end. She’s once again whirling, ever whirling. Back to the streets for me, and the odd out of town day trip every now and again.
Back next week with something different at this – your Newtown Pentacle.
“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.
More Montour, please, and onions
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A humble narrator likes to ‘kill two birds with one stone’ as much as possible. Our Lady of the Pentacle announced that we had arrived at a shortfall in terms of the stock of fresh fruits and vegetables in our refrigerator, with said statement coinciding with one of my ‘every other day’ jaunts of exercise schedule. We have been buying this form of comestible from a farm’s retail operation, in Pittsburgh’s South Park suburb, which is about a 30 minute drive from HQ. Coincidentally, one of the sections of the Montour Trail is about a 10 minute drive from said farm stand. Hence…
I didn’t think that there would be much interest in seeing the onions, apples, broccoli, cucumbers and other stuff which I bought later on. On the other hand, the Montour Trail is freaking great. The veg was delicious, btw.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This is a former rail road right of way, and the Montour Railroad’s primary occupation once revolved around coal. You can read all about the company at this Wikipedia link, the Montour Trail at this Wiki page, and for a series of visits I’ve made to the various sections of the trail click here.
There are several ‘rail to trail’ locations all over Pittsburgh, which make for an ideal form of scuttling. You’re separated from traffic, mostly, and the trails are surrounded largely by woodlands. There’s critters and often flowing water, and every so often a Porta Potty is encountered if you were in the mood to have a tinkle. The surface of the trail is generally asphalt or crushed limestone at railroad grade (1 foot of elevation for every hundred feet horizontally), and you could theoretically follow this path from Pittsburgh all the way to Washington D.C. on a bike, or on foot. There’s also several designated camping sites located along the Montour, with the path proceeding through the gorgeous Laurel Highlands and into the Western Maryland Panhandle. Appalachia, amirite?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Saying all that, I ain’t taking a 152 mile long walk just to end up in D.C., and I’m trying to visit somewhat more local sections of the trail, bit by bit. On this particular day, one was taking a short walk of less than 4 miles. 2 miles in, 2 miles out and back to the dedicated parking lot where I left the Mobile Oppression Platform. Cardio, yo.
Why do I call my car the ‘Mobile Oppression Platform’? Well, back in Queens, where I was the chair of Community Board 1’s transportation committee, one had to regularly endure the performative outrage and politcial ire of the bicycle people. If somebody got hit by a car, it was emblematic or whatever snake oil they were selling this week or that. One particular eidelon of the street safety crowd describes automobiles as – alternatively – ‘two ton death machines,’ or ‘mobile oppression platforms.’ She didn’t realize that Dr. Zoidberg from the TV cartoon Futurama had got there first. When Toyota insisted I give the car a name, Mobile Oppression Platform is what I chose. You can use M.O.P for shortness’ sake.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
All in all, a very pleasant experience was enjoyed by a humble narrator, although the path in this section wasn’t exactly rich in features you’d want to point a camera at. I was quite interested in this masonry bridge, however, due to its stoutness. The point of this walk was walking, exercising the internally lubricated parts of my legs, and first elevating and then sustaining my heart rate for an interval.
The constancy of my walking around thing is something I’m commanded to do by the team of physicians who help me maintain a median level of health. Running would work too, but I only run when something is chasing me. Also, running offers up a spate of other possible injuries you could incur during the act or over time. Overall regular practice of long distance walking is a fairly low impact form of exercise which offers a number of other benefits. I always bring the camera along to keep it interesting, and to push me into going new places.
Give me a choice, I’d be sitting at home in a La-Z-Boy chair, which was the very first thing I bought after moving here last year. That’s some chair, I tell’s ya…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After about two miles I encountered an obstacle, pictured above, and that served up as good a moment as any to reverse course and head back to the M.O.P.
There is a moving waterbody found alongside this section of the Montour Trail, which is called Montour Run. It’s the water which that stout masonry bridge spans. I’m pretty sure it’s engineered, likely something the rail people created as a drainage system for their berm riding trackway. Don’t know, I’m putting 2+2 together and presuming.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Thankfully, I found an open sewer or two along the way, which poured their filth and degradation into it. Ahhh… What am I without sewage to talk about, after all? It was a fine concoction, whose miasma told me it was residential and maybe a couple of days old. I learned many things on Newtown Creek, including how to effectively smell from a fellow called ‘Ned the Nose.’
I made it back to the M.O.P. in fine fettle after walking a bit of the Montour Trail, and then drove over to the farm’s market building to fetch the requested vegetables and fruit. A few weeks ago, I bought peaches at that joint which were the size of frigging softballs, but that’s another story. This time around, the hero of the effort were these freakishly large tomatoes. I also bought a basketball sized Cabbage.
Back next week with something a bit 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.
Seldom Seen, indeed
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Another recent scuttle was undertaken at the ‘Seldom Seen Greenway,’ a trail nearby HQ in the neighboring community of Beechview here in Pittsburgh. This is about a 15 minute drive from home, and one regularly brings Moe the Dog here for his exercises. Moe stayed at home on this particular day, “protecting” Our Lady of the Pentacle.
Me? I was hoping to catch a train. That arched structure supports freight rail tracks up above, ones which are frequented by the Wheeling & Lake Erie line RR. The tracks are a bit of a climb from street level, I would mention.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Thanks to Moe pulling me all the place, in his excitements, I had already found a trail leading up to the level of the tracks. Scuttle, scuttle, scuttle. It was a warm day, but quite temperate and comfortable. ‘Sweat shirt and shorts’ weather, if you will.
The W&LE peeps only seem to roll through this area a few times a day, so I was rolling the dice as to whether or not I’d get any shots up there. It’s always worth doing a bit of scouting, though.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The shot above looks more or less eastwards. There used to be other active tracks up here, by observation, but in modernity you’ve got a single set of steel rails. It’s fairly common to see CSX or Norfolk Southern moving multiple trains a day on their private tracks through Pittsburgh, however there are a few smaller outfits which pass through the area but not as frequently. There’s one outfit on the south shore of the Allegheny River, which I’ve been hunting for when I’m in the neighborhood, but they seem to be a ‘white whale.’ I’ll get a shot or two of them eventually.
One hung about for a bit, but nothing was coming my way. I’m led to believe that Seldom Seen Greenway occupies a plot of land that used to be an 19th century unincorporated town or ‘Potters Village.’ Grain of salt there, I’ve only seen one source for that, which is never a good sign as far as veracity goes. Still, interesting idea.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I was all lined up for the shot, were a train to suddenly smash into view. These tracks overfly the masonry arch pictured in the first shot, and the Saw Mill Run waterway which flows through the area.
One has learned to listen for trains coming. You don’t hear the squealing of the steel wheels on the rails until they’re quite close, but there’s a distinctive vibration and rumbling sound that’s unique to locomotives as they approach.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Y’all don’t suppose that the Queens Cobbler followed me to Pittsburgh, do you? I’ve been seeing a lot of abandoned single shoes, again.
Frustrated, the time allotted for exercising both myself and the camera began to run short, and a trip back down a wooded trail to the entrance of Seldomly Seen Greenway was undertaken.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Of course, just as I was walking under the bridge that I had been walking on moments earlier – the Wheeling & Lake Erie train set come roaring through. Next time, I’m heading up there with a sandwich and a thermos of coffee and I’ll just wait it out. Dang.
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.
Boss… ze train, ze train
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s Norfolk Southern’s Locomotive #1825 pictured above, and below, hurtling through Pittsburgh on the south side of the city. The unit came online in 1993 as NS #2507, an EMD SD70 model. #2507 was rebuilt in 2019 and the upgraded engine is now an SD70ACC model. The tracks it’s riding on are the ‘Mon Line,’ which was formerly owned by the Pennsylvania Railroad Company. As far as I can discern, other than an upgrade of certain mechanical drive and braking systems, the difference between the two models revolves around the operator’s cabin and the electronics found therein.
I know people who keep this sort of information in their head, all the time. This post was actuated as a response to one of these fellows, a friend of mine and whom I consider to be my ‘go-to’ or ‘rabbi’ for understanding how the insanely complicated world of Choo-Choo trains works. Like all my friends, he likes telling me what I haven’t done.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I had sent this particular fellow a link to a few prior Newtown Pentacle posts which featured another train line here in Pittsburgh, that the CSX outfit operates on. An offered critique was that ‘I had mastered the flying wedge photo alright, but I needed to start getting to “rail photos level 2”…’ Grrrr, thought I.
So… after scuttling down Arlington Avenue – as described in the two posts directly preceding this one (here and here) – one proceeded to the PJ McArdle Roadway where I knew a ‘POV’ for the Mon Line tracks awaited a humble narrator. Grrrr. Level 2, my ass.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One had to hang around for a bit, and I used the time to call my old pal Armstrong back in Brooklyn and check in with her. While chatting about the news of the day and hearing about the old neighborhood, #1825 rounded a corner and appeared in the distance. Gotta go, said I.
I had already figured out the camera’s exposure triangle, but it needed a bit of fine tuning. The shot above is zoomed out at 300mm, so atmospheric heat distortion manifested itself.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The train got closer, and I kept on shooting.
My big news for this day’s walk was that for the first time in literally years, I was using my headphones and listening to one of my beloved Lovecraft audio books. This particular entertainment was a ‘radio drama’ performed by the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society’s “Dark Adventure Radio Theater” company, a dramatic adaptation of ‘At the Mountains of Madness.’
As mentioned several times, ever since Covid appeared and the streets got weird, I’ve been avoiding the use of headphones while out walking. This habit started in NYC, and whereas I’ve continued it in Pittsburgh, I needed to let a different set of voices talk in my head for a change, and listen to something other than my horrific inner voice, which is impossible to tune out.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’ve actually been listening to some music, as well, other than the tried and true playlist which I refer to as my theme music. That inner voice of mine, with its paranoid imaginings and cruel replays of past failures and or embarrassments, has really been getting old and tiresome lately. Best to drown the intrusive thoughts, and fill my head with music, podcasts, or fiction instead – at least while I’m awake.
I know that I’m more than 20 years out of date on a lot of music, but I’m particularly enamored with this 2001 song at the moment – which quite fits my current mood. That’s a real cracker of a rock video too, if you ask me.
One was standing on a bridge while shooting these, a cantilevered span which carries a fairly high speed road, and one whose designers didn’t anticipate camera toting pedestrians running across the travel lanes in pursuit of a photograph. That would have been a very bad idea.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Thereby, the lens was extended out into its zoom range again for this final shot of NS #1825 heading eastwards. As a note, remember when I mentioned rock slides further up the Monongahela Valley? Turns out that a landslide in 2018 just a half mile west of here and which damaged the Mon Line tracks caused a Norfolk Southern derailment, which created no small amount of chaos and damage. Wow.
Level 2… grrr…
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.
Arlington Avenue is boss
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As described yesterday, my curiosity carried me over to the Allentown section of Pittsburgh, and a long scuttle down the face of Mount Washington’s Arlington Avenue. Truly spectacular set of views greeted a humble narrator on this walk. Whenever I hit a break in the tree line, along the steep slope overlooking the Monongahela River about a 1,000 feet below, the center of Pittsburgh just popped up and said ‘take my picture.’
Having lived my entire life in NYC, it’s fairly inconceivable to me that the local real estate people haven’t filled in every single inch of this location with gentrifier condominiums, privatizing these views.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
What you see, as far as residential housing stock goes in this area, are mainly one and two family dwellings whose entrances and parking spots are on the Avenue, but the actual buildings are found twenty feet down on terraced plots of land as seen above. There were a decent number of unoccupied or abandoned homes as well. Fascinating.
My desire is to live in a low density area during my dotage, and in the case of the current domicile (which is less than 5 miles from the spot pictured above), that’s what I’ve got. A friend who visited me over the summer said “Pittsburgh is crazy, it’s like you’re in Manhattan and then after you drive through one of those tunnels, it drops you immediately into White Plains style suburbia without any in between.”
Me? I’ve got Deer, Chipmunks, Ground Hogs and possibly a Raccoon more or less living in my yard – 4.6 miles from this spot on the other side of Mount Washington in the ‘South Hills’ section. I’ve also got a dedicated parking spot in a driveway.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It would be amazing to have an aerie style view of the Monongahela Valley from up here, I’ll admit. Saying that, it’s not what I want, which is an abundance of ‘easy.’
The big issue hereabouts, other than what the newspapers and TV news people would suggest as being an endemic crime wave driven by teenaged madmen, would be the existential reality of toting bags of groceries up sets of stairs like the one pictured above. Taking out the trash would likely be a monumental task. Saying all that, the building above was obviously designed with Zombies in mind. The Pittsburgh Incident of 1968 has had lasting effect on the local mindset.
Back tomorrow, lords and ladies, with some ‘Choo Choo’ action.
“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 