Posts Tagged ‘Pittsburgh’
Steps, steps, vertigo, steps
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
On a recent evening’s ‘short walk,’ here in Pittsburgh, I was trying to incorporate all sorts of verticality into my scuttle. Up a set of municipal stairs, and then down another on the other side of the hill. Particular attention is being paid to the joints in the legs, or as I call them – my roadway interface – at the moment.
I regard most of the body as being a meat carriage for carrying around the sensory stalk and central processing unit found dangling off and above my neck, it should be mentioned. The entire apparatus below just supports the brain and handles interaction with the local vicinity. Consciousness, as in what I’d describe as ‘me,’ is found about two and a half inches behind the eyes and betwixt the ears.
More often than not, this roadway interface of mine is more trouble than it’s worth, but there you are. I’d likely be quite happy as a brain in a jar, attached to a networked computer, but that existential horror would definitely prey upon me.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This crazy set of steps actually caused me to experience a bit of vertigo while moving downwards, along the rises and runs of the stairs. Vertigo is another one of those bits of vestigial programming we’ve inherited out of ancestral experience, as the proto humans who didn’t have a healthy fear of heights didn’t live long enough to reproduce and pass that trait along to the future. It’s good to be a bit paranoid, as well.
What actually got me ‘razzed up’ was that these otherwise quite sturdy steel steps had gratings, on the ‘run’ or flat section of the steps,’ and you could see right through them to the sidewalk and street below. I get a tingling sensation in my fingertips and the palms of my hand when confronted with great heights. How about y’all?
One grasped those bannisters pretty tightly, I tell’s ya.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This shot is actually from a walk that I took a few nights later, which gives a bit better POV on the steps. The second shot was captured while standing right at the angled ‘join’ at center left. Brrr.
Regardless of lurking fears and ancestral phobias, one gingerly maneuvered the old meat carriage back down to the street level via the steps without overt incident. I walked away, proud as a pony, with a couple of OK photos and a story to tell, so ‘win.’
Back tomorrow.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
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An evening scuttle
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Another short walk day was upon me, and honestly – one wasn’t ‘about’ shooting photos on this one. The weather had been fairly ghastly for several days, and according to the TV weather people, the sky was about to offer another multi day cycle of cold and wet in the coming week.
I took the T streetcar to the south side of the Monongahela River here in Pittsburgh, and stuck the headphones in my ears. This time around, it was music, in particular a playlist that features every Black Sabbath album which I own.
One hit ‘shuffle’ on the Ozzy and Dio rich playlist and started scuttling, following whatever direction my toes happened to be pointing towards.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s Pittsburgh’s Smithfield Street Bridge pictured above. While walking, I was thinking. A lot. It ranged from when I would next be doing the laundry all the way into springtime, and which part of the region I was planning to explore next was ruminated upon. Eastern Ohio is being considered, as is a day trip down to West Virginia.
It was late in the day, about an hour before the burning thermonuclear eye of god itself was going to dip below the horizon.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
While walking along, I became the focus of attention for a junkie whom (I’m pretty sure) was being employed to deliver ‘bindles’ of narcotic powder to various customers by some dealer. Dealers will often use the street people for delivery duty, letting them catch the jail time should the cops clip them. A bindle of the powder is thereby won for their efforts, as a salary. It’s a living, I guess.
One probably would have been in trouble, if I hadn’t clued in to his particular vibe. Junkies and street people always talk to me, and sing their songs. I once talked a Jehovah’s Witness into dropping his Watchtower magazine stock in a garbage pail and drinking whiskey with me at a dive bar in Hell’s Kitchen, as amicable and convincing conversation is one of my super powers.
I think this young narcotics enthusiast was trying to figure out if I was a cop, and also likely fixing to take the camera from me if opportunity arose. Always keep moving, I always say, and if they want to talk to me…
My narrative stylings went ‘hard Brooklyn,’ and we chatted about gangs, and turf, in Pittsburgh. I regaled the kid with tales of all my loser friends in NYC, all the times they went to jail, and that led to conversation about doctrinal differences, here in Pittsburgh, between people who wear red, or blue, or leather, or just ball caps with denim jackets.
The pale enthusiast soon broke away from me to ‘go say hello to that guy,’ and I subsequently disappeared into the street grid using a reversed variation of a sector search pattern that the Coast Guard utilizes during searches for missing mariners. It’s handy knowing things like this, I say.
More 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.
Beyond the bend
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As described yesterday, a humble narrator was executing a short constitutional scuttle of about five miles along the Three Rivers Heritage Trail, found on the south shore of the Monongahela River here in Pittsburgh. That’s the South Tenth Street Bridge pictured above, which I think I’ve finally taken an interesting picture of. It’s a fairly unremarkable span, and it’s a challenge I’ve been entertaining myself with for a while now.
It’s also the start of a huge encampment maintained by a population of homeless mendicants. The city of Pittsburgh has been dealing with these sorts of encampments all over its turf since COVID, and has been roughly uprooting the dwellings, tents, and shanties in the ‘Downtown’ area of the ‘golden triangle’ since I got here, in response to complaints by the business community about the situation.
These poor people had to go somewhere, and apparently it’s here, far away from the Downtown corporate world and the cameras of new crews.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
In the 1930’s, this would have called this a ‘Hooverville,’ shanties and makeshift dwellings composed of other people’s discarded items. During this walk, one noted that both sides of the trail were de facto neighborhoods. I observed a young guy doing missionary work here, bringing sanitary products to the residents. I also saw him cutting firewood for a camp of three elderly men at one point. He was wearing a T-Shirt signifying he worked for some local church. Good stuff.
Instinct is to pass some sort of moral judgement on our fellow Americans for ending up in this circumstance due to addiction or bad luck, but that does nothing to solve the issue and serves to dehumanize the homeless into a homologous ‘mono-issue’ population rather than individuals who all have different problems that have led to this circumstance.
Conversely, there are some fairly dangerous people amongst them and it’s important not to underestimate that. I don’t have an answer to the problem I can offer on this subject. Life on the edge is a hard life.
I’ve said it a hundred times (and especially so to members of ‘Team DeBlasio), that there’s not a ‘homeless problem,’ rather there’s thousands of individual ‘homeless problems’ with no ‘one size fits all’ solution. Few of them want to be living in a tent made of garbage alongside a river.
If you’re concerned about these people, think ‘existential’ instead of ‘penitential’ and drop off some old blankets or clothing nearby their campsites. At least they’ll be able to stay warm while living like this in the richest country that’s ever existed. That’s what I’d call the ‘Christian’ response, rather than putting them in jail for being destitute or something.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
See what I mean about the South Tenth street bridge? It’s really hard to get an interesting shot of the thing… bah.
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.
Black & Gold
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One has been hunting for this set of shots since the leaves began to turn. Allegheny Commons Park, and the 4 track railroad trench that runs through it nearby the National Aviary on Pittsburgh’s North Side, is where this particular location is found. The trees which line the trench are Ginkgos, a specie whose leaves turn bright gold in the fall. The primary source of traffic on these tracks is the Norfolk Southern rail outfit, whose trains are primarily black.
Kismet, huh? Black + Gold = Pittsburgh.
That’s Norfolk Southern #4243, heading south east on the trench’s track #2. 4243 is a rebuilt GE AC44C6M model locomotive, providing 4,400 horsepower worth of traction.
These were actually a surprisingly difficult set of shots to get. I had to keep returning and returning to the location, as I was completely out of sync with the comings and goings of locomotive traffic. One day, I sat there for more than an hour and nothing. A couple of days later, two hours and nothing. On a third day, I showed up with a sandwich and a thermos of coffee determined to just wait it out.
That’s the interval during which I got the shots in today’s post. I keep on saying ‘it’s a lot like fishing, this rail thing.’ You show up, drop your hook in the water, and hope you get a bite.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Norfolk Southern is a HUGE company operating literally hundreds if not thousands of locomotives on North America, and their rolling stock is a quite commonly sighted commodity around Pittsburgh. Less commonly witnessed is the Allegheny Valley Railroad, a feeder line rail outfit local to the Pittsburgh area, pictured above.
I’ve been hunting for these guys too, and have described it to my new friends here in Pittsburgh as being a bit of a ‘white whale,’ as far as rarity and my desire to get a shot of them. I’ve hung around their tracks in Pittsburgh’s Lawrenceville, but have never spotted one in the wild.
Luckily for me, one appeared here on the North Side, heading north and westwards on the trench’s Track #1. AVRR #6006 was hauling empty mineral cars and garbage containers.
#6006 is a 1993 vintage locomotive, part of a group built for Conrail, but ended up being owned by Norfolk Southern. AVRR’s 6001-6006 locomotives were rebuilt and upgraded before coming into the smaller outfit’s service, and came online for AVRR in 2021.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Track #3 was suddenly occupied by Norfolk Southern #7663, which was headed southeastwards. There are multiple ‘rights of way’ which Norfolk Southern uses in Pittsburgh. These particular tracks lead to a junction, one which allows egress either along the north shore of the Allegheny River or to a crossing of the Allegheny at the Fort Wayne Railroad Bridge which allows access to a set of tracks which are run through the center of the city (and are the same ones that Amtrak uses).
There’s another NS right of way found along the Monongahela River on the south side of the city. #7663 is a GE ES40DC locomotive built in 2007.
A group of ‘old white guys with expensive cameras’ – aka rail fans- had formed up at the point of view which a humble narrator had been stalking.
I had a few nice conversations while we collectively waited for the action to start. One fella had driven in from Ohio, and a father and son in law combo had come in all the way from Baltimore.
A couple of Pittsburgh natives were there too, including one talented fellow who clued me in to a couple of POV locations which I’m going to explore over the winter months.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Track #4 saw a return trip of AVRR #6006 occur, which was hauling what seemed to be a full train’s worth of cargo rather than the clearly empty one that it had had taken north west. In between shots, I ran over to use a nearby Porta Potty to blow some ballast.
I cannot mention this enough – as a former New Yorker – the wonder I continually experience in Pittsburgh regarding the fact that they deploy Porta-Potty bathrooms at nearly every public space you might find yourself at, including nearby the spot I was occupying.
Acknowledging human biology and public health by funding a simple solution for keeping people from having to piss in the street like dogs, without spending tens of millions of tax dollars on ‘comfort stations’ (which are seldom open) in random parks… just imagine that.
They do a lot of things right, out here in the Steel City.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
All of these leaves have turned to slime and rotted away by the time you’re reading this in early December.
There was about a ten day interval during which the Ginkgo leaves were golden. One of my fellow photographers was armed with one of those radios that serious railfans carry which allowed him foreknowledge of when a train might be approaching and he announced that this was going to the end of the show for a couple of hours.
My desire to capture this scene was sated, and I packed up my kit in preparation of heading back to HQ. One informed the two fellows from Baltimore about the Brewery location along the CSX tracks on the South Side which I’ve shown y’all several times. This was information which they eagerly received, and I offered my observations to them about what time those tracks seem to be busiest.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This is a wider version of the squared off shot of NS #4243 in the first shot, and presented ‘out of sequence,’ but I really like it. Captured seconds prior to the square cropped one in the first/preview image.
I’ve been trying to mix things up a bit lately, as you’ve likely noticed. Any reaction to these experiments? I think the square ones are a little friendlier to ‘the phone’ format, or at least they render up a bit larger than the horizontal landscape shots do.
As always, if you want to take a closer look at any of these photos (or… ahem… buy a print from Flickr and help support a humble narrator) click the image, and it’ll open the Flickr page which hosts it and offers a mechanism to order. I’d make a few cents on the transaction.
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.
My October obsession, part 1
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’ve displayed shots of the freight rail traffic moving through a trench at Allegheny Commons Park previously, and mentioned my desire to return in the late autumn when the Ginkgo Trees which overfly it turn to their autumnal coloration. The most common heraldry you see down on the tracks belong to the Norfolk Southern RR outfit.
Black trains, yellow foliage – very ‘Pittsburgh,’ no?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As it turned out, I had been quite lucky in prior outings at this location, as far as frequency of traffic goes. A couple of days before these photos were captured, I had sat here for two hours without anything interesting happening. This time around, I waited for about 45 minutes, but all the trains were going the wrong way. I wanted to capture one with the train heading towards me. I’ve come to analogize this sort of activity as being a lot like going fishing. You prepare, get there, drop a hook in the water. As far as catching a fish? Depends.
As a side note – the locomotive in the shot above and below belonged to the Allegheny Valley RR outfit. AVRR has been a bit of a ‘white whale’ for me, as I knew that they existed but hadn’t managed to witness one of their locomotives ‘in the wild.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Funnily enough, this ended up being one of those times that I was quite in tune with a large group of people. A crowd of ‘mainly old white guys with expensive cameras’ were gathered here each and every time I made the attempt to get ‘the shot.’ Pleasant conversation and a sharing of knowledge was on hand, but we were all a bit frustrated by the lack of train traffic – which is pretty uncharacteristic for Pittsburgh.
I was glad that I got these, but my desire was to capture a shot of the trains coming towards me remained. Upon returning to HQ, I informed Our Lady of the Pentacle that I’d be returning to this very spot in a couple of days, this time with a water bottle and a sandwich. My plan was to wait it out, as long as it took.
That later effort paid off, as you’ll see next week 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 