Posts Tagged ‘railroad’
Whoopity Doo!
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
On the North Side of Pittsburgh, one will the presence of a medium sized city park called the ‘Allegheny Commons Park West.’
The National Aviary is contained therein, and the surrounding streets have an unusual number of schools and cultural institutions. I’m told this can be a bit of a rough area at night, but you hear that about a lot of neighborhoods in Pittsburgh.
During one of the post surgical checkups that Our Lady of the Pentacle had to endure, post facto of the procedure she was the subject of, I had a couple of hours to kill. I’ve been hungry for the shot of a Norfolk Southern train set moving through this rail trench, cut into the park, for a while now, and since I had some time to kill… I parked the Mobile Oppression Platform in nearby metered spot and then waited…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s NS’s #8041 in the shot above, which was built at the start of this century by General Electric and is a ES44AC model locomotive. Apparently, this sort of rig has lower emissions than earlier models, complying with the EPA’s ‘Tier 2’ standard. The AC stands for alternating current, and the tracks which it’s hurtling upon are part of the rail company’s “Pittsburgh Line.” The train is ‘coming into’ Pittsburgh, rather than leaving it.
As a note – I’m planning on returning to this spot when the autumnal leaves have fully turned. The trees are of the Ginkgo speciation, and their leaves turn bright yellow gold. Given that Pittsburgh’s official colors are black and gold, that’ll make for a nice ‘PGH’ shot – or so I reckon.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One has since returned to this spot, during other medical appointments, and I can report that this is a fairly reliable POV as far as train spotting goes. My cold weather plans for further explorations over the next few months involve following this set of tracks all the way up the Ohio River and to the Norfolk Southern Conway Yard. I haven’t scouted that one yet, but will be doing so soon enough.
Pittsburgh is so damn cool, and visually pleasing.
Back tomorrow with something 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.
Western Maryland Scenic Railroad
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As detailed in earlier postings, a humble narrator left HQ in Pittsburgh in the early morning hours and piloted the Mobile Oppression Platform along a southeastern vector towards the panhandle section of Western Maryland, and specifically the City of Cumberland where my ‘turn around’ point was. Throughout the morning, I had kept “11:30 a.m.” in mind, since that’s when the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad would be offering a tour on their heritage railway with its historic rolling stock. There’s also a fairly large CSX railyard in Cumberland, but halfway through the morning I had decided that I’d be coming back this way again and would leave that one for ‘next time.’ This location is about 85 miles from HQ, which ends up being about a two hour drive if you don’t make multiple stops along the way, as I did.
I wasn’t going to be riding with WMRR on this day, but plenty of other people were. The Heritage RR operation offers fairly regular excursion tours between its 1913 Cumberland Station and the community of Frostburg. During the holiday season, they use an actual steam engine and fashion the trip along a Christmas theme as “The Polar Express,” as you’ll see in this particularly well shot YouTube video from Blue Comet Productions.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After finding a solid place to leave the car, one set out on foot and got busy. As mentioned, this wasn’t the day which I’d be purchasing a ticket and riding on the thing. Saying that, they have California Zephyr Dome cars in addition to executive lounge cars attached to the engine, as well as an ‘open car’ about which their website description offers the caution that you WILL get cold, wet, and dirty while riding in. That’s the photographer centric one, as there are no windows. You can also pony up a few extra bucks if you want to ride in the locomotive engine with the engineer at the head of the snake.
The origins of the Western Maryland Railroad date back to 1852, and like all history associated with rail – there’s a complicated series of corporate owners, partnerships, mergers and acquisitions, and incremental expansions which you can sort out for yourself at this Wikipedia page. Ultimately, in 1973, the WMRR was incorporated into the ‘Chessie System’ which would later merge with an outfit called Seaboard Coast Line Industries in 1982. The combined outfit would rebrand itself in 1987 as CSX.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After the merger in 1987, CSX abandoned the Cumberland to Frostburg tracks and several municipal entities (including Cumberland and Frostburg and the counties they reside in) foresaw creating a tourist attraction so they purchased the corridor and several of the yards and facilities owned by the WMRR in 1988. It runs regularly scheduled tourist trips in modernity.
Right on schedule, at 11:30 a.m., the guy with the flag arrived and stopped automotive traffic. The signal bells started ringing, and the train blew its horn. Me? I was standing on the concrete of the C&O Canal’s tow path (described yesterday), which adjoins the rail tracks.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The steam engine which they’re so famous for was in the shop, and the WMRR was instead running a diesel engine at the front of the train. It’s a General Electric Dash 8-32B model #558, which used to be a part of Norfolk Southern’s fleet, and has been leased from that entity to the WMRR as of September of 2022. It’s painted in WM’s color way and heraldry.
My original intention for this leg of the day trip was to linger around Cumberland for a while, and see what I could get at the nearby CSX yard, but I’d been actively ‘doing my thing’ since 5 in the morning and was beginning to feel fatigued.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Saying that, I’d actually had a full morning. I was at The Great Cross in Jumonville, the Youghiogheny River Lake, and there were a couple of other stops I had made along the way which weren’t all that productive. I still had a two hour drive to get back home, and unlike the morning journey, this time I’d have to contend with traffic and worst of all – school buses. It’s eminently logical to legally forbid the bypassing of school bus traffic, but when you find yourself behind one on a one lane country road… you’re just screwed.
I’m definitely coming back to Cumberland, and plan on riding with them on that Polar Express dealie. Unmentioned in this post, so far, has been the presence of the Great Allegheny Passage bike and pedestrian pathway. The GAP is the same trail that starts in Pittsburgh, which I’ve mentioned many times. An absolutely terrific number of people were observed unloading road bikes to take advantage of the trail, in the municipalities parking lot, where the Mobile Oppression Platform was waiting for our return trip to Pittsburgh.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After the WMRR rode out of view, I returned to the car, and changed up my camera gear to traveling mode. A quick stop at a gas station was accomplished where the car was fueled up, where I got some much needed coffee, and away we went. On the way home, I stupidly followed a route, suggested by Google Maps, which added a half hour and about thirty miles onto the trip. By the time I was back in Pennsylvania’s Uniontown section, that salami sandwich I had eaten for breakfast was utterly metabolized and I needed a lunch break. McDonald’s, if you’re curious. Here’s a tip – the double quarter pounder is a Big Mac without the special sauce (which you can request they add) and it’s about $5 cheaper than the flagship sandwich.
One of my practices while traveling is to uncharacteristically eat such forms of fast food, since doing otherwise means that you’re kind of throwing the dice as far as food poisoning goes with unfamiliar roadside restaurants. McDonald’s corporate is famously hardcore in terms of enforcing health and safety rules on their franchisees – in terms of “quality,” food storage and cooking temperatures, and facility cleaning standards, so… it ain’t good for you – at all – but McDonald’s ‘fills the hole’ and probably won’t give you a case of the squirts. I learned this lesson about grabbing an ‘on the go’ meal when I was still drawing comics, and had to drive to and attend comic conventions all over the country to promote the books.
After washing the fry and burger grease off my hands, it was time to finish the trip back to Pittsburgh. I think I walked back into the house at about 3:30 p.m.
Whew. Back tomorrow, 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.
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.
CSX parade
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
CSX #62 was the first locomotive to pass by the Sly Fox Brewery, here in Pittsburgh, as a humble narrator ‘rehydrated’ himself with several pints of beer after a long walk on a hot day. As a note, regarding anything I’m passing along about these trains in todays post – make/model etc. – is based on a ‘scratch the surface’ level of google search. I freely admit that this subject is one that I’m absolutely not an expert on. I like taking pictures of, and having a general knowledge of, locomotive stuff but that’s it. If something is incorrect here, please share the skinny in the comment section.
Supposedly, this is a ‘GE AC44CW’ model 4,400 HP locomotive, built in 1995. It was hauling a staggeringly heterogeneous load – tankers, cargo boxes, etc. That was the first one.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Next up was CSX #5426, a ‘GE ES44DC’ which was loosed upon the nation’s rail system in 2007. It was also hauling a mixed up collection of various forms of cargo boxes. Both of these trains were heading towards the Ohio River side of the city.
Right about this point, I headed into the brewery and ordered a second beer and a cheeseburger. I had earned that burger, dammit.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
From the opposite direction, heading away from the Ohio River in the direction of McKeesport, CSX #7247 hurtled past the lens. I’m led to believe that this model is a ‘rebuilt GE CM44AC’ but I have no real idea what that means.
It was also hauling a conglomeration of random cargo cars.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Next up, and heading for the Ohio, was CSX #5209. This train is the same model GE ES44DC as CSX #62 in the first shot, and I’m told it has been hurtling around North America since 2005.
Burger quaffed, second drink guzzled, I headed back inside the brewery to purchase more fortification, as well as a tall glass of ice water. It’s critical to mix some water in when you’re drinking beer. It’s nice to catch a buzz, I always say, but being drunk is a miserable experience. At least it is for me.
A fumbling idiot with no dexterity, absolutely zero emotional or behavioral barriers, fairly useless.
That description is applicable to me when I’m still sober, by the way. Drunk me… that can be chilling.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Heading the other direction, away from the Ohio, CSX #5101 showed up next. It’s a GE AC44CW, same model as #62, and I have no idea when it started juggernauting around America’s rail system. Other than that it was built sometime between 1993 and 2004, when General Electric was still producing this model of locomotive.
I should mention that I had some company, two young guys whom I had struck up a conversation with on my way into town on the T. They were talking trains, and when they said ‘heritage unit,’ I realized they were railfanning, I turned them on to my ultimate destination at the brewery and they met me there. Turns out the two guys I was hanging out with were employed in one way or another as Railroaders. One of them was a sales agent who booked space on a competing company’s trains, and the other worked as a freight train conductor for that same entity.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
By the time that CSX #7238 appeared, I had basically spent as much time at the brewery as I had done walking around. The bar was closing up, and we were bid a fond adieu about 9:30 pm.
That’s a ‘GE U30C’ model train, and nearly as old as I am having come out of the factory in 1969. It was doing mineral hauling, with cars that were emblazoned with the logo of ‘coke express.’ That means that they had been working on delivering the stuff to a steel mill further up the Monongahela River, and were heading back to the Ohio side empty.
I took the ‘T’ back home, and Our Lady of the Pentacle was floored when she saw that my normally grim visage had been replaced, as I crossed the threshold by a hideous imposture of a smile upon my face.
Back tomorrow with something 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.
It’s a bit like going fishing…
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Railfanning has never been my ‘thing.’ I certainly like taking pictures of trains, but the whole hobby of driving off at 5 in the morning to some remote trackway in order to see a train roll through is just counter to my whole dealie.
Keep moving. That’s my thing. If there isn’t a train going through between when you arrive and depart, it isn’t ‘meant to be.’ Standing around with a camera dangling off of you makes you ostentatious, and the meaner elements of street life will become attracted to you. Crooks or cops, who needs the trouble.
Tsuris, amirite?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It is surprisingly difficult to get a decent photo of a moving train. It’s moving faster than the human eye would suggest, the machine itself is huge and literally bigger than a house, and there’s a ton of fiddly details which are vibrating about and also moving independently as the thing rolls by you. You have to set up the shot in advance; get the exposure right, figure out a composition, aperture and ISO. Even then…
I have a trick for vehicles of any type, which is to focus in on the strut at the edge of the windshield closest to you, which the intersecting plane of the driver’s side window trails away from. Learned that one when shooting the long running ‘cool cars’ series of posts I had going back in Queens.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
All of the train shots in this post were gathered over something like 30-40 seconds, which speaks to how fast these things are actually moving. Each exposure is in the neighborhood of 1/1000th of a second, at ISO 800 and F8. That’s when the burning thermonuclear eye of God itself is floating directly overhead in late afternoon/early evening, and light is bouncing around everywhere. Like I said – ain’t that simple shooting trains.
Back to railfanning, that’s not what I’m doing with this latest fascination of mine. Instead, I’m trying to conquer a difficult subject and develop a muscle memory for the act so that when I encounter it happening in the future, an understanding of the settings are intuitive. Like I said, these trains really are moving quick. Additionally, Pittsburgh sits squarely in a nest of rail tracks.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
CSX 968 (an ES44AC-H, I’m told), wasn’t carrying anything too exciting, mainly cargo boxes and tanker cars. One is still working out when the most frequent activity takes place along this Pittsburgh Subdivision of theirs, but limited experience suggests that it’s early mornings and evenings. There’s traffic all day, of course, but in terms of frequency I’ve observed a lot more activity at the edges of the day.
For a few years before COVID, I’d developed an acumen for what times of day the NY&Atlantic outfit in Long Island City were most likely going to be doing something along Newtown Creek.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The head of the snake, as mentioned, is the singularly interesting section of the train for me. I’ve seen shots of these trains moving military equipment around – tanks and the like – and that’s a sight I’d like to record, so I do pay attention. Mostly normal cargo, followed by a coal or coke train, rinse/repeat, that’s what you mostly get here.
As the title would suggest, I keep on having the sensation you get when fishing a waterway for the first time. You drop a hook, dangle the bait, and hope for the best. Sometimes you get one train over the course of a couple of beers worth of time (I’m a nurser, drives my friends crazy. They’re starting their third and I’m finishing my first) and sometimes you get five. Seriously, I don’t know how the foamers do it, I don’t have the patience.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
All fixed up after a couple of belts, and with several photos on my camera card, I gathered myself together and headed off for the T light rail and a ride back home. That’s a blue line one crossing the Panhandle Bridge, I live along the Red Line.
Back tomorrow with something somewhat 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.
The Newtown Pentacle 