Posts Tagged ‘South Side Flats’
Making the donuts
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Great success, for one such as myself, materialized in the form of that shot above. That radio scanner which I’ve recently acquired was on ‘scan’ mode, and despite it getting stuck on the National Weather Service channel (I really need to reread the instruction book) a few times, the thing soon locked onto a Norfolk Southern radio channel and thereby I knew this train would be crossing in front of me in advance of its arrival. YES!
Norfolk Southern #4334 was just one of several locomotive engines providing diesel power to what looked like a coal train. It was probably coal, but unless you know what something is for a fact… you always have to qualify your observations as an opinion, informed or otherwise.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The T light Rail made another one of its many intrusions into frame as I scuttled along. The particular zone I was walking into should be quite familiar to long time readers by now. I’ve been attracted to this section of the Monongahela River shoreline for a bit now. Frequent rail traffic, a brewery, and out door seating? If you were trying to set a trap for me, these factors would be an irresistible bait.
Particularly right now, as the ankle has healed sufficiently for me to resume my walks but is not far enough for me to be ‘daring,’ one finds himself missing the overwhelming flatness of those concrete devastations surrounding a ribbon of municipal neglect called Newtown Creek. I need to charge back up at her font of corruption, fill my soul to the brim with the black mayonnaise and the NAPL sauce. She misses me, I can feel it.
When it warms up a bit, I think that I might go home for a visit, just me and the camera for like 72 hours or something. Maybe.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A second Norfolk Southern train appeared, this one carrying shipping containers and tankers while heading in the opposite direction of the likely coal train. My plan was now fairly simple, head over to the brewery and buy a beer, then sit down and wait for CSX to show up.
One should mention that I was actually enjoying myself, which is a rare treat these days. Exercise, photos, and fun? What’s going on here in Pittsburgh?
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Hey now, a train’s a-coming…
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
So, this is how I wrapped up the first scuttle of the post broken ankle period, back at the brewery alongside CSX’s tracks in Pittsburgh’s South Side Flats neighborhood. I don’t have to wait long before the signal arms began chiming and CSX #7589 appeared.
My plan didn’t involve much more than grabbing a quick beer and then summoning a car to drive me back home. According to the not entirely accurate ‘health’ app on my phone, I had taken 7,742 steps since leaving the PT appointment, and then boarding a T light rail, which brought me to this area.
Not bad, really, and with all things considered.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The combination of the PT appointment and the walk had inflamed the ankle and the thing had swole up a bit. That’s normal, the surgeon tells me, and I can expect to be dealing with swelling after exercise for at least the next year. When the cab dropped me off at HQ, your humble narrator was absolutely spent. I oozed into my reclining La-Z-Boy style chair and just sat there moaning for about thirty minutes.
Eventually, I managed to unpeel the shoes off of my feet. When sleepy time arrived, I hit the pillows and was out for nine straight hours. Surprisingly, the next day I was pretty ok. Sore, but ok. Progress!
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It’s going to take me a bit of time to get back to normal, that’s for sure. Rebuilding muscle and stretching out all of the internal rubber bands in the foot and ankle is not going to be fun, but pain is the oldest and best friend I have, after all. I can always count on pain, who never turns its back on me. Pain also doesn’t betray or gaslight, it’s loyal.
Pain is family.
Back next week with more tales from a broken and enfeebled man, and his busted ankle, 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.
Wearing the street cassock
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
During a painful and somewhat humbling scuttle around an industrial zone in Pittsburgh, I can happily report to you that I was wearing my filthy black raincoat again. The street cassock hasn’t been in heavy usage, for obvious reasons, and since I missed autumn (its season) entirely due to the broken ankle, when I started regularly leaving the house again I was wearing a Carhartt winter coat. It’s a big puffy warm thing, the Carhartt, with a hood and warm lining. Lots of secure pockets. Does the job.
I’ve missed the street cassock though. The puffy winter coat makes taking my big knap sack style camera bag on and off difficult and clumsy.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
While crossing under the Liberty Bridge, the ankle situation really began to degrade. My strides shortened, and by the time I shot the image above, I was walking like a penguin. The atrophy I’ve mentioned, in the upper thighs and hips, was manifesting itself. Lactic acid was everywhere in the roadway interface, from toes to butt. It’s going to take quite a while, I’m afraid, to get back to where I was and right now I’m stuck with being like most of you humans. Weak, unfocused, unable to move.
Cowed by distance, and hobbled by infirmity, I used to be strong.
This situation angered me, which was good as I needed the adrenaline to do my final push for the day. Remember, under normal circumstances I walk 20-30 miles a week, usually at an average speed of 2.5-3 mph.
On this day, a half mile walk took me an hour. Ugg.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I actually had to sit down and rest for a few minutes.
Me!
‘It’s all downhill from here,’ I reminded myself. A long block away sat that brewery by the railroad tracks which I frequent. I had missed getting shots of two trains during this walk, which annoyed the hell out of me, since under normal circumstance I’d have easily crossed the distance and gotten those shots.
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.
CSX 5470, too
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One had no intention of running two posts in a row with nearly identical photos in them today, but… recovering from the broken ankle and having multiple bands of snow and ice blowing through Pittsburgh on a seemingly never ending daily cycle… so… that’s CSX #5470 advancing towards the lens in the shot above.
Captured these the same evening that I got yesterday’s post, as you’d imagine. It was all very exciting, really. What was I saying about ‘working the shot’ in yesterday’s post?
Things are progressing according to schedule hereabouts, with continuance of my twice a week ‘PT’ – or Physical Therapy – appointments. I’m walking better, although balance seems to be a bit of a challenge at the moment. Still displaying a limp, however. If you saw a time lapse of me attempting to walk over the last six weeks, I bet it would look a lot like the tracking shot of ‘Verbal’ at the end of the ‘Usual Suspects.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Saying all that, keeping ‘close to home’ has been my watchword, but the desire for adventure is positively ringing in my ears. A humble narrator was trained to never say ‘I’m Bored’ as a child. If I uttered that forbidden phrase, one of my parents would announce ‘I can fix that’ and I’d soon be working on some unsavory household job or doing the laundry.
When a humble narrator entered his adolescent existentialist phase, I tried having a conversation about Camus with my Dad. He looked at me, and then said ‘that’s interesting, why don’t you tell me about it while you’re cleaning the toilet?’ An attempt at a conversation about Nietzsche once resulted in me detailing his car. Saying all that, it’s been a minute since I had any fun at all.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Train photos are kind of fun, but I’ve been to this spot a bunch of times. I’m desirous of the novel, the new, the unexpected. About three months of my life were lost to this injury, including all of autumn and that’s normally my favorite time of year. I missed Halloween, for goodness sake.
CSX #5470 is a GE ES44DC model locomotive which – I’m told – rolled out of the factory in 2007, as an aside.
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.
CSX 5401, coming through
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Our Lady of the Pentacle and myself headed out on a fairly nice evening – with temperatures in the high 40’s and just a bit of wind, no precipitation – with the intention of drinking a couple of beers at the Sly Fox Brewery location found in the South Side Flats section of Pittsburgh and waving the camera about if and when a train came by.
So… I’ve been asked why I keep going back to take from this same well, and present a fairly similar series of shots of trains here time and again. You’ve seen one CSX train, you’ve seen them all, right? Not so much, for me at least. I’m working on camera technique, and hoping ‘the planets align’ on a few fronts eventually.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A habit born back in NYC, when I’m ’working a shot,’ I’ll return to it a hundred times until I get ‘the one.’ There’s variants of photos captured in this spot which are pretty close to what I’m hoping to get. Is the T Light Rail is visible on the Panhandle Bridge in the background, is the sun hitting the freight train, and is the locomotive itself is kicking up dust that’s also catching the sun? If so, hoorah!
For instance, this version of the scene from September was fairly banging, as far as what I’m looking for in this composition. Saying that, this spot has become a bit of a hang out for me, and when you find ‘fish in a barrel’ you return to that spot.
Suffice to say that this brewery location offers a lot more comfort than you’d normally get while out shooting – easy access to a toilet, beer and food, etc. The trains roll through, in the evening hours, about once every 30-40 minutes here and you really can’t fault a location for the frequency of interesting subject matter which comes hurtling past the lens.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I used to have sludge boats, you see, and several well worn locations on Staten Island where you could be assured of a maritime presence. I also used to have a certain Creek, which had fairly infrequent rail and tugboat action, but it had them. Honestly, if there had been a bar up on the Pulaski Bridge…
These days, it’s freight trains, one reckons. I swear, if I don’t take a picture of a large machine at least once a week…
Back tomorrow with more.
“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 