I’m also interested in any suggestions about good railroad photo locations in Pittsburgh.
(As it turns out, not by design, our VRBO rental is in what was once part of Union Station. They are called The Pennsylvanian Apartments. The Amtrak station directly adjacent looks quite uninspring.)
Semi railroad-related, we will go on this tour: https://riversofsteel.com/attractions/carrie-furnaces/
Consider investing in a time machine!! lol!
I suppose there are a few good legacy rail interest areas remaining. You’ll want to get the Duquesne Incline, the “Seldom Seen” greenway makes for a nice distraction (especially as it ties in to the Mt Washington tunnel and Gould’s ill fated Wabash Pittsburgh terminal railroad), but I see the meat and potatoes of this area to be the area immediately down stream on the Ohio river, where the islands sporting the lock and dams are located. The river/rail innerfaces.
Port Perry is quite “interesting”. It’s not the best neighborhood (but not terrible, either) and you’ll need a telephoto but there’s a lot of NS, CSX and URR. I can’t remember the name, but there’s a convenience store in Duquesne on Rt 837. You’ll also have a good view of the USS Edgar Thomson Works. Nice drives would be down the Monongehela to Brownsville or down the Youghigheny to Connellsville. Like said above, there’s a lot of action downriver at Conway and up through the Beaver Falls area. If you’re in Monroeville, Bus Rt 22 goes almost directly over the Union’s roundhouse on a large bridge. Carrie Furnaces was the steelmaking part of the old Homestead Works. It was separated by the Mon but connected by a bridge. Altoona is less than two hours east and Cumberland less than two hours south of Altoona.
Not really a photo location, but I always was impressed by the view of the ex-B&LE bridge over the Allegheny from the parallel Penn Turnpike bridge.
The first time that I went to Pittsburgh when I was about 12, I saw a SB ore train with 3 SD38s on the bridge. I’ve been there many times in the past almost 50 years and I’ve never seen another. Must’ve been beginners luck.
I also saw a B&LE hopper train on the bridge the first time I was there, but never again.
I have always found the view from the McKees Rock Bridge, with the sewage treatment plant in the foreground, and the municipal water plant visible downstream in the background.
One can only hope that one is somehow piped past the other.
Seen many a train there off and on when the tolls were low enough to warrant using the PA Turnpike. Tolls are so high, I would rather take 15 minutes longer to go to NE Ohio and use I-68 and I-77 to get there without tolls.
Also used to look down from the turnpike onto the B&O’s P&W Sub just West of the Route 8 exit. It was double track at the time - East track was signed with sand as trains climbed Bakerstown Hill with sanders oprating on both lead power and manned helpers - West track just the normal railroad grime. Now it is just a single track line with the Buffalo & Pittsburgh performing local service as far South as Allison Park.
Further West approaching Beaver Falls - the bridge over the Beaver River with the PRR along the East bank and the P&LE’s triple track mains on the West bank. Now under CSX there is only a single track on the West Bank - don’t know if there is still rail down on the East bank.
Thanks for the responses.
The Pennsylvanian Apartments provide a good view of the ex PRR Fort Wayne bridge over the Allegheny River and also the tracks heading to the east.
West Park on the north side of the Allegheny River is a good place to watch NS traffic in the four track trench through the park.
Station Square at the old P&LE station is right beside the CSX main through town and has some historic steel mill displays. Two inclines operate nearby.
The light rail system the “T” is worth a ride. You used to be able to ride free around downtown and to the North Shore. I’m not sure if that is still true. Going south the line runs on the old PRR Panhandle Bridge over the the Monongahela River then through the Mt Washington trolley tunnel.
The Gateway Clipper fleet of boats offers various tours on the rivers from their Station Square dock. Some railroad activity and many railroad bridges can be seen from their boats.
Mark Vinski
Thanks so much, Mark! That’s all great info.
My guess would be that the river is lined with sewage plants in every town, and that the fresh water supply comes from pipes from reservoirs.
Properly treated, the outflow from those sewage plants may be cleaner that the river they’re dumping in to.
Of course, if their plant can’t handle overflow, you might end up with a little extra stuff…
Reminds me of the line in “Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.” “And farther below Lake Ontario Takes in what Lake Erie can send her”
I swam in Lake Erie the last time I was in Ontario, and I’m still alive.
The older relatives we visited said it is way cleaner now than 40 or 50 years ago.
Unless you are the most upstream city on a river, you are going to get someone else’s (treated) discharged wastewater ending up in your intake.
I can vouch for that in Lake Ontario - annual visits (and more often once I moved here) were de rigeur.
In the late 1950’s and 1960’s there was a problem with agricultural run-off, which led to the grown of “moss.” Large masses would wash ashore, causing access issues (it was no fun to walk through to go for a swim, and you had to clear off the boat ramp to launch the boat), including stink.
Reducing that run-off helped, then came the zebra mussels.
Zebra mussels can filter a lot of water, resulting in being able to see bottom in many places that were long hidden. The downside was their ability to clog water intakes, and their sharp shells make wearing shoes in the water almost mandatory.
Actually the water utility website claims that it gets the majority of their water from the river, with local wells as a “reserve”.
And yes, it happens everywhere, although perhaps not as graphically as in Pittsburgh. I just find it unsettling to realize the water coming out of my showerhead was likely in someone else’s bladder the week before. Regardless if all the pathogens in it have been killed, or not.
Perhaps this should become a touted benefit of fuelcell automobiles? “Burn Hydrogen, it’s the only way you can be SURE where your water comes from”… [:o)]
In Pittsburgh’s case, it would seem practical, even desirable to either pipe the intake of one upstream from the other, or alternately pipe the discharge downstream of the other. [2c]
If (and that’s a big if) cities and towns have kept up-to-date with EPA regulations on waste, they are discharging water into the rivers that is cleaner than the water they are taking out of the river.
I remember my daughter’s elementary school field trip to a wastewater treatment plant that illustrated the water about to be discharged was clean enough to safely drink. I don’t want to even think about it.
I probably wouldn’t drink any water on the Space Station.
Probably for rain events that both wash pathogens into the rivers and also cause overflows at upstream sewage plants.
It’s not like any municipality is taking water from any natural body of water and putting it out through their water systems without seriously treating the water before distribution.
A local village used to brag that they minimally treated their water (filter, required chemicals) which they drew directly from Lake Ontario. They now get their water from a regional water line that draws out of the St Lawrence River where the lake empties into same.
They used to get awards for the quality of their (minimally treated) water.