Category: Transit

  • First Avenue Station

    First Avenue Station

    The distinctive sweeping roofline and steel columns of the First Avenue subway station, with the Try Street Terminal in the background. Below, an inbound rush-hour train of two 4200-series Siemens cars stops at the station.

    Inbound train stops at First Avenue Station
    Canon PowerShot SX150 IS.
  • Boarding the Silver Line at Gateway Station

  • Gateway Abstractions

    Three Gateway Center from Gateway station

    The Gateway subway station religiously avoids right angles, making it an irresistible target for abstract photography.

    Stairway in Gateway subway station
    Gateway subway station
  • Christmas in the Subway

    Interior of a trolley decorated for Christmas

    CAF car no. 4322 in the subway between Gateway and Wood Street. Someone put a lot of effort into decorating it: all the interior lights were replaced with alternating red and green, all the poles and grip rods were covered with spirals of electrical tape, and stick-on Christmas decorations were all over the windows. Whoever is responsible should get a raise and a promotion. In fact, whoever is responsible should be in charge of Pittsburgh Regional Transit.

  • Hampshire Stop, Beechview

    A two-car Red Line train stops at the inbound Hampshire safety island on Broadway in Beechview.

  • Fallowfield Station

    Red Line train at Fallowfield

    An inbound two-car Red Line train stops at the Fallowfield station in Beechview. The leading car is in the new chain-of-circles livery; the trailing car is in the older checkerboard livery.

    Fallowfield Station
    Two-car train at Fallowfield
  • Streetcar in Late-Afternoon Sun

    There are some sections of the Red Line through Beechview and Dormont where the streetcars seem to be carefully threading their way through the back yards of the neighborhood.

  • The Traffic Light in Beechview

    Buildings on Broadway and Beechview Avenue, Beechview

    Central Beechview has one traffic signal, but it’s a very complicated one, regulating traffic on Broadway, Beechview Avenue, and Hampshire Avenue—and also the streetcars.

    Streetcar on Broadway in Beechview

    Yes, that streetcar was still in the intersection when the light turned red. But are you going to argue with the streetcar?

  • Walkway on the Fallowfield Viaduct, Beechview

    Walkway on the Fallowfield viaduct in Beechview

    The Fallowfield viaduct is an important transportation link, both for streetcars and for feet. It connects central Beechview to the streets on the next hill over. But old Pa Pitt admits that he publishes this photograph, not because it is useful and educational, but simply because the lines and colors made an interesting composition.

  • Stevenson Stop on the Red Line, Dormont

    Many streets in the Pittsburgh area used to have a median where the streetcars ran in a separate right-of-way: Center Avenue in West View and Brookline Boulevard in Brookline are two examples. Broadway in Dormont is the only one where the streetcars still run in the median. We could also count the Silver Line through Bethel Park as a broad instance of the same kind of development, although the streets between which the trolleys run have different names.