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  • Revised table of destination codes

  • Discussion related to DC area passenger rail services from Northern Virginia to Baltimore, MD. Includes Light Rail and Baltimore Subway.
Discussion related to DC area passenger rail services from Northern Virginia to Baltimore, MD. Includes Light Rail and Baltimore Subway.

Moderators: mtuandrew, therock, Robert Paniagua

 #1235322  by JDC
 
As always John, your work and insight is stunning.

How often do Blue trains run to New Carrollton? If never, is this a 'just in case' code that Metro prepares ahead of time? ....... Now that I've read all the codes, I see Metro has a lot of 'bizzare' codes like Green to Franc-Springfield, too. I also see they have the Wiehle Station as "Wiehle Ave.-Reston East", which is what I personally think the station name should be, but which the powers that be insisted be called "Wiehle-Reston East."

I board at Eisenhower often and on the pylon that indicates 'to downtown DC' there is an old Blue line circle that is covered up and it says "Stadium-Armoury'. When, if ever, did Blue line trains run from Eisenhower?
 #1235345  by Sand Box John
 
"JDC"
As always John, your work and insight is stunning.

How often do Blue trains run to New Carrollton? If never, is this a 'just in case' code that Metro prepares ahead of time?


The Blue New Carrollton code is for system opening and closing put outs and take outs, there is insufficient room at Largo to store all of the eastbound Blue line trains after closing. It has also been used for line reconfigurations on Independence Day.

....... Now that I've read all the codes, I see Metro has a lot of 'bizzare' codes like Green to Franc-Springfield, too.

Not as bizarre as you might think, optional alternative for Yellow line Springfield-Franconia - Greenbelt

I also see they have the Wiehle Station as "Wiehle Ave.-Reston East", which is what I personally think the station name should be, but which the powers that be insisted be called "Wiehle-Reston East."

This may have been the result of the protest over excessively long station names.

I board at Eisenhower often and on the pylon that indicates 'to downtown DC' there is an old Blue line circle that is covered up and it says "Stadium-Armoury'. When, if ever, did Blue line trains run from Eisenhower?

Long story, WMATA,s original line pattern was:

Red: Shady Grove - Glenmont
Blue: Huntington - Addison Road
Orange: New Carrollton - Vienna
Yellow: Greenbelt - Franconia / Backlick Road
Green: Greenbelt - Branch Avenue

When the route from National Airport to Huntington was ready to open WMATA did not have sufficient rolling stock to extend the Blue line to Huntington but they did have enough to extend the Yellow line, so they extended the Yellow instead. The first of the 2k cars were just beginning to arrive on the property at the time the Huntington station opened, none of 2k cars had passed acceptance testing at that time. Later the Blue line was extended to Van Dorn. When sufficient rolling stock became available WMATA chose not to switch the lines back to the original pattern.

The 2k cars made their public debut on the day the Huntington station opened, a 4 car train of 2k cars was spotted at the platform on track C2 for public inspection.

Expiation to what happen to the original line pattern, Yellow: Greenbelt - Franconia / Backlick Road.

The original Virginia end of the Yellow line had two terminals one at Franconia Road along the route that now extends to Springfield-Franconia and the other where the VRE Backlick Road station is today. The branch to Backlick Road was deleted from the ARS and the branch to Franconia Road was extended to where the Springfield-Franconia station is today.
 #1235938  by JDC
 
"When the route from National Airport to Huntington was ready to open WMATA did not have sufficient rolling stock to extend the Blue line to Huntington but they did have enough to extend the Yellow line, so they extended the Yellow instead."

John - how was this possible if all of the rolling stock was 1000-series and all lines shared the same rolling stock? Did it have to do with what yards were open at the time and thus available for storage of cars for the line?
 #1236104  by Sand Box John
 
"JDC"

John - how was this possible if all of the rolling stock was 1000-series and all lines shared the same rolling stock? Did it have to do with what yards were open at the time and thus available for storage of cars for the line?


Yard capacity was not an issue, Alexandria Yard was built as part of the extension to Huntington. It was all about rolling stock utilization, the numbers they came up with determined that it would require fewer cars to extend the Yellow line then would be needed to extend the Blue. Back then 4 car trains were not uncommon during peak.

It should also be noted that Alexandria Yard was the acceptance and testing base for the 2, 3 and 4k car. As I recall main line track J2 from the C98 Telegraph Road (Alexandria Yard lead) interlocking to just east of Quaker Lane was also built as part of the extension to Huntington. The track J1 flyover bridge over the yard leads was also built, but no track were laid on it until the track work contract was let for the Van Dorn Street station. WMATA used main line track J2 from C&J junction to the temporary western end as a the test track for the Breda cars.
 #1236124  by JDC
 
Sand Box John wrote:"JDC"

John - how was this possible if all of the rolling stock was 1000-series and all lines shared the same rolling stock? Did it have to do with what yards were open at the time and thus available for storage of cars for the line?


Yard capacity was not an issue, Alexandria Yard was built as part of the extension to Huntington. It was all about rolling stock utilization, the numbers they came up with determined that it would require fewer cars to extend the Yellow line then would be needed to extend the Blue. Back then 4 car trains were not uncommon during peak.

It should also be noted that Alexandria Yard was the acceptance and testing base for the 2, 3 and 4k car. As I recall main line track J2 from the C98 Telegraph Road (Alexandria Yard lead) interlocking to just east of Quaker Lane was also built as part of the extension to Huntington. The track J1 flyover bridge over the yard leads was also built, but no track were laid on it until the track work contract was let for the Van Dorn Street station. WMATA used main line track J2 from C&J junction to the temporary western end as a the test track for the Breda cars.
That makes sense re: need for more rolling stock for one extension vs another. It's a long distance to Van Dorn vs Eisenhower and Huntington.

Personally I love this area of Metro's trackage - all of the lines coming into/out of the Alexandria Yard, the track J1 flyover bridge is fun and unique (in my limited experience), and the way the two tracks on flyovers lead into Eisenhower from further west over Mill Rd.

On a side note: the security fencing around the Alexandria Yard is being replaced. There used to be normal height fencing around the property with barbed wire. (See the street view here http://goo.gl/8z21k4) It's being replaced with fence double its height, also with barbed wire on top, although its unclear yet whether the barbed wire component is the 'straight up and down' version like before, or whether it will be the type that is angled inward.
 #1236213  by Sand Box John
 
"JDC"
That makes sense re: need for more rolling stock for one extension vs another. It's a long distance to Van Dorn vs Eisenhower and Huntington.


Not sure you got my explanation. Prior to the opening of the C Route to Huntington the railroad was open to following terminals:

Red line: Van Ness - Silver Spring
Blue line: National Airport - Addison Road
Orange line: Ballston - New Carrollton
Yellow line: Gallery Place - National Airport

Image

The opening of the Huntington station only extended the Yellow line.

Image

The Blue line required more longer trains then did the Yellow line during peak.
 #1236252  by JDC
 
Sand Box John wrote:"JDC"
That makes sense re: need for more rolling stock for one extension vs another. It's a long distance to Van Dorn vs Eisenhower and Huntington.


Not sure you got my explanation. Prior to the opening of the C Route to Huntington the railroad was open to following terminals:

Red line: Van Ness - Silver Spring
Blue line: National Airport - Addison Road
Orange line: Ballston - New Carrollton
Yellow line: Gallery Place - National Airport

Image

The opening of the Huntington station only extended the Yellow line.

Image

The Blue line required more longer trains then did the Yellow line during peak.
Ah, now I see. Yes, I understand - the Blue line required more longer trains than the Yellow did during peak, even after the opening of the extended Yellow.
 #1277516  by Mainland
 
We may have evidence of new codes in use that are not on John's latest revision. Posted on twitter last night was a picture showing an OR line train destination as Deanwood. Sorry, couldn't isolate image to attach within post, but go here to view:

http://pic.twitter.com/DNDt0AZbZ0

Apparently this was throughout the consist, not just one car, don't know about the PIDs. I've seen the occasional odd/misplaced destination input before - i.e NoMa instead of Silver Spring - but the error destination was still part of WMATA's list of destination codes. Even if this was just one car displaying an error - how could it show Deanwood if there was no code for the station in the latest update?
 #1277577  by Sand Box John
 
Mainland"
We may have evidence of new codes in use that are not on John's latest revision. Posted on twitter last night was a picture showing an OR line train destination as Deanwood.

Image

Apparently this was throughout the consist, not just one car, don't know about the PIDs. I've seen the occasional odd/misplaced destination input before - i.e NoMa instead of Silver Spring - but the error destination was still part of WMATA's list of destination codes. Even if this was just one car displaying an error - how could it show Deanwood if there was no code for the station in the latest update?


Apparently WMATA has either revised the table of destination codes or possibly temporally assigned one of the unused codes to Deanwood. What make Deanwood odd as a destination is the fact that there is no interlocking within the vicinity of that station.

WMATA may have assigned the code to accommodate a partial shutdown of the east end of the Orange line for track work and or platform restoration and use D & G junction to relay trains for the return trip west.