30Th Anniversary of WMATA

[Robert Paniagua]

Well, WMATA has now turned 30. And alot has changed from a 4.6 mile system to a Whopping 106.7 mile system. Not a bad way for WMATA to live on thru 30 years of bnusiness, livelyhoods, and quality of service it has brought to the Nation's Capital including Northern Virginia and Southern Maryland (where I lived from June '86 till June '87 in Germantown, Montgomoery County and I would go to Shady Grove).

So, let the WMATA live on a whole buch of more years and Congratulations WMATA on its 30th anniversary of taking passengers.

[Sand Box John]

Took the day off yesterday and road the system. Also visited the offices of the Dulles Corridor metrorail Project.

Took 185 pictures with my new Nikon D70s.

Here are the pictures of the model of metro through Tysons Corner;

The model is still under construction.


Tysons East (mezzanine and pedestrian bridge not yet installed, elevated over Capitol Beltway interchange to the left between Tysons East and Tysons Central 123 not yet installed)


Tysons East station in distance Tysons Central 123 in foreground


Leesburg Pike looking west, Tysons West station in distance, Pike 7 in foreground


Leesburg Pike looking east, Pike 7 station in distance, Tysons west in foreground


Pike 7 station, Tysons Central 123 in distance, Tysons East barely visible behind building at top of image. (Tunnel between Tysons Central 123 and Pike 7 )


Tysons West ("You are here" is the location of the Dulles Corridor Metrorail Project Office

In case anybody is interested destination code 34 will display DULLES in the sign boxes on the trains.

[Robert Paniagua]

Took 185 pictures with my new Nikon D70s.

Wow, would you share them with us ?

Next month, in April, I'll be going down to WMATAland and I'll be using my new Digital Camera so that I can take some pics and share with you all..

[Sand Box John]

"Sand Box John"
Took 185 pictures with my new Nikon D70s.

"Robert Paniagua"
Wow, would you share them with us?

Will do, have to go through them an sort out the best of the best. Hope to have the best up by this weekend. Need to resize those images down to 800x532 to publish them on the web, some need some color correction done.

For best results I have the camera set to capture images at maximum size in JPG format (3008x2000), The raw images are in the range of 1.75mb to 3.25 mb.

Like I said the camera in new, This was my first time using it in the lighting conditions of WMATA stations. All of the pictures taken in subway stations were taken with the camera set in manual mode using various shutter speeds, ISO and f stop settings so there are a lot of duplicates of the same angle. Some were over exposed some under exposed and some just right.

Only visited three of the five line, northern half of the Green, eastern half of the Red and west to Cleveland Park and all of the yellow. Took pictures of the following stations. WMATA was having problems on the Blue and Orange lines so I didn’t ride those lines

Greenbelt
Fort Totten
Glenmont
Columbia Heights
Mount Vernon Square
Gallery Place
National Airport
King Street
Huntington
Rhode Island Avenue
Metro Center
Farrgut North
Dupont Circle
Clevland Park

Next month, in April, I'll be going down to WMATAland and I'll be using my new Digital Camera so that I can take some pics and share with you all..

If you trip happen to fall on a weekend shoot me an e-mail, if you like we can meet up and travel together.

[MACTRAXX]

RP and SBJ: Yes - it is hard to believe the original METRO route is 30 this year! I started to visit Washington in February 1978 and I recall that the Red line had just opened the extension from RI Ave to Silver Spring and the Blue line was operating between National Airport and Stadium-Armory. The METRO back then was open only M-F between 6am and 8pm. The New Carrollton Orange line opened in November of that year. If anyone has any examples of just two stations-Silver Spring and New Carrollton photo-wise compare back then to today and see how much has changed. I liked the "family"of METRO station design with certain things needing improvment - the lighting as done in the subway stations was not bright enough and the use of incandescent bulbs on for example the NCR extension originally was a bad move. The signage has improved substantially also. The ROHR cars have held up well-is there any plans to replace them? I recall things such as the Farecards originally had a graphic of the Capitol on them-the minimum fare was 40 cents. Does anyone remember the special farecards issued in 1986 that had a blue M station pylon with the dates 1976-1986 TEN YEARS TOGETHER? I have some good METRO memories. Now that the 101-mile system has been built some interesting extensions have been proposed and built. METRO has been an overwhelming success in my opinion and can anyone picture how things would be in the DC area without it? Thoughts and memories from MACTRAXX

[Robert Paniagua]

Next month, in April, I'll be going down to WMATAland and I'll be using my new Digital Camera so that I can take some pics and share with you all..

If you trip happen to fall on a weekend shoot me an e-mail, if you like we can meet up and travel together.

Yes, I'll be arriving Saturday night, and I'll be riding WMATA on Easter Sunday! I'll email you so that we can meet

[Sand Box John]

Robert Paniagua"
Yes, I'll be arriving Saturday night, and I'll be riding WMATA on Easter Sunday! I'll email you so that we can meet.

Shoot it out as soon as you can, it’s a 2 1/2 drive from my home in the sand box. Can be at any of the eastern terminal stations as early as 9:30 AM.

[Robert Paniagua]

Shoot it out as soon as you can, it’s a 2 1/2 drive from my home in the sand box. Can be at any of the eastern terminal stations as early as 9:30 AM.

OK, that would be at Branch Avenue, the closest station from where you are. I'll give you more leeway, so maybe 11:30 or noon would be all righty with you? I'll be having early Easter Breakfast and then start from Shady Grove and head down to Branch ave.

[Sand Box John]

"Robert Paniagua"
OK, that would be at Branch Avenue, the closest station from where you are. I'll give you more leeway, so maybe 11:30 or noon would be all righty with you? I'll be having early Easter Breakfast and then start from Shady Grove and head down to Branch ave.

That will work, Sunday 04 16 2006 between 11:30 and 12:00 noon at Branch Avenue. I was thinking Greenbelt, New Carrollton or Largo but Branch Avenue is cool, been a while sense I was last down that way. Enjoy you Easter Breakfast.

Purchase an all day pass, this will allow you to enter and exit the system multiple times without having to pay multiple fares.

See You then.

[Robert Paniagua]

"Robert Paniagua"
OK, that would be at Branch Avenue, the closest station from where you are. I'll give you more leeway, so maybe 11:30 or noon would be all righty with you? I'll be having early Easter Breakfast and then start from Shady Grove and head down to Branch ave.

That will work, Sunday 04 16 2006 between 11:30 and 12:00 noon at Branch Avenue. I was thinking Greenbelt, New Carrollton or Largo but Branch Avenue is cool, been a while sense I was last down that way. Enjoy you Easter Breakfast.

Purchase an all day pass, this will allow you to enter and exit the system multiple times without having to pay multiple fares.

See You then.

All righty, I'll pick up my pass right there for Sunday where I start at Shady Grove, and then go down switch at Gallery Pl-Chinatown and then head to Branch Ave. I'll have my camera in hand too