"JDC"
I love looking at these. Several thoughts/questions: First, I had no idea the Alexandria yard was that large. I pass it both on rails and on the road, and its size is deceptive. Second, I knew Dulles was big but I did not realize both HOW big but also how it is still not a gargantuan yard. Do we know if Metro has acquired surrounding land so that it can expand the yard if Metro ever decided to close a smaller yard? Third, why was Glenmont such a small yard? I assume, naturally, that they built it as big as necessary and with whatever funds were appropriate...but it seems like that would have been a good spot to build a decently sized yard.
The only numbers that are really important are the storage and servicing capacities. The storage capacity numbers are not the true capacity of the yards as most of the shop tracks are long enough to hold 2 or 4 cars.
A99 168, 18
B99 86, 18
B98 132
C99 176, 12
D99 114, 18
E99 288, 12
F99 166, 4
K99 188, 16
N99 224, 12
Dulles Yard is unique in that all of the storage tracks can hold one 8 car train. Most of the rest of the yards have tracks of varying lengths that are long enough to hold from 8 to 10 cars. Greenbelt Yard is unique in that all of the storage tracks can hold two 8 car trains. A couple of the yards have several tracks that are less then 8 cars long.
Closing a smaller yard is likely never going to happen, WMATA has long term plans for New Carrollton by utilizing the land beyond the tail tracks and moving the maintenance of way facility to Landover to add storage capacity, At Shady Grove plans call for installing storage tracks inside the north loop. Glenmont plans call for building a shop between the Maintenance of way tracks and storage track 1. Six servicing bays were added at Brentwood several years ago.
John in the sand box of Maryland's eastern shore.
