Diagram of Wash DC Union Station trackage

train2 wrote:Two things to add.

First what about the NS Marco Polo? For years NS has kept an office car parked on what I think is the western most track. Is that 7? It is used for entertaining, government functions and when I saw it last about a year ago it was the only office car not in Tuscan red. It was still in Brunswick green, I suspect it is a Southern RR hold over. What effect does the Marco Polo have on its track? (Is it still there?) Is there any more to the story on this car? Has it ever left the station?

Also there is or was a signaled track coming off the west side that ducks under a portion of the building and exits the station area and heads toward what might be the post office building. It is signaled and controlled from K. This was in place 7-10 years back long after the metro was built.

T2

Marco Polo is still there. The track that comes out of Union Station on the west side of the station property is the old Government Priniting Office siding. The siding still is in place, but I believe theres a piece of rail missing, but the signal is still in place although I cant remember if its still lit. When i go to DC on Friday I will try to get some pics to back up my claims.

train2 wrote:Two things to add.

First what about the NS Marco Polo? For years NS has kept an office car parked on what I think is the western most track. Is that 7? It is used for entertaining, government functions and when I saw it last about a year ago it was the only office car not in Tuscan red. It was still in Brunswick green, I suspect it is a Southern RR hold over. What effect does the Marco Polo have on its track? (Is it still there?) Is there any more to the story on this car? Has it ever left the station?

Yeah it's still there on trk 7 and afaik hasn't been moved for years, and this is part of the reason 7 can only accomodate a single short train (MARC trains usually stop well short of it). Also, a number of PV cars from CSX and elsewhere are parked in the station a few times a year for events usually on 8 and 9 tracks.

train2 wrote:Also there is or was a signaled track coming off the west side that ducks under a portion of the building and exits the station area and heads toward what might be the post office building. It is signaled and controlled from K. This was in place 7-10 years back long after the metro was built.

T2

The track and bridge are still there but the former is filled in with pavement as it now goes through an employee parking lot and the latter is fenced off.

realtype wrote:

train2 wrote:Two things to add.

First what about the NS Marco Polo? For years NS has kept an office car parked on what I think is the western most track. Is that 7? It is used for entertaining, government functions and when I saw it last about a year ago it was the only office car not in Tuscan red. It was still in Brunswick green, I suspect it is a Southern RR hold over. What effect does the Marco Polo have on its track? (Is it still there?) Is there any more to the story on this car? Has it ever left the station?

Yeah it's still there on trk 7 and afaik hasn't been moved for years, and this is part of the reason 7 can only accomodate a single short train (MARC trains usually stop well short of it). Also, a number of PV cars from CSX and elsewhere are parked in the station a few times a year for events usually on 8 and 9 tracks.

train2 wrote:Also there is or was a signaled track coming off the west side that ducks under a portion of the building and exits the station area and heads toward what might be the post office building. It is signaled and controlled from K. This was in place 7-10 years back long after the metro was built.

T2

The track and bridge are still there but the former is filled in with pavement as it now goes through an employee parking lot and the latter is fenced off.

Realtype, the track is still there. I dont think its paved over. The track is still there, but I seem to recall that theres a broken rail, or a piece of rail is removed. The signal is still there and controlled by K. Like I said, on Friday I will defiantely get pics of this spur from different angles if it helps. This track runs behind our crew base.

Not to muddy the waters a lot, but were their ever tracks 1-6? And if so what became of them? Metro take up the area they once occupied?

T2

train2 wrote:Also there is or was a signaled track coming off the west side that ducks under a portion of the building and exits the station area and heads toward what might be the post office building. It is signaled and controlled from K. This was in place 7-10 years back long after the metro was built.

Looks like a "was". Google Earth allows you to go back in time ... the 1999 photo shows tracks running into a building on G Pl NE between N Capitol St NE and 1st St NE. The bridge the tracks are on is on the east end of the building crossing to under the north part of the parking structure. The April 2002 setting shows it clearest in Google Earth.

Here is a picture of the bridge from maps.google.com street view.

Bing has an undated Bird's eye view.

Yes that is the track in the Bing link, and a WT diagram shows it coming off 7. The last time I was over there on the ground one of MARC GP-40s was sitting on it having some tests preformed.

Printing office, post office, hey they both started with a P!

T2

From what's been reported to me, that siding is out of service and unusable, and as with the rest of my maps, I do not draw currently unusable trackage. There also used to be tracks 31 & 32, used for mail loading/unloading, but those are long gone.

train2 wrote:Not to muddy the waters a lot, but were their ever tracks 1-6? And if so what became of them? Metro take up the area they once occupied?

It appears that is the case.
Union Station Washington DC from the air - 1921

Metro only took up about tracks 1-3. The others appear to have been lost to some sort of support function. I wonder if those tracks could ever be restored if traffic levels warranted it.

Track 30 is the easternmost track on the lower level of the station. It is a stub end track; its south end is not tied into the First Street tunnel under Capitol Hill. It is used for temorary equipment storage and private car parking. It has a 480 VAC HEP supply at the bumper post, possibly also has a ground air line supply. To access track 30 from the station, you have to walk to use escalator to go down to the platform between tracks 27 and 28, then cross over tracks 28 and 29 to acess the platform between tracks 29 and 30.

From an ease of access perspective, being parked at the bumper of one of the upper level tracks facing the concourse (particularly 8 -13) is much more convenient.

jhdeasy wrote:Track 30 is the easternmost track on the lower level of the station. It is a stub end track; its south end is not tied into the First Street tunnel under Capitol Hill. It is used for temorary equipment storage and private car parking. It has a 480 VAC HEP supply at the bumper post, possibly also has a ground air line supply. To access track 30 from the station, you have to walk to use escalator to go down to the platform between tracks 27 and 28, then cross over tracks 28 and 29 to acess the platform between tracks 29 and 30.

From an ease of access perspective, being parked at the bumper of one of the upper level tracks facing the concourse (particularly 8 -13) is much more convenient.

yeah, soomebody had mentioned this already and trk 30 currently isn't used in service.

Here's another helpful track diagram of the VRE tracks at WAS:

http://www.vre.org/service/stations/WAS.htm

Thanks, I actually used that to help place the platforms. So the platform between 29-30 can only be accessed by walking over from the 27/28 platform? Has it always been that way?

VRE's website is awesome btw. They actually list the average ridership for each route, as well as how many (and WHICH) cars are expected on each run. So anyone gonna try to tackle my DC spreadsheet?

checkthedoorlight wrote:Thanks, I actually used that to help place the platforms. So the platform between 29-30 can only be accessed by walking over from the 27/28 platform? Has it always been that way?

VRE's website is awesome btw. They actually list the average ridership for each route, as well as how many (and WHICH) cars are expected on each run. So anyone gonna try to tackle my DC spreadsheet?

I'm not sure how long 29-30 have been like that. VRE does have a great website (although it takes a while to sort through the 100 links on the main page to find what you're looking for). MARC couldn't put up the specific consist for each train since they vary on a daily basis. The lengths are usually the same (except on Camden Line reverse flow trains), but the car types vary greatly since trains of the same length will switch around consists often and cars will be taken out for servicing. Like the MBTA MARC mixes their bilevels and single level cars.

As for the spreadsheet that's a really, really difficult challenge since the track assignments vary greatly day to day. For instance the train I've taken regularly over the past few years (893) has probably departed from every single platform from tracks 7-16 in that time. The most consistent MARC track is 8 which 843 comes in on the morning then goes out as 842, and 874 (6 cars long; one of MARC's gallery car trainsets) will come in and layover the whole day and go out in the evening as the 877 express. 876/875 (5 cars long, the other gallery car set) used to share 8 track with 874/877 by platforming in front of it, but that trainset was recently lengthened to 5 cars so it uses a different track now (7 or 15).

Track 7 isn't nearly that busy. In fact it's probably the least used (and most hated by MARC commuters) since it's a long walk from the station, can only serve one short train, isn't electrified, and is a low platform. At most there'll be two inbound and two outbound trains from it (Camden or Brunswick Line).

As for Amtrak, what you have is a possible order, but they juggle those around as well. Also, iirc the midday Regionals on that use the MARC tracks will use 10, 11, or 12 (not 13 or 14). I don't have a clue about the lower level, except that MARC 426 always uses track 27 (not 28). MARC also has 6 HHP-8's and only 3 AEM-7's in service (4900 is still in the DE shops). I would take photos of the board for you in the morning and afternoon, but I stopped riding MARC a few months ago.

If you want I can give you the current train lengths for most of the rush hour MARC trains and some of the midday ones.

Some terminals have set track assignments, and others wing it. Grand Central Terminal, Hoboken, the LIRR portion of NYP, Philadelphia, and possibly others will even make a point of announcing if a train is not departing from its usual track. I wasn't sure if Union Station was this way (The NJT/Amtrak portion of NYP doesn't have set track assignments, although there are some rules as to which tracks can get used for what, and many of the NJT trains who aren't looping at Sunnyside will go to 1-4, although not necessarily the same of those 4 each day).