Diagram of Wash DC Union Station trackage

I have seen diagrams of Penn Station in New York several times. What I have not seen is any diagrams of Union Station in DC from Avenue to the tunnel. It would be great to see how Ivy City track work into all this.

Anyone seen such a diagram? Got a link?

T2

train2 wrote:I have seen diagrams of Penn Station in New York several times. What I have not seen is any diagrams of Union Station in DC from Avenue to the tunnel. It would be great to see how Ivy City track work into all this.

Anyone seen such a diagram? Got a link?

T2

Train2, I have said track diagrams of Washington Terminal

Give me another year or two, and the rest of the NEC will be on my track map. I've got Boston through Perryville done so far.....

So you are the creator of the Rich E. Greene maps I presume?

Davis

BuddSilverliner269 wrote:Train2, I have said track diagrams of Washington Terminal

Just thinking of it as "Washington Terminal" is helpful ...
Dated 1978, but a quick search for "washington terminal track diagram" comes up with charts on a PRR website:
http://broadway.pennsyrr.com/Rail/Prr/M ... _main.html
(Go about halfway down the page to "Washington Union Terminal Co.")

It is a start until something more modern is made available/found.

Just a side note, before Penn Central, Amtrak, CSX etc, at one time in the 50's and until Penn Central or maybe later any
train in or out of Washington Union Station had to use Pennsylvania Railroad trackage at some point in order to reach Union
Station. This applied to all the railroads and in all directions.
Noel Weaver

nope, but I AM the creator of the Richard E Green maps!

Mr. Green, your maps are quite the resource:

http://www.richegreen.com/

Question re: the CSX leads to Union Station:

Here is something for the AMTK employees on the list. CSX has two legs of connection tracks that come off their maind and head for Union Station. Do these two leads form a wye and converging to a single track heading toward the station or do they for form two routes (that do not connect) connecting to two tracks into the station? At what point does ownership change to WT/Amtrak?

I know there is a tall mast B&O CPL in the area of the shops, is this an automatic or an interlocking, and does the CSX dispatcher control anything other than the two switches off of the mains on the CSX end of the connection. (in other words, does CSX have control down to the track in the shop area on the CSX route?

T2

Do these two leads form a wye and converging to a single track heading toward the station or do they for form two routes (that do not connect) connecting to two tracks into the station?

There are two routes as the yard access tracks are in between them. You can see here.

http://acm.jhu.edu/~sthurmovik/Railpics ... 464sw.html

Far left is the Met Sub connector, middle are yard tracks, then the Cap sub connector then the NEC tracks.

At what point does ownership change to WT/Amtrak?

The charts and ballast color imply that the ownership changes at the inner CPL mast signals, but the signals and traffic lever are controlled from K Tower so this may have changed.

I know there is a tall mast B&O CPL in the area of the shops, is this an automatic or an interlocking, and does the CSX dispatcher control anything other than the two switches off of the mains on the CSX end of the connection. (in other words, does CSX have control down to the track in the shop area on the CSX route?

The 1978 C Interlocking Diagram says those signals are controlled from K tower. The recent CSX timetables also indicate that the CSX dispatcher only controls the home signals at QN and F tower. Also, those signals use US&S equipment and are not painted in the CSX style.

Mike,

From the 78 diagram, it looks like the two B&O legs end up side by side. Are the signals you indicate as controlled by K the 443/5 signals on the diagram?

T2

Yes and yes.

Good news. I'm laying out Washington Union Station as we speak (which, when followed by the 1st St Tunnel, will have all 450 miles of the NEC mapped!). However, I have a couple questions about that station. The Bing Maps birds eye through there are a total mess, so it's really hard to tell anything about that station. I have a chart of K tower, so I know where all the switches are, but it doesn't have the platforms on it.

How far south do the lower level platforms go? Like how many cars can track 24 hold?

What is the platform arrangement between tracks?

Which platforms are high, and which are low? It looks like some tracks have a high level on one side, and low on the other

Are all of the bumper tracks parallel to each other, or are others longer or shorter (from my NEC video, it looks like track 17 ends farther north than 18-20)?

Are these the correct track numbers, going from west to east?

Upper level: 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20

Lower Level: 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30

I also have a couple of curiosities about the operation of that station:

Is there any set pattern to the track assignments there? Obviously south of DC trains need to go to the lower level, meaning all of the VRE trains and any Amtrak trains not terminating there. Do all of the MARC trains and the Amtrak trains terminating there all go to the upper level? Does Union Station have an online track board, like Grand Central and NY Penn?

Also, from all of the videos and photos I've seen of the station, it looks like most of the Acelas use 18-20, and often all 3 tracks are occupied. Do Acelas turn at the station if they are returning north the same day, rather than laying over in the yard?

Do the MARC/VRE trains lay over on the platform, or in the yard?

Is track 30 used for passenger trains? It's on the lower level, but as a bumper block at the south end, with no direct connection to the tunnel.

Amtrak regionals which terminate at DC - do they back up to the tracks next to the Brunswick line in order to wye (similar to what they do in Boston) after fumigating, or does another engine tow them through it? I have a video filmed in the 80s of a DC-bound Capitol Limited. This train goes through the wye and then backs into the upper level (with the C/R at the other end giving the engineer radio information) before fumigating. I take it all of the MARC/VRE trains are pushpull, and don't need to wye?

When Amtrak does engine changes on the lower level, how do they get the engines around each other?

The afternoon express MARC from DC (Around 4:30 I think) uses the lower level platform because the train is to long to fit on the upper levels.

Acela can only use the high level platforms.

What I've always wondered is "Why are there absolute stop dwarf signals before the bumpers? Do they really need to know to stop lol?"

Wow, what is the longest MARC train? If anyone knows the lengths of the platforms (# of cars they hold), that would be a big help too.