Metrorail trains will use center track at West Falls Church

This weekend is an opportunity to get pictures of metrorail trains using center track at West Falls Church as WMATA will be doing major track rehabilitation west of the station.

Track maintenance to affect Metro's Orange Line this weekend
For immediate release: March 5, 2009

Thank you for letting us know! I swung by there yesterday and got a decent amount of center-track photos, including this one:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Alsto ... _track.jpg

And videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmFeia9Y8_w (arriving)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mACqF38tC6M (departing)

Yeah, I actually road the Metro from WFC on Saturday. Boy was I surprised when he train came in on the center platform and was actually receiving passengers.

This is semi relevant to events of last weekend at West Falls Church, however some may not know this.

The pocket track at National Airport is no more. WMATA over reacted and used a sledge hammer solution to the derailments they have had there in the past and converted the pocket track into a single crossover.

maps.live.com/ birds eye view of National Airport.

The reconfiguration was done some time last summer.

It's a shame that they eliminated it. One would think that they could have fixed the problem...

"SchuminWeb"
It's a shame that they eliminated it. One would think that they could have fixed the problem...

They did, there called guarded turnouts. Prior to the reconfiguration the interlocking it had guarded turnouts. The problem is the north end of the interlocking requires more frequent maintenance then what is needed elsewhere. The primary reason why the north end of the interlocking needs so much maintenance is because of the combined vertical and horizontal curves north of the station. Back when the station was the west terminal for the Blue line, WMATA was changing the rail in the curve on the southbound track C2 every 18 to 24 months.