Railroad Forums 

  • What is this wall device at Metro Center?

  • Discussion related to DC area passenger rail services from Northern Virginia to Baltimore, MD. Includes Light Rail and Baltimore Subway.
It is currently Wed May 01, 2024 2:25 pm

What is this wall device at Metro Center?

Discussion related to DC area passenger rail services from Northern Virginia to Baltimore, MD. Includes Light Rail and Baltimore Subway.

Moderators: mtuandrew, therock, Robert Paniagua

What is this wall device at Metro Center?

  by SchuminWeb
 
I've known about this device's existence on the wall on the Glenmont platform just west of the crossvault at Metro Center for about two years now (the attached photo is from August 2006), but when recently passing through, I noticed this new sign on the box:

ProTechScan
Model RH-1369
POC Deputy Chief Daly
202-962-2164

Any idea what this device is and what it's used for?

Re: What is this wall device at Metro Center?

  by Sand Box John
 
At first I thought it was a cellular telephone network antenna. The device is obviously passive as there are no wiring connected to it. The fact that the device is mounted in close proximity to the leaky wire coaxial radio antenna could indicate that it might be some kind hardware that's part of WMATA's voice communication system.

A search of the phrases ProTechScan or Pro Tech Scan in various search engines turns up no listings of a manufacture.

The 962 telephone exchange belongs to WMATA.

One thing that I did find somewhat strange, when running ProTechScan in the various search engines I discovered protechscan, protekscan and pro tekscan is in the <meta name="keywords" content=""> tag in the <head> source code in the pages at http://www.wmata.com.

Re: What is this wall device at Metro Center?

  by tommyboy6181
 
It could be 1 of the chemical detection sensors used in the underground stations. I know that Metro was installing them over the past few years. Not entirely sure though.

Re: What is this wall device at Metro Center?

  by Robert Paniagua
 
You're probably right, it may be just that, the chemical sensing device. installed there that they were going to do after the 9/11 attacks

Re: What is this wall device at Metro Center?

  by farecard
 
I've looked multiple times and have no clue. The phone # leads to WMATA PD.

I'm beginning to think it's a placebo..
 Return to “DC - Maryland - Virginia Area Passenger Rail: MTA(MARC), VRE, WMATA(Metro)”
 - All times are UTC-05:00 -