Amtrak has adopted the practice of assigning 2 and 3 to the main through tracks, with 1 and 4 cropping up on the appropriate side when present; which will be the main through tracks if they're numbered 3-2-1-A?
strench707 wrote:It wouldn't take much to get this track back up to 80mph standards. Currently, it isn't really worth the costs of maintaining and inspecting it to Class 4 standards for the tiny length of the traffic, particularly since the last block in each direction is going to be at a slow speed, regardless.TheOneKEA wrote:...However, the full scope of this improvement won't be realized until the condition of Track A north of Halethorpe is improved back to its original line speed of 80mph.I was also wondering if work on Track A north of the new 4th main was a part of this project. I would suspect they would have mentioned that in the project outline but maybe since it would be an upgrade of existing track infrastructure, there would be no need and/or it come from a different budget.
Davis
TheOneKEA wrote:.Finally, it bugs me slightly that the tracks will be labeled 3-2-1-A instead of 4-3-2-1. Was any track south of FULTON ever labeled as Track 4?This is so Amtrak can generally maintain a track designated 2&3 for the majority of the NYP-WAS route. Prior to Amtrak, the tracks were always 1-4, even south of Fulton. 1-4 ran from Bridge to Winans. At Winans, one track ended with two, three and four continuing to Vern Interlocking, where four track became 3 track, 3 track became 2 track and 2 track became 1 track. From Vern, you had 3-2-1 until you got to Patuxent where 1 track reappeared and four tracks ran to Bowie Junction. It also helped facilitate trains to the Bowie Racetrack. A keen eye can still see the right of way of the wye to Bowie Racetrack.
