"redline43"
Thank you Sand Box John!
You are welcome.
The reason I asked is because I read somewhere (I can't remember where) that West Falls Church was 3 tracks so the Dulles line could terminate on the center track and operate like a shuttle. With the current plans it doesn't look like that will be the case, but I was wondering if that was actually a formal plan, and if anything similar was planned for the National Airport center track. However this doesn't sound like it was the case. Thanks again!
Who ever wrote that didn't have a clue. I have read similar crazy ideas posted on USENET at misc.transport.urban-transit that have suggested using the Falls Church Yard leads to allow the terminating of some of the trains off the Tyson, Dulles, Loudoun N Route branch in the platform pocket track at West Falls Church station.
One of the alternative that suggested during the early stages of the alignment evaluation process (Alternative T7) was to put the junction west of the West Falls Church station and run the alignment into Tysons Corner along Leesburg Pike VA-7. That alternative was rejected because of the effect that alignment would have along Leesburg Pike between VA I-66 and the Capital Beltway, that alignment would not have served the area along Chain Bridge road north of Leesburg Pike and the cost of building the alignment in the Leesburg Pike easement.
The original plan dating back to the 1960s was to build the junction east of the West Falls church station. Provision for the junction are in place. The column seen in this
photograph between tracks K1 and K3 was put in to carry inbound track N1 from the Dulles branch over the west bound lanes of VA I-66 and the existing K route orange line tracks to the junction under the Haycock Road overpass. In this
maps.live.com birds eye picture you can see where the third rail gaps and the tapering of the security fence is where the junction turnouts were planed to be located. I say were because present plans call for the junction to be located under the
Great Falls Street overpass adjacent to the Great Falls Street traction power substation.
On pages 66-71 of Volume IV Chapter 3
Plan and Profile (54.4 MB PDF file) of the Dulles Corridor Metrorail Project
Final Environmental Impact Statement and Section 4(f) Evaluation you see the present planed configuration of the junction with the existing K route Orange line.
John in the sand box of Maryland's eastern shore.