Terminating NEC at Dulles

Pacific 2-3-1 wrote:There's always the ocean liner, UNITED STATES, now sitting in Philadelphia and hoping against hope for restoration!

I actually saw her from the air once as I flew into Philadelphia, and I'm still glad I happened to have that opportunity. Unfortunately, as I understand it, she has been stripped so thoroughly that there's probably a better chance of building Supertrain* and terminating that at Dulles than of refitting the SS United States for trans-Atlantic travel.

* - OK, maybe Supertrain without the pool.

OK; now that we seem to be addressing passenger vessels, the current edition of Power Ships has an article updating the status of the SS United States.

I have sailed "Trans-At' (s/s Rotterdam IV; s/s Constitution) twice in this life during 1960 (the 'Family Trip" to Europe; much more a "rite of passage" back then).

neroden wrote: Well, yeah, but that sort of long-distance connection can be satisfied by Washington National Airport, Baltimore International, Philly, and Newark, *all* of which are easier to connect the NEC to than Dulles.

Agreed.

We'll have flying cars before IAD gets a NEC connection. There's already a hundred million dollar fight going on re: where the Silver Line station shall be; NEC trackage is out of the question.

Re: the old RoW; It could fit a toy train from Santa's Workshop but nothing more.

As for express Metro; Metro management is genetically incapable of thinking beyond two tracks. While adding anything to the Orange Line would be impossible; they could have configured passing tracks around the stations on the Silver Line but that would be too radical to even think about.

farecard wrote:We'll have flying cars before IAD gets a NEC connection. There's already a hundred million dollar fight going on re: where the Silver Line station shall be; NEC trackage is out of the question.

Re: the old RoW; It could fit a toy train from Santa's Workshop but nothing more.

As for express Metro; Metro management is genetically incapable of thinking beyond two tracks. While adding anything to the Orange Line would be impossible; they could have configured passing tracks around the stations on the Silver Line but that would be too radical to even think about.

Why is it impossible to use the old ROW?

FRN9 wrote: Why is it impossible to use the old ROW?

While I don't live over there...

a) It was never that wide; and has been encroached upon in numerous locations.

b) It's now a popular walking biking trail.

c) It goes through very pricy neighborhoods; ones unwilling to tolerate a railroad inches away.

d) It has grade crossings.

e) It does not go where needed.

It would cheaper [politically...] to tunnel.

markhb wrote:

Pacific 2-3-1 wrote:There's always the ocean liner, UNITED STATES, now sitting in Philadelphia and hoping against hope for restoration!

I actually saw her from the air once as I flew into Philadelphia, and I'm still glad I happened to have that opportunity. Unfortunately, as I understand it, she has been stripped so thoroughly that there's probably a better chance of building Supertrain* and terminating that at Dulles than of refitting the SS United States for trans-Atlantic travel.

* - OK, maybe Supertrain without the pool.

Actually, the SS United States had a major asbestos problem, which is why a the ship had to stripped out in the 1990s. Actually, the odds of preservation are much better, since it would now be impossible to remove that much asbestos. Entire non-structural partitions were made of asbestos. That ship was a model of fire safety. It was also a model for the asbestos industry. Many non-structural walls an partitions were clad in asbestos and had to be removed.

In contrast, railroad cars of the era contained asbestos for insulation, but it was about as safe as asbestos can be.