What's next to Shady Grove?

I was looking on google maps. Next to Shady Grove is obviously a yard for the Red Line. But there seems to be another yard next to that that has what looks to be single cars. The tracks don't connect to the Metro, but rather Marc/CSX. Does anybody know what that is? Just curious.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source= ... 3&t=k&z=17

Using Live maps it looks like some kind of container loading facility.

http://maps.live.com/#JndoZXJlMT1XaGVhd ... Y3ODY0MDEx

Looks like a trash transfer facility of some kind. Those type of containers look like what are used for trash service in a lot of the northeast

It's the Montgomery County Recycling Center and Solid Waste Transfer Station.

Every day a long CSX "trash train" goes to the station and loads double stack containers from the center. I think they head North to another place in MD, since I see the train pass through Germantown MARC station once in a while during the morning, but I'm not 100% sure. I heard that the train is the only one of its kind in the country, although I'm not 100% sure about that either. The train usually pulls up adjacent to the Shady Grove Metro station, then backs in. While I don't know how precise the schedule is, when I took the Metro from Shady Grove at around 10am or so for a few months, I would frequently see the train. Also when I commute on MARC in the mornings I sometimes see the cars sitting on the tracks. You can easily recognize the train because it's totally composed of the gray dual stack containers, each one with a sticker on the side saying "Montgomery County Recycles" (or something to that effect).

I thought I saw the shadow of what looked like a top pick, but I also knew it wasn't a regular intermodal yard (or I would have heard about it). Thanks for the info!

CSXT does handle a lot of municipal solid waste in the northeast. I believe NYC generates at least a couple unit trains of it, and Boston ships a fair amount out as well. Perhaps this is the only dedicated unit train directly operating out of a facility such as this (as opposed to trucked to an intermodal yard).

But this isn't really WMATA related anymore...(apologies)...

I'm also aware of this trash train too, One Can see it from METRO as someone said, which leads me to ask, does Metro have trash train service, like the 800-series revenue collection car, do they use those for trash service. Or maybe use other cars when the Rohrs are retired, maybe they can convert a few of those to trash removing service.

As mentioned above it is a Montgomery County trash transfer facility. The containers are shipped to the an incinerator adjacent to the Pepco Dickerson power plant in upper Montgomery County.

"Robert Paniagua"
I'm also aware of this trash train too, One Can see it from METRO as someone said, which leads me to ask, does Metro have trash train service, like the 800-series revenue collection car, do they use those for trash service. Or maybe use other cars when the Rohrs are retired, maybe they can convert a few of those to trash removing service.

That’s a good question. I don’t recall ever seeing any trash containers located at the stations that would allow for convent pickup by a trash truck. I did notice 15 yard dumpsters at some but not all of the yards in aerial photo at the various map web sites. The placement of the dumpsters is kind of random. Some are placed adjacent to the maintenance of way tracks, some are placed adjacent to the shop buildings, some are placed adjacent to the facilities maintenance buildings.

Incarcerator?! I think you mean incinerator, something that burns trash, rather than something that imprisons criminals.

"DCmetrogreen"
Incarcerator?! I think you mean incinerator, something that burns trash, rather than something that imprisons criminals.

Damm spell checker, this is not the first time it has let me down. I stand corrected, corrected above.

Last week there was a stopped CSX Waste Management trash train from New Jersey (the containers had NJ markings along with the WM logos) in College Park MARC/Metro station.

"realtype"
Last week there was a stopped CSX Waste Management trash train from New Jersey (the containers had NJ markings along with the WM logos) in College Park MARC/Metro station.

Train was heading to or returning from one of the landfills in Virginia.

I seen these trains many times when driving along MD US-1 in Beltsville.