[Scan-DC] Railfanning the Braddock Road Metro station

[Blair Thompson]

which goes back just a little, namely March 22, 2011.
http://mailman.qth.net/pipermail/scan-dc/2011/015633.html

Anyway, I got off a southbound yellow line Metrorail train at the Braddock Road Metro station yesterday afternoon about 5:20 p.m. I looked at the northbound signals for CP Slater's Lane. They were red over red for tracks 1 and 3, but track 2's northbound signal was red over lunar white. I'd never seen aspect that displayed there before. For some reason, I had my Radio Shack PRO-67 scanner with me. 161.550 MHz lit up, so I knew that there was a northbound train just south of Alexandria.

2005 RF&P track chart: 
http://modernrailroading.com/DigitalLibrary/CSX/Baltimore%201-1-2005.pdf

How to read signals:
http://felttip.com/svmetro//septawatch/signals/

Go down to Rule 290; red over lunar white is a Restricting signal. I turned around for a second, and when I looked back at the signal, it had gone to yellow over red, Rule 285, Approach. Within the a space of three minutes, the signal, starting at red over lunar white, went from that to yellow over red, to yellow over flashing green (Rule 281b, Approach Limited), to green over red, (Rule 281, Clear). I've never seen a signal go through so many different aspects so quickly. 

While all that was going on, the radio came on with a transmission from a southbound VRE train at Four Mile Run, the next signals north of Slater's Run. Not long after it went by, a northbound freight came hammering through on the 2 track. I think CSX saved all the cars it had with flat wheels to put them on one train.

And people think watching trains is boring.

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