[Scan-DC] Railfanning the Braddock Road Metro station

[Blair Thompson]

Continuing with our exciting subject.... I started this thread in 2011. I saw a few posts from 2014. 

Construction equipment from the Peter Kiewit company is still working away in the parking lot at Braddock Road Metro, but the platform project has reached the point that trains are running again on the Yellow and Blue Lines south of National Airport. Braddock Road now has Wifi. It did not when the station was shut down back in May. The waiting booths (at least the one I checked) have about four or five USB charging ports. You have to supply a cable that adapts from a USB port to your device. There is also a 20-amp duplex receptacle in the waiting booth. If your device's battery pack needs a recharge, you might be able to use that too. I doubt that the Metro Transit Police are going to let you hang out at the station for too long watching trains. 

You still have the same great view of the northbound signals at Janneys Lane. On Monday morning, I saw a northbound CSX freight. After getting my free doughnut holes and tote bag, I saw a northbound Amtrak, clearly the northbound Crescent, at about 9:25. The schedule says that's a tad early, but 20 does not pick up passengers at Alexandria. Once the departing passengers have left the train, off he goes. 

I didn't try to listen to Scanner 5-0 on my Kindle Fire. I learned that the battery pack in my Bearcat Sportcat 180 had run down. If I had had a wall wart with me, I could have plugged it in to the duplex receptacle. 

The completion of the project puts Braddock Road, Van Dorn Street, and Franconia/Springfield back in the list of CSX and VRE train-watching locations.