Here are the answers to whichWMATA week 158

On Tuesday, we featured the 158th challenge to see how well you know the Metro system. Here are the answers. How’d you do?

This week, we got 17 guesses. Eight of you got all five. Great work Kevin M, Ginger, No Pain No Train, JJ, ArlFfx, AlexC, Justin…, and Isaac Alvarez!

The theme connecting this week’s images is Virginia Railway Express. The five stations featured are the only five stations where you can transfer between VRE and Metro. Six of you correctly noted the theme.

The first image shows a train headed toward downtown pulling out of Union Station on track 2. While many of Metro’s stations have a waffle vault and a center platform, there are two major clues to help you narrow this one down. First, the coffers here are shallower than usual, due to the station’s proximity to the surface and the foundations of Union Station. The other clue, which was probably easier to spot, is the daylight visible down the track in the distance. The Red Line surfaces just north of the Union Station stop. This picture is an older picture, and dates to before the painting of the station’s vault.

Fourteen of you knew this one.

The next image shows the junction in the station’s concourse between the Metro entrance and one of the Crystal City Underground’s passageways. The tilework on the left is distinctive, and some of you noted that you can see the mirrored reflection of the letters CRYST along with the Marriott logo. This should have helped you narrow this down.

Thirteen of you got this one right.

The third image shows a view from the staircase leading from the mezzanine at Franconia-Springfield to the bridge over the old RF&P line that carries CSX, VRE, and Amtrak. Franconia is the terminal for the Blue Line, and has a connection to VRE. The bridge to the platform on the farthest track is higher than the Metro mezzanine, though. These steps lead up one level to the bridge.

While this picture may not appear to reveal much at first, you can discover more with a closer look. Through the glass at center, you can see the Metro tracks, distinguishable from the white third rail covers. A close look at the switchwork would tell you that this is a pocket track, not a simple crossover. There aren’t many pocket tracks, and the number that are outside and adjacent to a station is two. But this can’t be Silver Spring because of the canopy on the station.

Thirteen of you figured this one out.

The fourth image shows the Greenbelt-to-Maryland Ave mezzanine elevator at L’Enfant Plaza. The main clue to solving this one was the width of the platform. L’Enfant Plaza has a pair of very wide side platforms on the Green/Yellow level. Based on that width, you should have been able to narrow this down to L’Enfant and Metro Center. Gallery Place does not have a wider platform. At Metro Center, the elevators aren’t embedded in the end wall on the side platform level, instead the Red-to-Orange elevators are in the middle of the side platform “wings” that stretch overtop of the lower platform and connect to the 12th/G and 12th/F entrances. The street elevator is also located off the northern “wing” of the Shady Grove platform.

The “track 1” sign might have also helped you. In Metro, all tracks are numbered. Track 1 is the track that carries trains toward the northern or eastern terminal during normal operations (Red -> Glenmont, Orange -> New Carrollton, Blue/Silver -> Largo, Green/Yellow -> Greenbelt). Track 2 carries trains in the other direction.

Nine of you guessed correctly.

The final clue was the hardest. The pictured tunnel is part of Alexandria Union Station, and provides a connection between the island platform that serves track 2. Track 1 is closest to the Metro line and is separated from the platform by a fence.

There wasn’t a lot to go on with this one, but if you’d figured out the theme, it should have narrowed the options down considerably.

And yes, several of you noted that the tunnel itself is not on Metro property. This is not the first time we’ve featured something related to a station that isn’t technically part of it. It’s still associated with the station, and in the future, this tunnel will directly connect to the southern mezzanine at King Street.

Ten of you came to the correct conclusion.

Great work, everyone. Thanks for playing! We’ll be back in two weeks with challenge #159.

Information about contest rules and submission guidelines is available at http://ggwash.org/whichwmata.