Eastern Railroad Discussion > AF major delays

There was major work at AF tower in Alexandria this weekend. I was on an excursion and just to past the work area we had to get permission from the supervisor on site, the dispatcher in Jacksonville, and had to contact the switch supervisor to have the switches set by hand. When we finally pasted the site, I saw them moving prefab sections of track like they were rebuilding the trackwork. The car attendant stated that they were working all weekend to get the trackwork finished. Needless to say, it took 45 miniutes to get from the Station in Alexandria, through AF on CSX and CR on the NS. Apparently all the switches had to be throw by hand to line up the tracks. The car attendant also stated (although I can not confirm this) that it took FOUR hours to get a Amtrak train through AF on Saturday. Hopefully the work was finished so that the VRE communters will not face major delays. The excursion report is posted on the Railfan Trip Discussion board.

The AF interlocking project will take until October 26.
Full details here
http://www.vre.org/service/af/af_navigation_page.htm

Thanks for the link. I did not know that they were adding so many new tracks including the second one for NS going to Manassas.

When it's done it'll look almost the same as it did 20 years ago with FGE there.

The long delay at AF was not caused by the project directly. Many crews have experienced problems with cab signals cutting in and out (they are not needed through the project) and have been running through at restricted speed adding to the delays. They can run through at maximum authorized speed if they cut the cab signals out.