Afternoon of Red Line track issues follows weekend track fire

It was another tough day on Metro’s Red Line with single-tracking Tuesday afternoon due to a smoldering piece of rail equipment on the trackbed, the agency said. Trains briefly single-tracked between Twinbrook and Shady Grove, causing delays in both directions.

Montgomery County Fire department spokesman Pete Piringer said in tweets that a track fire just north of Rockville was extinguished by a train operator. Metro spokesman Richard L. Jordan said the issue was a “smoldering crosstie” that may have been caused by an object on the trackbed. He said the issue was not an arcing insulator.

Update - small fire along Metro Tracks just north of Rockville Metro Station has been handled by Metro WMATA, no fire emergency, no injury

— Pete Piringer (@mcfrsPIO) April 26, 2016

In an incident earlier Tuesday, trains shared a track between Medical Center and Grosvenor-Strathmore due to an arcing insulator near Medical Center. Piringer said in a tweet that firefighters were investigating a report of smoke in the station and in a tunnel, but found no smoke when they arrived.

On Saturday, a track fire near Friendship Heights on the Red Line caused smoke to fill a tunnel, leading to the evacuation of a train. In that incident, Metro said a foreign object came loose from a subway car and made contact with the third rail, resulting in “a loud noise, flash and smoke.”  The incident remains under investigation.