Last stop for Philadelphia train station's flipping departures board

[whole diary]

[Lee]

Officials say the Solari board has grown obsolete. The removal is part of a modernization plan for the station - https://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/ap/article-6634307/Last-stop-train-stations-flipping-departures-board.html

[Red Squirrel]

Did anyone else detect a not-so-subtle bias in that article? The close-up photo shows departures running 3hrs and 90 mins late, whilst the wide shot shows a long list of trains that are 'On time' or 'Boarding'...

[Bmblbzzz]

The second photo makes it look as if the board is obscuring the ornate columns (sorry, not sure if they're Corinthian, Ionic or Doric!) but from the third shot it's clear they're not. Anyway, my view is that it's just an information board and if there are now better ways of displaying that information (complying with the ADA) then the best place for fans of old tech to see the board is in a museum.

[grahame]

I confess - I'm sad to see the Solari / flipping boards go; I remember seeing them as a new wonder in Euston in - what - the 1960s, with the magic appearance of train as all the leaf sections in a column started to flip and in a handful of seconds most of them had stopped ... others carrying on till the column was complete leaving, magically, a complete train.   And then, as trains departed, the left most column cleared and each of the others moves / flipped up in turn.    I believe they replaced even older punched card / technical systems - vague recollections of those at Victoria, with a wooden walkway along the front, fenced off almost like a church pew in which the team operating the board scurried up and down pulling levels and placing cards to rotate slats showing station names high above to passenger looking for their trains.

[bobm]

I can remember watching them flipping over and catching a brief glimpse of a station name where regular services no longer called before settling on the correct information.

[Richard Fairhurst]

For those with a yen for such things, I built this a good few years ago: http://www.charlbury.info/departures/

It requires Flash so won't work on phones, and indeed most desktop browsers will be sniffy these days. Like the Philly one, it's due to be decommissioned in the next day or so. (I'm moving the Charlbury website to a new server.)

But there do appear to be a few open-source Javascript implementations - grahame, are you tempted to rig one up to your lovely new departure boards here? 

[Red Squirrel]

...not sure if they're Corinthian, Ionic or Doric

Emphatically Corinthian.

I'll never forget walking into a London terminus some time in the early 80's, a little later and possibly worse for wear and tear than I should have been, and watching such a board tick a few times and then change from being full of detail that I had not had time to digest to completely and resolutely blank. Quite dispiriting.

[grahame]

For those with a yen for such things, I built this a good few years ago: http://www.charlbury.info/departures/

It requires Flash so won't work on phones, and indeed most desktop browsers will be sniffy these days. Like the Philly one, it's due to be decommissioned in the next day or so. (I'm moving the Charlbury website to a new server.)

Good luck with the move

But there do appear to be a few open-source Javascript implementations - grahame, are you tempted to rig one up to your lovely new departure boards here? 

Tempted ... but Javascript isn't my thing and I don't want to mix up the passenger-useful facilities in a heritage wrapper.  I would be more tempted to chain the departure boards, but really I have too much on my plate for the next three weeks.

[JayMac]

Emphatically Corinthian.

Yes, the column's capitals do suggest Corinthian. Which is a shame for my intended pun.

Isn't it Ionic? So sang Alanis Morrisette.

[stuving]

I was thinking about where I've seen any recently, and the obvious answer is France - SNCF^▸ (Societe Nationale des Chemins de fer Francais - French National Railways) made something of a feature of them in their stations, usually up on the wall over the door to the platforms. But I'm struggling to find out how many bigger ones have been removed so far - Montparnasse came down in 2017, St Lazare had a big renovation not long ago and I suspect lost its one, but Gare du Nord may well be there still (someone must have been there last year). I was sure Nantes still had one in September, but I find my memory was wrong again (and it would have gone once the current rebuild is finished anyway).

[Surrey 455]

I confess - I'm sad to see the Solari / flipping boards go; I remember seeing them as a new wonder in Euston in - what - the 1960s, with the magic appearance of train as all the leaf sections in a column started to flip and in a handful of seconds most of them had stopped ... others carrying on till the column was complete leaving, magically, a complete train.   And then, as trains departed, the left most column cleared and each of the others moves / flipped up in turn.    I believe they replaced even older punched card / technical systems - vague recollections of those at Victoria, with a wooden walkway along the front, fenced off almost like a church pew in which the team operating the board scurried up and down pulling levels and placing cards to rotate slats showing station names high above to passenger looking for their trains.

My memories as a youngster were mainly at Heathrow T1 & T2 departures and a vague memory (possibly imagined) at Paddington station.

[Reginald25]

I still think the Solari indicators allowed the hurrying commuter a faster appreciation of when the next train to the required destination was running and which platform. I specially remember the board at Paddington when commuting from Reading in the 70s.
That said, the mechanical innards must have been a nightmare (and costly) to maintain, whereas the modern ones are throwaway modules.
Perhaps the NRM^» (National Railway Museum, at York and Shildon - about) should have a section of a display, now they are 'history'.
Incidentally I'm old enough to remember the slot in destination boards at the ticket barrier at Welling, Kent, in the 60s.

[Bmblbzzz]

It's a shame the linked article didn't say in what way they fail to meet the Americans with Disabilities Act and how the new display will comply. I imagine it might be by providing some sort of audio link for the blind via Bluetooth or wifi, but it might be something else completely. It would also be informative to know if similar facilities are required under UK^▸ (United Kingdom) legislation and how they are provided.

[martyjon]

....  Incidentally I'm old enough to remember the slot in destination boards at the ticket barrier at Welling, Kent, in the 60s.

Yea, I remember them too but they were on the platforms at Bristol Temple Meads INCLUDING the blank one where the platform staff would chalk up with the destinations where they didn't have a specific one. I also remember the boards above the carriage windows showing the destinations including the named express title on titled trains.

There was a wooden destinations board at Bath Green Park which sadly was already out of service during my visits to that station and I was surprised at the number of destinations that were served from there besides Bournemouth West.  Broadstone, Templecombe, Evercreech Junction, Bristol Temple Meads, Gloucester Eastgate, Cheltenham Lansdown Road, Birmingham New Street, Manchester Mayfield, Sheffield Midland, Leeds City, Mangotsfield, Clifton Down,  Avonmouth Docks to name a few I remember. I have never found a photograph of the board so if any forum member has one or can point me to a link to one I'd be more than grateful.

[JayMac]

Destination/calling point finger boards were in use well into the 1980s at Taunton, and if my memory serves me correctly, in use at Weston-super-Mare into the 21st century.