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Platform Repeater Boards (Mini Solari boards on platforms)

MichaelAMW

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I remember travvelling home from Waterloo many years ago and there was always the details for a train changing on the Solari there as it was peaktime. Would the Waterloo one have been the biggest anywhere in the UK?

There were three of them, in fact: in the middle, everything; one to the left, main lines; one to the right, Windsor lines.

The Solari at Paddington was interesting from the point of view of stations no longer served or even open. On a windy day the flaps would sometimes move to briefly reveal these, e.g Barnstaple, Bideford, Torrington, W Ruislip, Denham G Club, Falmouth, and obviously you could see them zip past as the board was changing. I don't recall seeing any names from the GW route to Birmingham and Merseyside. I also liked the use of the first line to display information, e.g. Inter City, Cornish Riviera, Golden Hind, Fully Reserved, Continued from previous column, Cancelled; and the bottom one for facilities, e.g. Restaurant Buffet to Newton Abbot, Sorry no refreshments today, in a rather more varied way than was generally the case elesewhere.
 
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rebmcr

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Here's a picture I found on Flickr of Moorfields circa 1981, on which you can just about make out the Solari board. https://flic.kr/p/btK4uL

That photographer is very impressive. Whatever film stock he used in the 1980s is on a par with modern digital reproduction, there's none of the graininess or colour grading that my brain has come to associate with the era!
 

DelW

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On a windy day the flaps would sometimes move to briefly reveal these, e.g Barnstaple, Bideford, Torrington, W Ruislip, Denham G Club, Falmouth, and obviously you could see them zip past as the board was changing.

My inner pedant feels the need to point out that you can still leave Paddington on a direct train to West Ruislip, albeit only once a day.

I used it a couple of years ago and was the only passenger (although there had been three of us on the up working). Nearly on-topic, with some attention to camera settings I just about managed a readable photo of the Paddington platform destination indicator showing West Ruislip.
 

telstarbox

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Sorry to bring this thread back from the dead :)

On this photo of Hayes (Kent), there is a "next train" indicator which appears to be internally illuminated and says:

London Bridge, Waterloo,
Charing Cx .

Is the remaining unilluminated section on the second line to show "Cannon St" ?
 
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Bletchleyite

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I also found an interesting photo from Birmingham New Street of the display for a Harwich boat train in 1986 - not a selection of destinations you saw in the West Midlands everyday

Never seen those in context before - nor noticed the errors - without the umlaut it should be Koeln, and I think the O-with-a-line in Danish works the same.
 

ag51ruk

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Sorry to bring this thread back from the dead :)

On this photo of Hayes (Kent), there is a "next train" indicator which appears to be internally illuminated and says:

London Bridge, Waterloo,
Charing Cx .

Is the remaining unilluminated section on the second line to show "Cannon St" ?

The wonders of 70s technology! That is a fingerboard, I.e. a piece of wood with the names of the stations printed on and slotted into the 'Next Train' bit. To show a Cannon Street train, the platform staff would replace the whole board with a different one (likely to be propped up against the pillar below). No electricity required :)

A number of stations still have the metal slots, although long since disused - I mentioned seeing one on the up platform at Bexleyheath last year earlier in this thread. There is a picture of a more typical one on eBay here, note the metal bits round the edge of each end to help protect them.

http://m.ebay.co.uk/itm/Railway-Fingerboard-Southern-Region-/131813959892
 
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XCTurbostar

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A lot of the infrastructure at Waterloo is actually still named Solari. An example of this is the platform Telephones on the platforms which do not connect to the signal box at Wimbledon but instead to the Solari Desk which is a station manager.

Thanks,
Ross
 

AndyW33

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I also found an interesting photo from Birmingham New Street of the display for a Harwich boat train in 1986 - not a selection of destinations you saw in the West Midlands everyday
Oh yes, that reminds me of the (live) station announcer at Manchester Victoria in the days of the North Country Continental, reading out the list of station stops across the East Midlands and East Anglia, then the ferry connection and the list of continental cities the ferry connected onto, ending with Moscow, and then the final flourish "The train at Platform 12 is for Moscow"
 

nlogax

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Euston did have one, although it was replaced with a prototype electronic display in the late 80s I think - like most London terminals it also had the single flap repeaters at the ticket barriers which just showed the time and destination. I've struggled to find any photos (film was expensive back then!) but have found one of part of the Euston board on Flickr from 1981

https://www.flickr.com/photos/74009/4932723741

This one really surprises me - I wasn't aware BR used this sort of expensive station display technology back at the start of the 80s. The most similar display to this at the time was lurking behind Bob Monkhouse on Family Fortunes..
 

urpert

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For the whole of the Southern Region we would often change upwards of 250,000 flaps. That would be some letraset!
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---


At Gatwick? I cant remember but the old Solari boards had a maximum of 40 displays, one being blank. We had some newer boards ( not at Gatwick) that had 80 flap displays - Victoria was one - so you were limited by the number of displays rather than the number of stations.

The Eastern side of Victoria has never been the same since the Solari boards went. I love the noise they make.

Thanks for the reminiscence.
 

telstarbox

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On a trip to Berlin last week I was happy to see they still have some of this type of sign! The attached photo shows the sign on the S-Bahn platforms at Warschauer Straße.
 

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zuriblue

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SBB still have quite a few of them knocking around (there's a set at Wettingen one stop towards Zürich from me) but most are LCD displays now. The big Solari board at Zürich HB was replaced last year with a multi screen LED setup.
 

godfreycomplex

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The Udine factory is still open; and still makes the traditional boards as well as LCD screens. Mostly for domestic clocks and spares for existing ones however; although I suppose they could produce a brand new one if anyone wanted one.
 

stut

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IIRC, the Copenhagen S-Tog network used to have some impressive little Solari boards, that would also count down the departure of the train. Every minute, then half minute, then every 5-10 seconds until it left.

(All digital now. Including train positioning on the platform - there's quite a variety in length, particularly with the new bike carriages).
 

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As I saw last week, Györ station in Hungary still has a full suite of Solari boards, merrily flapping away - main departure board, platform indicators and boards in the subway under the platforms are all Solari.
 
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This one really surprises me - I wasn't aware BR used this sort of expensive station display technology back at the start of the 80s. The most similar display to this at the time was lurking behind Bob Monkhouse on Family Fortunes..

Euston did have one, although it was replaced with a prototype electronic display in the late 80s I think - like most London terminals it also had the single flap repeaters at the ticket barriers which just showed the time and destination. I've struggled to find any photos (film was expensive back then!) but have found one of part of the Euston board on Flickr from 1981

https://www.flickr.com/photos/74009/4932723741

I also found an interesting photo from Birmingham New Street of the display for a Harwich boat train in 1986 - not a selection of destinations you saw in the West Midlands everyday

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/uploads/monthly_07_2012/post-9767-0-49141100-1341356729.jpg

Credit of course to the owners of those photographs

By pure chance, I've just seen that there's a good general view of the Euston board near the eginning of this:

The film is dated 1969 so the view of Euston could be earlier. My recollection is that the Solari board at Birmingham New Street went up when the station was rebuilt in the mid 1960s, so I've always thought they went up at all the main stations as part of the general modernisation/electrification programme.
 

nlogax

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By pure chance, I've just seen that there's a good general view of the Euston board near the eginning of this:
That feeling when six year old posts come back to haunt you :D

I've enjoyed that film a few times over the years. On a more general note I'm always impressed by the clean lines and uncluttered nature of both the concourse and the board. The matrix section was a useful and functional addition in the 80s bit everything added since has been needless mess. Mostly the result of commercial pressures via advertising of course, and now the ridiculous new board locations.

(predictable and topical whinge over, I promise)
 
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And here is one at Folkestone Central when it had 4 platforms
That takes me back! Pure NSE red everywhere. Not forgetting the short era when platforms 2 and 3 had gone, but both islands remained. The display on platform 2 showed something like "This platform is closed", well, there's no track... Then the island went and the formation was slewed across.

Off the rails, but there is still a magnificent split-flap display at Frankfurt Airport terminal 1. I should have taken a pic before Christmas but was in a bit of a hurry. Don't know who made that one, but many in Germany weren't Solari or Krone... Autofon or something?
 

yorksrob

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That takes me back! Pure NSE red everywhere. Not forgetting the short era when platforms 2 and 3 had gone, but both islands remained. The display on platform 2 showed something like "This platform is closed", well, there's no track... Then the island went and the formation was slewed across.

Yes, that was quite surreal.

There are still bits of the old up slow rusting away between Folkestone and Cheriton.
 

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