Why Don't We use these? (and why do we?)

MCR247 · 29 Sep 2011

Why don't we use those blue LCD CIS screens that are found in Germany and St Pancras, elsewhere in the UK? Are they more expensive than LED screens? They look quite good IMO

Why do we use them at St Pancras?

Best picture I could find in 30 seconds! http://www.flickr.com/photos/63717311@N00/534004042/

Also, at St Pancras
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mattingham/2044084741/

RailUK Forums

Get-Pulled-Off · 29 Sep 2011

I can't open the pictures (problem at my end) but I think I know the ones you mean. Isn't it due to them burning out and needing replacing too often? I've seen them at a few stations in this country before being replaced.

HSTEd · 29 Sep 2011

I think its a life and maintenance issue, although myself I prefer split flap boards, they make a nice reassuring sound I think.

autotank · 29 Sep 2011

Are there any statons with flip boards left in the UK?

HSTEd · 29 Sep 2011

Nope, last one was Charing Cross I think.

driver9000 · 29 Sep 2011

autotank said:
Are there any statons with flip boards left in the UK?

Liverpool Street was the last one to have the Solari slat indicators. These were replaced around 5 years ago. Could have been longer though.....

bromleyboy21 · 29 Sep 2011

I spotted that they have those blue type display boards at St Pancras International Thameslink platforms.

Personally I think the usual yellow LED type boards are much brighter and easier to read.

Didn't some the 465/466 Networkers originally have similar style displays on the front? But I think these were replaced a few years back.

mallard · 29 Sep 2011

I have vague recollections of "blue" CIS screens at Paddington in the late 1990s around the time the large flapper board was removed...

Cherry_Picker · 29 Sep 2011

HSTEd said:
I think its a life and maintenance issue, although myself I prefer split flap boards, they make a nice reassuring sound I think.

driver9000 said:
Liverpool Street was the last one to have the Solari slat indicators. These were replaced around 5 years ago. Could have been longer though.....

The clever people in Boston, Massachusetts decided it would be a good idea to play the sound effect from the old style departure boards when their new digital ones update at their major North and South railway stations. They should introduce that concept over here too I think.

(sauce)

gordonthemoron · 29 Sep 2011

hasn't Sheffield Station got those type of signs above the ticket counters?

185 · 29 Sep 2011

As a kid, I used to be amazed at the old flip flap ones Merseyrail had in the eighties.

Lampshade · 29 Sep 2011

Didn't Waterloo have some sort of plasma screen set up until a few years ago?

Eagle · 29 Sep 2011

The destinations board at Manchester Piccadilly uses blue LCD like this. But personally I'd say that amber LEDs are far easier to read (and of course have a much lower power usage being as they don't need to be backlit).

Bastiaan · 29 Sep 2011

Right now all old flip boards in The Netherlands are being displaced by new TFT screens, which look very nice and are easy to read, in my opinion.

Old:
http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bestand:Utrecht_Centraal_CTA_spoor_19.png

New:
http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bestand:Trein_Beeld_Perron_scherm_Alphen.jpg

NSE · 29 Sep 2011

I have to say I prefer the LED ones, such as those found on the SN/SWT/SET networks. The board at KGX is very good too, nice and big and bright. Although I do miss the flip boards.

driver9000 · 29 Sep 2011

Cherry_Picker said:
The clever people in Boston, Massachusetts decided it would be a good idea to play the sound effect from the old style departure boards when their new digital ones update at their major North and South railway stations. They should introduce that concept over here too I think. (sauce)

Fantastic! The familiar clacking of those boards is one my childhood railway memories

WestCoast · 30 Sep 2011

From an aesthetic point of view I do prefer DB's boards, however I accept that LEDs are lower maintenance. DB's bright blue boards are very clear at night. Note how organised that departure board is, there is no level of consistency in the UK. Operators do their own thing, with varying results.

I am partial to a flip board, or a more modern version of it though! Like you see still in the Netherlands...

The worst are CRT screens, which are still used at some stations like Bath Spa! :roll: They are useless if you are not stood directly underneath a screen!

Bedpan · 30 Sep 2011

I used to like spotting odd out of the way stations as the flip boards flipped round. I remember when I was vetry young they had punch card operated boards at Waterloo, the rods went through holes in the cards and caused a wooden slat with an enamel plate with a station name on it to flip over to show the calling points of a particular service. Sometimes not all of the slats flipped back when the card was withdrawn so that occasionally, when a new card was put in, it showed the train to have extra calling points, for instance, a Basingstoke train might show the calling points - Woking, Farnborough, Fleet, Winchfield, Hook, Halwill Junction.

scottishchris · 30 Sep 2011

Bedpan said:
I used to like spotting odd out of the way stations as the flip boards flipped round.

I always remember the boards at Edinburgh Waverley, particularly the one for London Paddington (not sure if the 2 ever had a single train running between them!) which had a little Paddington Bear picture on it!

This is the point where a childhood memory is destroyed by dozens of people telling me it's just in my imagination. I had enough emotional issues when I found out Slash from guns 'n roses doesn't exist!

Eagle · 30 Sep 2011

scottishchris said:
I always remember the boards at Edinburgh Waverley, particularly the one for London Paddington (not sure if the 2 ever had a single train running between them!) which had a little Paddington Bear picture on it!

Something like EdinburghCarlisleWarrington BQ*Birmingham New StReadingLondon Paddington? Routes like this existed in InterCity days and survived well into Virgin XC's tenure.

*or possibly Manchester Piccadilly

Smudger105e · 9 Oct 2011

Anyone remember this one? I do!!

T163R · 10 Oct 2011

I don't really think they are very reliable, just looking at the different screen colours :/
Why not try these instead ? http://parisbytrain.com/files/2008/09/metro_level_departure_screens_gare_de_lest.jpg

*pops out*

Eagle · 10 Oct 2011

T163R said:
Why not try these instead ? http://parisbytrain.com/files/2008/09/metro_level_departure_screens_gare_de_lest.jpg

I remember about 2002-3 when Waterloo replaced its mechanical board with a series of LCD monitors mounted above head level, about 26 inches across each, which were impossible to read at any great distance. Thankfully someone saw sense and replaced it with the large LED board we have today.

asylumxl · 10 Oct 2011

City Thameslink also has the same kind of boards as St Pancras International.

Barn · 11 Oct 2011

Eagle said:
The destinations board at Manchester Piccadilly uses blue LCD like this. But personally I'd say that amber LEDs are far easier to read (and of course have a much lower power usage being as they don't need to be backlit).

I think orange-on-black is considered to be the easiest to read for people with poor vision. It has certainly become the new standard... you'll see that newer DLR stations have moved to orange from red and the slightly newer batch of Jubilee Line stock also made that change.

Mojo · 11 Oct 2011

Eagle said:
I remember about 2002-3 when Waterloo replaced its mechanical board with a series of LCD monitors mounted above head level, about 26 inches across each, which were impossible to read at any great distance. Thankfully someone saw sense and replaced it with the large LED board we have today.

mallard said:
I have vague recollections of "blue" CIS screens at Paddington in the late 1990s around the time the large flapper board was removed...

Unless we are thinking of different things, the screens installed at Paddington, Waterloo, Birmingham New Street, etc. by Railtrack were actually Plasma screens rather than LED.

They suffered quite badly from burn-in, as well as being hard to read in the sunshine. They constructed a canopy over the ones at Waterloo to stop the sun making them completely unreadable.

Why Don't We use these? (and why do we?)

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