Solari boards

[WesternLancer]

It was the way some of the flaps were laid out with the stations on it. Some had the penultimate calling point on the upper panel flap, and the destination on the lower panel flap. Depended on who had made up the cards from the Solari manual. The booked service trains had all the cards made up in the DMO at the start of each new timetable. It was left to us 'on the ground' to make up any 'extras', avoiding duplication of information if at all possible by referring to the manual. Extras were normally made up on the night shift. Problems also arose when the flaps were altered each year. I remember that they were installing new flaps for the Fort William service, the bottom flap read 'Stations on request' (Upper panel) 'The Royal Highlander' (bottom panel). This replaced 'The Ulster' (top panel) 'Express' (Lower panel). However for some reason only part of it was changed, ending up as 'Stations on request - Express'. The only information the operator had was a repeater in the Box showing the Departure/Arrival Time plus the Destination/Originating Main flap. There were no monitors while I was there, and the only time you were aware of problems with the display was if someone actually noticed it and bothered to phone you.



I can only speak for the time I was there, but I don't think there was ever a time during the occasional bomb scare/hoax that the trains were ever cancelled off the Boards. I always put the next 10 scheduled services up at all times (even on nights), and they were only cancelled off when the train was actually leaving (you could visually see the trains coming and going from all the platforms where you sat). The situation you describe of the Boards 'Running through' was an indication of a fault with that particular Board. The Set-up consul had a green light on it, this would 'pulse' as the Board was cancelling off or setting up. You could see something was wrong as the green light would remain steadily illuminated for 5 seconds or so, and then pulse again until the Board had cleared. Not having a visual check on the Concourse Displays it wasn't possible to pinpoint the faulty flap immediately. Normal practice would be to try the Board with the same card several times to see if the fault cleared. After the third attempt you would leave that Board blank until you had time to do a proper test. That would consist of putting a Test Card in each flap in turn. If the flap was working okay the green pulsing light would stop and extinguish when the flap was set okay, if it wasn't you would get the steady green light and then the flap would continue to run through until cancelled (If you listened carefully this fault would be accompanied by a 'click' from the consul). It was then possible to use that Board as long as your next display didn't use that particular flap. (You would take the Computer Card and count down the rows of punch holes to see if that flap was to be used). At busy times when you needed to have all the Boards in service it was possible to re-arrange the flap layout on the card to avoid the faulty flap and keep all Boards in service. There was a small machine like an old Credit Card 'swipe' device, you put a blank card in and punched out the slots to form a new display.
One of the main bugbears of the system was damp, warm air on the Concourse would mix with cold air in the gallery behind the boards and sometimes condensation caused the system to break down into a cascade failure. In cases like this the good old Emergency Roller Type display would be wheeled out onto the concourse.

The only times you would find the Boards mostly blank was serious disruptions, and you had three boards set up with various calling points, but headed with the dreaded header flaps of 'Please travel from Paddington', 'Please travel from St. Pancras', and 'Please travel from Kings Cross'.



Really don't know about the digital clock on the concourse, although the one in the Box did have the strange layout that it went from 23:59 to 24:00 and then almost immediately went over to 00:00.
Must've been after my time there as the night service I remember putting up went 23:30 Glasgow, 23:35 Bletchley, 23:45 Barrow, 00:10 Wolverhampton, 0050 Liverpool & Manchester, 03:50 Watford, 06:05 Northampton.

Great to read these recollections! Thanks for posting.

 

[Andy R. A.]

(prob spent too long in the Griffin!!!),

Too true. The 'Griffin' had acquired the nickname of 'The Snakepit' during my time there If you were looking for the Shunter to hook a Loco on it was a good bet that they would be found in that august establishment !

 

[TheSeeker]

The word itself makes me think of Kenneth Williams, Julian and Sandy

 

[gg1]

Might have been used for the same reason as 'Hemel Hempsted' (?Hempstead?) appeared as the destination of the all-stations Euston via Northampton trains - so that passengers didn't get misled into catching a slow train.

Maybe, although I never saw it actually used, I just noticed it briefly appear as one of the options when the board changed. Only other possibility I can think of is it may have been there just in case a service had to terminate early due to a blockage on the line.

 

[30907]

The first time the train ran it was found that Aberdovey had been spelt Aberdoiery, on all of the Boards. It was one of the times that things moved very quickly, as by the following Sunday the correct spelling flap had been installed. Often wonder if any of the mis-spelt ones managed to survive ?

Aberdyfi by then?

 

[Andy R. A.]

Aberdyfi by then?

When the first error was corrected it appeared as Aberdovey for at least the next twelve months.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Aberdyfi by then?

Aberdovey is the English version, which it would be appropriate to display on a board in England, just like you won't see "Y Fflint" or "Caergybi" on the board at Euston.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

Aberdovey is the English version, which it would be appropriate to display on a board in England, just like you won't see "Y Fflint" or "Caergybi" on the board at Euston.

I think you'll find it scrolls between the two, or they are shown as Holyhead/Caergybi in the destination slot at Euston (also on the trains).
Many Welsh places these days only have one version, Caernarfon is not known as Caernarvon any more, and Conwy is not Conway.
But equally near the border Queensferry doesn't have a Welsh version (apparently it used to be Y Fferi Isaf, ie Lower Ferry).

 

[ChiefPlanner]

There used to be a TV programme way back called "Second City First" , - a series of short stories about life in Birmingham , which memorably showed the New Street Solari flipping through a range of West Midlands services. Excellent programme in it's own right.

 

[vlad]

Always remember one oddity about the New Street solari board in the late 80s/early 90s. When cycling through destination stations one of the options was Sandwell and Dudley, I’m not aware of any service ever being timetabled to terminate there.

I remember seeing Etruria as a possible destination station. I can't see that was ever used!

 

[Bletchleyite]

I think you'll find it scrolls between the two, or they are shown as Holyhead/Caergybi in the destination slot at Euston (also on the trains).
Many Welsh places these days only have one version, Caernarfon is not known as Caernarvon any more, and Conwy is not Conway.
But equally near the border Queensferry doesn't have a Welsh version (apparently it used to be Y Fferi Isaf, ie Lower Ferry).

I stand corrected. You've then also got Y Fali, which was corrupted into English as Valley, then retranslated as Dyffryn, or somesuch (the history of that one seems very confused).

 

[route101]

Recall the Edinburgh one , it lasted quite late on .

 

[robertclark125]

One of the miniature solari boards, that you would find on platforms, is also preserved by the Network Southeast Railway Society. There's a video of it on their Facebook page, in perfect working order.

The one at Paddington was gone by 1989, as that year the West Ealing incident took place, when vandals derailed 50025; a photo of the aftermath in Motive Power Monthly showed the departures board at Paddington, which was LCD.

 

[Grumpy Git]

I remember seeing Etruria as a possible destination station. I can't see that was ever used!

I dropped a mate off at Etruria station to catch a train in 1984, when did it close?

 

[trebor79]

At Newcastle there was a large departure board that was a sort of mechanical LCD display. Each character was formed from a matrix of dots that could display either yellow or black.
It was very slow to update, one character at a time changed starting at the left of the top row and working all the way down to the bottom right.
Was that a Solari product? I'm not sure when it disappeared, but I think it was still there in the early 2000s.

I remember the Solari board at Kings Cross. In it's final few months it displayed all sort of random and wrong information. There were signs erected in front of and either side of it with words to the effect of "Don't believe anything on this board because it doesn't work properly. Listen to the announcements, those are correct."

 

[vlad]

I dropped a mate off at Etruria station to catch a train in 1984, when did it close?

It closed in 2005.

Even though the service appeared to be run down in its final years it still had a fairly regular train service to that date. What I meant was there can't have been many trains that terminated at Etruria.

 

[Re 4/4]

At Newcastle there was a large departure board that was a sort of mechanical LCD display. Each character was formed from a matrix of dots that could display either yellow or black.
It was very slow to update, one character at a time changed starting at the left of the top row and working all the way down to the bottom right.
Was that a Solari product? I'm not sure when it disappeared, but I think it was still there in the early 2000s.

That brings back memories - of the destination indicators on the side of the Zurich S-bahn trains. These must have been fairly new in the late 1990s, and still existed around 2010 if I'm not mistaken.

The Solari board in Zurich main station also lived on into the 21st century, but is gone too now.

 

[Mag_seven]

The Solari board in Zurich main station also lived on into the 21st century, but is gone too now.

I was there the weekend it got decommissioned!

 

[Rick1984]

At Newcastle there was a large departure board that was a sort of mechanical LCD display. Each character was formed from a matrix of dots that could display either yellow or black

I think the previous Glasgow Central one might have been the same?

 

[SteveyBee131]

At Newcastle there was a large departure board that was a sort of mechanical LCD display. Each character was formed from a matrix of dots that could display either yellow or black.
It was very slow to update, one character at a time changed starting at the left of the top row and working all the way down to the bottom right.
Was that a Solari product? I'm not sure when it disappeared, but I think it was still there in the early 2000s.
"

Sounds a similar principle to ones that West Yorkshire bus stations had until quite recently. They were by Vultron, who also made the original destination boxes in 158s, 323s, possibly Networkers too.

 

[Hadders]

I remember the Solari board at Kings Cross. In it's final few months it displayed all sort of random and wrong information. There were signs erected in front of and either side of it with words to the effect of "Don't believe anything on this board because it doesn't work properly. Listen to the announcements, those are correct."

I remember the board at Kings Cross in that condition! They even installed a temporary 'wheel in' LCD board in front of the solari board.

 

[Bedpan]

Might have been used for the same reason as 'Hemel Hempsted' (?Hempstead?) appeared as the destination of the all-stations Euston via Northampton trains - so that passengers didn't get misled into catching a slow train.

And something that still happens to this day! (Not necessarily Hemel, but for example trains at Didcot being advertised as terminating at Ealing Broadway.

 

[Saperstein]

Just come across this BBC South Today edition from 18/01/1985 on You Tube:

5m 50s in is a report about modernisation work at Brighton including mention of a new Solari board, it shows the old manual? one and a Solari board that was in use (then!) at London Victoria.

 

[Ianigsy]

I remember seeing Etruria as a possible destination station. I can't see that was ever used!

It was the station for the National Garden Festival (1986?) so perhaps there were specials run.