An Update on the Solari Board

[benjibear]

Anyone have a status update on this at PHL? Last time I was there about a month ago it was still in ues.

I would think somebody could make a disgital display to look like a solari board that you can see the names and digits flip electronically with the sound of the board.

Anyone know if it gets replaced where will the old one go? It would be sure nice if they could donate it to the RR museum of PA.

 

[Texan Eagle]

Anyone have a status update on this at PHL? Last time I was there about a month ago it was still in ues.

I would think somebody could make a disgital display to look like a solari board that you can see the names and digits flip electronically with the sound of the board.

Anyone know if it gets replaced where will the old one go? It would be sure nice if they could donate it to the RR museum of PA.

Guess what, just today Amtrak's Facebook page has put up a photo of the good ol' Solari board at Phila

 

[Swadian Hardcore]

Looks like the board was made in Italy. How old is the board?

 

[TCRT]

I think we still have one in PVD. Maybe the traveler can confirm? TBH I rarely look at the board when I am in there but its not digital. But I'm not sure its technically a Solari board, either.

As of my visit last July, the Solari board was still at PVD, and included some interesting past destinations, including Cape Cod and Jacksonville, if I recall correctly. I will be headed there for a points run next week and will check on it.

 

[johnny.menhennet]

At NHV last month, I spent a lot of time watching the Solari Board. I saw a Hyannis, Harrisburg, Trenton, and St. Petersburg. I'm sure there are more, but those are the ones I remember.

 

[amamba]

Yeah the cape cod destinations are pretty cool. The train bridge over the Providence river (connecting east providence and providence) is in the permanent up position and I think the tunnel through the East Side has been blocked off so I don't think it's possible to even restore passenger rail service to the Cape from Providence, even if there was an interest.

 

[Eric S]

Yeah the cape cod destinations are pretty cool. The train bridge over the Providence river (connecting east providence and providence) is in the permanent up position and I think the tunnel through the East Side has been blocked off so I don't think it's possible to even restore passenger rail service to the Cape from Providence, even if there was an interest.

Couldn't service be restored to the Cape Codder route as it existed until the early 1990s (Providence - Taunton - Wareham - Buzzards Bay - Sandwich - West Barnstable - Hyannis)?

 

[Anderson]

IIRC, the redundant flaps on the board would be for Cape Cod, St. Petersburg (since the FL trains serve Tampa but not St. Pete's), and Montreal. They lack flaps for Newport News (though Richmond has always subbed in here), St. Albans VT, and Lynchburg.

Edit: The biggest problem that I see with adding a Cape Codder-type service is the highly seasonal nature of such a service. April/May-September, it would probably do well enough to merit a decent set of equipment, but you'd have an off-season operating hole large enough to drive the Cardinal through. Which would leave Amtrak (and presumably the state of Massachusetts) with three options:

1) Swallow the loss. The best from a transportation standpoint, but if ridership is awful it may not make sense in light of other uses for those dollars (even if we were to confine their use to rail programs). Even if the train were cut down to a Hoosier State type consist in the off-season, that's a bunch of operating costs being wasted...to say nothing of an operational slot.

2) Make the train seasonal. Amtrak seems highly averse to doing this...it basically wrecks the non-tourist utility of the train and makes it a lot harder for locals to get long-term use out of the operation.

3) Use different equipment in the off-season. For example, attach a set of DMUs to a Regional at NYP and then disconnect them at NHV for the separate run. The problem here is that Amtrak doesn't have the equipment to do this at the present time.

 

[johnny.menhennet]

IIRC, the redundant flaps on the board would be for Cape Cod, St. Petersburg (since the FL trains serve Tampa but not St. Pete's), and Montreal. They lack flaps for Newport News (though Richmond has always subbed in here), St. Albans VT, and Lynchburg.

On the NHV board, I think I did see a Lynchburg, but you are probably talking about the board at PHL. Instead of St. Albans, the NHV board used Vermont.

 

[Anderson]

IIRC, the redundant flaps on the board would be for Cape Cod, St. Petersburg (since the FL trains serve Tampa but not St. Pete's), and Montreal. They lack flaps for Newport News (though Richmond has always subbed in here), St. Albans VT, and Lynchburg.

On the NHV board, I think I did see a Lynchburg, but you are probably talking about the board at PHL. Instead of St. Albans, the NHV board used Vermont.

You're right. I've been in NHV once (waiting for 66/67 to get away from a Model UN conference), and I didn't think to look at the board. It was PHL that I got a look at the board in. And I've wondered about the flap situation as well...

 

[amamba]

Yeah the cape cod destinations are pretty cool. The train bridge over the Providence river (connecting east providence and providence) is in the permanent up position and I think the tunnel through the East Side has been blocked off so I don't think it's possible to even restore passenger rail service to the Cape from Providence, even if there was an interest.

Couldn't service be restored to the Cape Codder route as it existed until the early 1990s (Providence - Taunton - Wareham - Buzzards Bay - Sandwich - West Barnstable - Hyannis)?

Is that the route that went over the bridge that I mentioned? and through the tunnel I mentioned that goes under the hill through providence? because if so the tunnel is fenced off and the bridge is in rough shape...I guess with some track work and maintainence it could be up and running.

Per the small map on the wikipedia listing for the "Cape Codder" I think I might be right, but I defer to the_traveler or someone with more extensive RI train knowledge. Or does the train head north up to Attleboro, heading north out of Providence the way all the trains do, and then branch east at a switch?

Sounds like that would have been a great trip - too bad I never took it

 

[LarryG]

Oh, so that's what it's called! I might be in the minority, but I found the sound of the board at Newark Penn Station to be very reassuring for some reason.

 

[railiner]

Newark Penn Station and Atlantic City are the other two stations in the Northeast I believe.

There is a Wikipedia entry on the Solari boards - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solari_departure_board - which has a list of where the boards are still in use. The list for the US may be not be entirely up to date. But it also lists Newark Penn Station, New Haven (with the board scheduled to be replaced), Rt. 128.

According to several articles or posts about the Solari boards I've read is that they are getting increasingly difficult and more costly to maintain because of availability of spare parts and the need for a specialized service technician. Adding new destinations and signs is a lot easier with a LED or LCD display. So the Solari boards will all be replaced sooner or later. If people want the clickity-clack sound to indicate board updates, IIRC, the board in BOS was replaced with a electronic display with speakers that made the clickity-clack sound.

This thread reminds me of the first digital clockradio I had. It also utilized mechanical 'flip' digits. The clicking sound was present, but naturally much quieter than that of the Solari's....

 

[Texan Eagle]

Oh, so that's what it's called! I might be in the minority, but I found the sound of the board at Newark Penn Station to be very reassuring for some reason.

Yes, Solari boards are awesome

YouTube is our friend, enjoy this until you go out to hear them flip in real life-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8azGTsslNc

 

[benjibear]

A couple questions:

Approximatly when were these boards originally installed? 1950s, 1960s, 1970s. 1980s??

I notice that none of the boards appear to have the original clocks. Philly's is covered over and a huge clock sits on top. Others I see have clocks that appear over the top of where the original time was. Did these originally come with a flip flap clock?

I noticed on Philly's the "TO" is pained yellow where the other titles are white. What is up with this?

On the bottom there are always messages. I am sure these automatically changed at one point but now they all seam static and don't change. Maybe they don't work and they manually set the message. Any insight?

What does the control input look like? Is it manually by the station for each train, is it automatic (places like philly also have digital display boards and am wondering are they somehow connected)? Is there a "master control" that can be used for "program"?

This was just some things that popped into my mind and was curious. Next time I am in Philly (which hopefully will be NTD), I am going to take a closer look.

 

[rrdude]

I too would like to see the "inner workings" of the Solari. It may just be a simple console, or even a program on a terminal, but it'd be nice to see.

Gathering option for Philly? I'd much rather see behind the scenes stuff, than ride local transit.............

 

[railiner]

A couple questions:

Approximatly when were these boards originally installed? 1950s, 1960s, 1970s. 1980s??

I notice that none of the boards appear to have the original clocks. Philly's is covered over and a huge clock sits on top. Others I see have clocks that appear over the top of where the original time was. Did these originally come with a flip flap clock?

I noticed on Philly's the "TO" is pained yellow where the other titles are white. What is up with this?

On the bottom there are always messages. I am sure these automatically changed at one point but now they all seam static and don't change. Maybe they don't work and they manually set the message. Any insight?

What does the control input look like? Is it manually by the station for each train, is it automatic (places like philly also have digital display boards and am wondering are they somehow connected)? Is there a "master control" that can be used for "program"?

This was just some things that popped into my mind and was curious. Next time I am in Philly (which hopefully will be NTD), I am going to take a closer look.

A few answers....The one at Penn Station - New York was there at least from the late sixties when the rebuilt station was completed. Not sure if it was installed in the old station prior to that or not.

Believe they originally had flip clocks, but not certain.

I believe the yellow characters is simply a way to 'highlight' the departure time.

They normally carried a message informing that "Track numbers will be posted 10-15 minutes before departure", or a similar message on the separate arrivals board. They could be changed to any special message that the stationmaster ordered.

They were controlled from a computer terminal by the Train Announcer. They were programmed initially at the advent of each new timetable. They scrolled automatically, chronologically. when the usher gave the ready call to the announcer, he would post the track number and announce the train. The arrivals track would be posted when the announcer received that info on the Tele-autograph from the tower. If a train was delayed, the announcer would have to lock it in manually to prevent it from scrolling out. It took some a lot of training to master...it was not very 'user-friendly' to operate.

 

[railiner]

Whenever I see a Solari Board, I will always smile and be reminded of the late, great, Danny Simmons, Train Announcer, extraordinaire, who was the Voice of Penn Station, New York for decades. I wish I could find some of his famous announcements on You-tube.....

 

[benjibear]

I found some pictures online of the board at Philly in earlier times. Pictures are not mine:

With time on the train board. Notice some of the older train names. The Keystone and the Crescent are the only two that still ran as the same name:

Here is one from 01. Looks like it got the new clock:

 

[CHamilton]

With time on the train board. Notice some of the older train names. The Keystone and the Crescent are the only two that still ran as the same name:

"X2000 on display"! I remember seeing that, and getting some swag -- unfortunately, I have no idea whether I still have it or not.

 

[Texan Eagle]

With time on the train board. Notice some of the older train names. The Keystone and the Crescent are the only two that still ran as the same name:

"X2000 on display"! I remember seeing that, and getting some swag -- unfortunately, I have no idea whether I still have it or not.

"The Mayflower"? Wow that's a beautiful train name. How was it different from other Boston-Washington trains?

And, now that we are in the "future", where are the Swedish X2000 trains of the future?

 

[Acela150]

I found some pictures online of the board at Philly in earlier times. Pictures are not mine:

With time on the train board. Notice some of the older train names. The Keystone and the Crescent are the only two that still ran as the same name:

Here is one from 01. Looks like it got the new clock:

Don't worry I know the photog personally he doesn't have problems with people doing this. He actually likes his images being shared.

OT. The top image is what it used to look like. The old clock is now covered.

The bottom image is the current look. With one minor change. The sign on the bottom now says clubacela located behind stairway one. I believe that clock was installed in 1995 or 96.

This board is a true classic. But the parts are expensive. When the Lynchburg trains comes in the block that should say Lynchburg is left blank because Lynchburg doesn't exist in that system.

 

[Acela150]

Whenever I see a Solari Board, I will always smile and be reminded of the late, great, Danny Simmons, Train Announcer, extraordinaire, who was the Voice of Penn Station, New York for decades. I wish I could find some of his famous announcements on You-tube.....

What a voice!

 

[railiner]

Whenever I see a Solari Board, I will always smile and be reminded of the late, great, Danny Simmons, Train Announcer, extraordinaire, who was the Voice of Penn Station, New York for decades. I wish I could find some of his famous announcements on You-tube.....

Thanks so much for finding and posting that link. I had the high privilege to learn the NYP Train Announcer craft from The Master, himself. Wish he was still wtih us, but that recording does help preserve his memory. Thanks again.

 

[TCRT]

And, now that we are in the "future", where are the Swedish X2000 trains of the future?

We have the TGV/LRC hybrid Acela equipment instead - ABB (the maker of the X2000) was one of three qualified bidders for that process, and lost to Bombardier/Alstom.