I love the sound of the flipping train auncement boards on the Northeast Corridor. It gives a rush of adrendline to here those and then see and hear commuters runing with there pravda high heels and bostonian shoes in rythem to the boards and the trains…The new boards dont have that railway station ambiance
I laughed when I read the subject but then got serious. This brings up a subject that has not been addressed before.
The flipping signs immediately notified passengers that there was a change or notice that a train was ready to board or arriving. Now the silent notifications do not alert passengers. Maybe some kind of tone when a silent change to the train board is occurring and maybe a different one for agent announcements should be implemented. Other tone combinations could be used also. This could be along the lines of what is done in Europe.
Will have to think about this more.
Solari boards (they used to be standard in airports, too) have pretty much vanished because of their obsolescence. Consider the amount of moving parts involved and you can see why they were replaced by cathode ray tubes.
http://www.solari.it/index_eng.html & http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solari_departure_board Now we know the NAME of these things[:)] Solari … To think we come from Chalkboards to Solaris to LEDS…Boston South Station has this iritating nonstop clicking sound…I love the Solari Boards because it gives a europeon abiviance to the stations.
They’ve all gone in Britain, not quite sure when but I think over ten years ago. I remember watching them as they changed to see what rare destinations existed, for example Bath at London Victoria, which was served by the occasional special excursion, but not by any regular train.
Mostly LEDs on the big boards now and on many platforms, but also TVs (cathode ray and flat screen).
Thanks, Paul; when I read the previous posts, I could not think of the name, but thought of it as sounding Italian.
In the South, all I ever saw until I made it to the new New Orleans Union Passenger Terminal, was chalkboards, even in the Atlanta Terminal (the chalkboard there had, even into the sixties, a section for Special Trains and Extra Sections; I wonder when it was last used). NOUPT had boards with movable letters.
Johnny
It’s odd, but I don’t have a clear picture in my mind of current practice in Germany. I think some large stations still have flipping train boards but not many. There is a clearly different electronic tone preceding a train arrival announcement.
The Solari board in Boston’s South Station was replaced with an electronic LED-based display this year. The interesting thing is that it is programmed to make an audible “number-flippinng” noise (reminiscent of the sound the old Solari display used to make).
It is amazing to see everyone in the waiting room look up whenever the noise happens. 
I commute daily with the Deutche Bahn across Bayern (Barvaria) and the majority of the trainboards are LED’s even at the smaller stations. I do remember the electro mechanical boards being used about 6-7 years ago.
John
Oh yes, I remember the old Solari board.The most nerve-wracking moments in I’ve had involved waiting for the the Solari Board to finish switching.
If only the new LED board could do that.
Interesting…, the old Solari boards are gone from ry stations in Vienna, afaik, but they still have one on the Vienna airport - but only on the arrival side! So if you go there to meet somebody you are standing amidst a crowd of people watching the 3 large boards that are nearly continuously rattling, at least in the mornings and later afternoons when there are sometimes up to 25 jets scheduled to land within 10 or 15 minutes. On the major railway stations there would be far less of a demand, as the long distance trains are coming or going at a rate of maybe 3 or 4 per hour only. We don’t have a central station (yet) but several termini (as in Paris or London) but traffic volumes appear to be much lower.
I’m glad to report that a “flipping board” is alive, well, and working at the lovely and historic station in New Haven, Connecticut. On a recent Saturday morning as I watched it flip and do all its tricks I noticed at one point 5 trains in the station at once! For many reasons this is a station to visit.
Possibly a correction is in order. As far as I know, Bath is regularly served by stopping passenger trains. What you probably meant was Bath as a terminal destination. I recall going to and from Bath by train from London. Bath is worth a visit, a very historic small city with many historic and beautiful buildings.
I, too, miss the Solari boards. They got your attention! Much better than looking at the CRTs in Chicago’s Union Station, with errors and oughtright lies!
Grand Central Terminal’s “Arrival Tracks”, on the east side of the Terminal, back in New York Central days, had a separate counter with a hand-inscribed chalkboard on the wall. The handwriting of the clerks was a thing-of-beauty! Them daze is gonzo, methinks.
Of course Bath is served by ordinary trains from London, though it is London Paddington (the old Great Western Railway), not London Victoria (Southern Railway, and before that the London Chatham and Dover Railway). Any of course Bath is also served by various trains from other bits of South West England.
Just get on the train to Baltimore Penn Station, Wilmington or 30th Street and you can watch and listen to all the Solari boards you want to.