Solari Departure Boards

[Jen1]

I am trying to find out what the first instance of a Solari Departure board (also known as split-flap display or flap display) was in the UK - whether it was a train station or an airport. I wonder whether anyone can help? I believe that the first example in an airport is Glasgow Airport in 1966, but may well be wrong. Does anyone know whether there was a Solari Departure board in a train station before this date? Would be most grateful for any ideas. I have been in touch with the company in Italy who are looking into it but I'm not too hopeful...

Many thanks,

Jennifer.

[WHBM]

I think (memory only) that the first one in a UK train station may have been at London Euston when the reconstruction was finished about 1970. Large railway stations had previously had substantial displays which were manually set and took a good few staff to operate - the old wooden one that went from London Waterloo in the early 1970s when the Solari display was introduced there turned up, much to my amazement, at the Victoria Station theme restaurant in Los Angeles, California, a few years later.

Railway boards are much more complex than typical airport ones because they have to show a large number of stations for each train, hence they use a vertical format rather than a typical airport horizontal one.

The one at Charing Cross station through the 1970s/80s had displays on the bottom flaps of "Delayed due to" followed by a flap set with a whole range of excuses "Weather", "Staff shortage", "Vandalism", "Leaves on the line" and many others, and would cause much amusement as they cycled round.

[Captain Capstan]

From memory I believe that what is now terminal 1 at Manchester had them when it opened in 1962.

[philbky]

Captain Capstan is correct. The first winter of the "new" terminal was the "bad" winter of 1962/3 and the terminal became the haunt of many an enthusiast as diversions from Heathrow were almost a daily occurrence.

Abiding memories from that winter of the clicking flaps along with the smell of the ribbed floor tiles and the bluish light from above the chandeliers.

[Dysag]

Have you ever tried to explain "leaves on the line" to a fellow European?

You'd get a mystified stare with a comment like "vee cut zee trees away from zee line".

[WHBM]

Have you ever tried to explain "leaves on the line" to a fellow European?

You'd get a mystified stare with a comment like "vee cut zee trees away from zee line".
Actually I do have an explanation, being one of the few here on PPRuNe with background in railway as well as airport construction. It's a salutary lesson for aviation about how problems creep up on you.

Way back in time, the grass at the side of the railway was always kept short by the track maintenance crews, as otherwise during dry summers it would catch fire from the sparks from steam locomotives. These latter disappeared in the late 1950s/early 1960s, and an obvious economy when maintenance budgets were tight (as they always were when it was a nationalised business) was not to keep the grass cut back, for it involved a lot of effort. So the grass grew long, then small bushes established, then small trees, which became bigger trees. Move forward a generation and the railway is lined with trees which shed their leaves in wet autumns and cause all sorts of problems with the grip on the track.

Meanwhile those who live backing on to the railway liked the trees which now shielded them from train noise and would start vigorous campaigns at any suggestion of cutting them all down, so what with the now substantial cost of doing this, it gets delayed and not done. The problem gets worse each year. Comparison photographs of railway lines taken 30-40 years ago and the same place nowadays really bring out the point.

London Underground, by the nature of their system, don't have the problem so much, but they did in a few places, such as the outer reaches of the Metropolitan Line (usual story, steam trains finished there about 1960, autumn leaves became a real problem after about 1990). They did a very substantial tree-felling programme and dealt with it once and for all, ignoring the complaints from the lineside dwellers.

Don't laugh at Leaves on the Line, by the way. Too many railway employees have been killed in a variety of incidents and accidents caused by it for railway professional staff to see the joke. And we saw an estimate that about 50 road users each year are killed in Britain in road accidents caused by lack of grip brought about by leaf-fall.

[Opssys]

Jennifer.
Whilst Solari Boards were (in my opinion) the best of breed they were not the only manufacturer (for professional reasons I was looking into the matter in the mid-1970's), I have a feeling (and I have tried to find out and failed) that there were non-Solari built systems at Railways Stations some years prior to 1966 that were electro-mechanical. How control of the display was achieved I don't know (I was old enough to be fascinated, too young to get someone to tell me how it was done).
I would be surprised if Heathrow was not an early adopter of these types of display. an email to the BAA PR Department may just get some result.

Aside to WHBM:
Whilst I heard why the leaves on the line had become a problem and that the cost of dealing with it was the (only) reason it was NOT normally tackled. But I never considered the reverse NIMBY factor, or the actual safety implications to rail workers. It might not be Aviation, but well worth knowing. Thank you

[Capot]

Back to the thread, in a way..............

I was looking at Wiki for information about the patent date, when I came across this little nugget;

the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massachusetts_Bay_Transportation_Authority) has specifically designed the new LCD replacements for its aging Solari boards at North Station (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Station) and South Station (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Station) to emit an electronically generated flapping noise to cue passengers to train boarding updates.

Somehow, that appeals to me as a triumph for good communications. I bet there were some 30-something hotshots who ridiculed the idea, though. Full marks to those who made it happen.