USA - railways, public transport, services and incidents (merged posts)

[whole diary]

[ellendune]

Don't USA cities have a lot more autonomy, both in planning and finance, than their UK^▸ (United Kingdom) equivalents? It might be interesting to compare the geology as well.

Local Authorities almost everywhere have more more autonomy, both in planning and finance, than their UK equivalents!

I remember explaining to someone in a European local authority the powers of the Welsh Assembly (when it was first formed) and he was amazed that his local authority had more pwers than that!

[Lee]

Officials say the Solari board has grown obsolete. The removal is part of a modernization plan for the station - https://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/ap/article-6634307/Last-stop-train-stations-flipping-departures-board.html

[Red Squirrel]

Did anyone else detect a not-so-subtle bias in that article? The close-up photo shows departures running 3hrs and 90 mins late, whilst the wide shot shows a long list of trains that are 'On time' or 'Boarding'...

[Clan Line]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-us-canada-47066018/polar-vortex-fire-used-to-melt-ice-on-chicago-train-tracks

Hope they haven't got creosoted wooden sleepers !

[broadgage]

It would never be allowed over here. The designer trainers worn by trespassers could be damaged !

We used to have gas heated points in the UK^▸ (United Kingdom), and some may still exist, usually worked from propane bottles beside the track, but sometimes mains gas was used.
I don't recall the UK types producing large luminous flames, small blue flames that were not noticed unless specifically looked for.

Theft of the gas bottles was a major problem, or explosion thereof if fire broke out from some un-related cause.

[Bmblbzzz]

A quick google says the minimum temperature ever recorded in the UK^▸ (United Kingdom) was -27.2°C on 30 December 1995. Even -5 is rare enough. Somewhat different from Chicago.

[Bmblbzzz]

The second photo makes it look as if the board is obscuring the ornate columns (sorry, not sure if they're Corinthian, Ionic or Doric!) but from the third shot it's clear they're not. Anyway, my view is that it's just an information board and if there are now better ways of displaying that information (complying with the ADA) then the best place for fans of old tech to see the board is in a museum.

[grahame]

I confess - I'm sad to see the Solari / flipping boards go; I remember seeing them as a new wonder in Euston in - what - the 1960s, with the magic appearance of train as all the leaf sections in a column started to flip and in a handful of seconds most of them had stopped ... others carrying on till the column was complete leaving, magically, a complete train.   And then, as trains departed, the left most column cleared and each of the others moves / flipped up in turn.    I believe they replaced even older punched card / technical systems - vague recollections of those at Victoria, with a wooden walkway along the front, fenced off almost like a church pew in which the team operating the board scurried up and down pulling levels and placing cards to rotate slats showing station names high above to passenger looking for their trains.

[bobm]

I can remember watching them flipping over and catching a brief glimpse of a station name where regular services no longer called before settling on the correct information.

[Richard Fairhurst]

For those with a yen for such things, I built this a good few years ago: http://www.charlbury.info/departures/

It requires Flash so won't work on phones, and indeed most desktop browsers will be sniffy these days. Like the Philly one, it's due to be decommissioned in the next day or so. (I'm moving the Charlbury website to a new server.)

But there do appear to be a few open-source Javascript implementations - grahame, are you tempted to rig one up to your lovely new departure boards here? 

[Red Squirrel]

...not sure if they're Corinthian, Ionic or Doric

Emphatically Corinthian.

I'll never forget walking into a London terminus some time in the early 80's, a little later and possibly worse for wear and tear than I should have been, and watching such a board tick a few times and then change from being full of detail that I had not had time to digest to completely and resolutely blank. Quite dispiriting.

[grahame]

For those with a yen for such things, I built this a good few years ago: http://www.charlbury.info/departures/

It requires Flash so won't work on phones, and indeed most desktop browsers will be sniffy these days. Like the Philly one, it's due to be decommissioned in the next day or so. (I'm moving the Charlbury website to a new server.)

Good luck with the move

But there do appear to be a few open-source Javascript implementations - grahame, are you tempted to rig one up to your lovely new departure boards here? 

Tempted ... but Javascript isn't my thing and I don't want to mix up the passenger-useful facilities in a heritage wrapper.  I would be more tempted to chain the departure boards, but really I have too much on my plate for the next three weeks.

[JayMac]

Emphatically Corinthian.

Yes, the column's capitals do suggest Corinthian. Which is a shame for my intended pun.

Isn't it Ionic? So sang Alanis Morrisette.

[ellendune]

We have the benefit that nowhere in the UK^▸ (United Kingdom) is very far from the sea, which removes some of the cold temperature extremes.

[stuving]

I was thinking about where I've seen any recently, and the obvious answer is France - SNCF^▸ (Societe Nationale des Chemins de fer Francais - French National Railways) made something of a feature of them in their stations, usually up on the wall over the door to the platforms. But I'm struggling to find out how many bigger ones have been removed so far - Montparnasse came down in 2017, St Lazare had a big renovation not long ago and I suspect lost its one, but Gare du Nord may well be there still (someone must have been there last year). I was sure Nantes still had one in September, but I find my memory was wrong again (and it would have gone once the current rebuild is finished anyway).