Liverpool Street Solari

[Zoe]

When Liverpool Street station was refurbished in the early 1990s a new Solari departure board was installed. Does anyone know why it was decided to install a Solari when more modern technology would have been available? It only lasted about fifteen years so installing it did seem a bit of a waste although the 1999 plasma screens at Paddington did even worse, lasting only five years before getting replaced by a dot matrix system.

 

[yorksrob]

They should have stuck with the Solari IMO.

They seemed a lot easier to see and the clackety-clack noise warned you that a train might be about to come up.

 

[317666]

I remember the Solari at Liverpool Street - where the dot matrix repeater boards are on the platforms, TV-style screens were installed there and I believe remained until the Solari was replaced in 2005-ish.

 

[iphone76]

I preferred the old boards. I could see which platform I needed without glasses. Also, in times of disruption, the red cancellation signs could be seen from a distance, so I could turn around and head to the pub!

 

[Waddon]

If you want to be reminded of the old departure board at Liverpool Street, just rent the first 'Mission Impossible' film, also you can see Tom Cruise at the old phones beneath the stairs (that area has now been closed off)
Always found it amusing that he is in a practically empty station concourse and the clock says something like 6.30pm...