Amtrak 30th St Solari Board now on display at RRMPA

EJ Berry · **Posted:** Fri Jul 26, 2019 1:25 pm

RR Museum of PA has announced that the Solari Train Information Board from Philadelphia's 30th St. Station is now on display.

It is in Rolling Stock Hall on Platform 5, next to PRR H6sb 2-8-0 2846 but it will not operate because it is on loan. It will be returned to William H. Gray III 30th St. Station if it can be incorporated in planned station redevelopment.

The Solari Board will continue to show its final display from the evening of January 26, 2019.

Phil Mulligan

Randy Musselman · **Posted:** Sun Jul 28, 2019 8:40 am

Hello,

Thank you for posting this!

Regardless of where the 30th Street Solari Board ultimately resides, it is a wonderful piece of railroad history.

At 30th Street , think of the multitudes of passengers that checked it for train status through the years.

For me personally, it brings back good memories of when I traveled via 30th Street when I went to school in Philadelphia and with my work travel in my work career. Couple this with the floor agent who would announce the boarding and destination cities of long distance trains, with his booming voice ringing through the high ceiling halls of 30th Street was a memory of railroad travel as it would have been in its zenith which I carry with me as I enter old age.....wonderful!

It is good the RRM of PA is making the effort to preserve this history!

Regards,

Randy

WVNorthern · **Posted:** Sun Jul 28, 2019 11:37 am

A tv commercial appeared several years ago that was filmed in 30th Street Station and briefly shows the Solari Board in action.

https://www.ispot.tv/ad/72l3/bdo-accoun ... llegations

EJ Berry · **Posted:** Sun Jul 28, 2019 9:39 pm

The popular attraction of a Solari Board was the distinctive flippa flippa sound as it changed displays. As soon as anyone heard it cycling, they had to look up and see what the new display was going to show.

It could add the track for their train, or better still show it was boarding.

The electronic ones are silent when they change displays.

I should add RRMPA also has a chalkboard Train Status Board from Penn Station Newark NJ that has some through trains preprinted on the Board. It's in the entrance lobby.

Having through trains preprinted was common outside the NEC but I recall both North Phila and 30th St had plain chalkboards where the usher manually entered each train as scheduled and manually updated the entries. In a flowing script I should add.

Phil Mulligan

Randy Gustafson · **Posted:** Tue Jul 30, 2019 4:09 pm

That's one of those classic artifacts that looses translation entirely when it sits still and quiet.

That sound.. I'll never forget it. I was fascinated by the darn thing. Even if RRMPA can't run it, or shouldn't run it, there should either be audio or audio-video nearby to explain it because most uninformed visitors will just 'huh' and walk right by it.

The little Aurduino boards include a really neat little audio generator one that does a loop-playback off of a digital MP3 file off a thumb drive and generates a surprisingly good sound (no hiss or static) for under $50 including speaker and power supply, and no moving parts.

p51 · **Posted:** Tue Jul 30, 2019 6:05 pm

Any chance for a photo of the one on display?

Alexander D. Mitchell IV · **Posted:** Tue Jul 30, 2019 7:44 pm

Photo provided by RR Museum of Pa. with their press release.

Thomas Cornillie · **Joined:** Sun Apr 29, 2007 7:19 pm **Posts:** 272

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, NY has a Solari board on display that also operates:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoDYi44xxMU

This person created a controller for reactivating Amtrak surplus Solari components, which were subsequently resold on Ebay:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iGczCSIi90

The sound of the Solari board would be a wonderful addition to the atmosphere of the display hall in Strasburg.

70000 · **Posted:** Wed Feb 26, 2020 8:03 am

This appeared on the BBC website today....
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-51470599

Overmod · **Joined:** Thu May 24, 2012 1:37 pm **Posts:** 2492

Aside from emulated control (which could be coded easily as a college contest) I believe there is at least one 486-based computer system that was developed to drive these boards -- that, itself, is now a technical exhibit. Code should run happily in a VM under Windows 10...

There are 'free' Solari emulators, including one that is tied into Amtrak's current tracking system so it can update displayed times accordingly. Wouldn't be too hard to work up a loop for something like a kiosk display at the exhibit that shows it in use, alternating with the current Amtrak 'system' display with appropriate sound to draw the attention periodically, just like the original...

Bowmore · **Joined:** Tue Jul 12, 2016 6:12 pm **Posts:** 195

Here is one of your very own. It even makes the right sounds.
http://dixielandsoftware.net/Amtrak/solari/index.html