Earl's Court Info

[Deleted]

Not sure whether to add this to the historical bit or the District Line bit but could anyone tell us why Earl's Court has kept its old "next train" indicator boards for so long? You'd think the hub of the line would have been fitted with new ones long ago, won't you? Mind you, I'm not complaining - they are familiar old friends by now, I guess.

[Christopher J]

As far as I'm aware, they're listed.

[Deleted]

Thanks for that - I'm quite relieved, I think, as I'd miss them if they went.

[Deleted]

christopherjolly said:

As far as I'm aware, they're listed.

And they _work_.

Honestly, I can't remember the last time they ever broke, went OOS or were bagged over due to vandalism. They just _work_.

[Chris M]

If only that key design principle were applied to more things these days.

[q8]

AFAIA Those indicators still have the old district destinations on the reverse of the blank plates. You could still see Hounslow etc, in the late 60's

[citysig]

One of the main reasons why they still have those old boards, is down to the fact that the old kit used to control them is still used as well. Some of the equipment in Earl's Court Control Room is older than the platform describers - and I'm not just referring to the staff ;D

[q8]

- and I'm not just referring to the staff ;D
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Even though they are geriatric, decrepit and dysfunctional.

[Deleted]

aetearlscourt once likened Earls Court SCC to the old Line Controller's Office for the DR in the early 1900s!

[Colin]

wimbledonpete said:

Not sure whether to add this to the historical bit or the District Line bit but could anyone tell us why Earl's Court has kept its old "next train" indicator boards for so long? You'd think the hub of the line would have been fitted with new ones long ago, won't you? Mind you, I'm not complaining - they are familiar old friends by now, I guess.

As already mentioned, they are listed.
There are plans to install dot matrix indicators at three points along each platform (whilst retaining the old describers in full working condition) - though there some issue's at the moment. One of the problems is that often trains are routed into platforms at the last moment or destinations are altered when the train is already at the platform. The whole point of the dot matrix system is to indicate not only where the next train is going, but how far away it is in terms of time. All this last minute stuff can make the system pretty useless. For example, you could have an Ealing train 2 minutes away at Gloucester Road, but can't display it until you know wether it's going into platform 3 or 4. Similarly - you can have a wimbledon train at High St, but might want to slip a train into plat 4 from Gloucester Road first.

So realistically, as a punter on the platform - the information you see on the dot matrix will be no improvement over the current boards.

[Chris W]

q8 said:

AFAIA Those indicators still have the old district destinations on the reverse of the blank plates. You could still see Hounslow etc, in the late 60's

Have been at Earls Court with my g'friend a couple times today (just passing through of course ). Ok I'm probably gonna seem a little silly (so what's the change there then I hear you all say in unison ;D )) in saying this but the blanking plates now appear to be solid metal & it is impossible to see any legacy/former destinations.

Were the original destination plates left in situ & covered with blanking plates or were they binned

[Harsig]

cjw said:

q8 said:

AFAIA Those indicators still have the old district destinations on the reverse of the blank plates. You could still see Hounslow etc, in the late 60's

Have been at Earls Court with my g'friend a couple times today (just passing through of course ). Ok I'm probably gonna seem a little silly (so what's the change there then I hear you all say in unison ;D )) in saying this but the blanking plates now appear to be solid metal & it is impossible to see any legacy/former destinations.

Were the original destination plates left in situ & covered with blanking plates or were they binned

I think the answer is, and this is what I understood Q8 to mean, is that the original destination plates were turned round so that the blank rear side is now on display to the public, the original destination now only being visible if you actually remove the destination plate from the Describer.

[Harsig]

colin said:

One of the problems is that often trains are routed into platforms at the last moment or destinations are altered when the train is already at the platform. The whole point of the dot matrix system is to indicate not only where the next train is going, but how far away it is in terms of time. All this last minute stuff can make the system pretty useless. For example, you could have an Ealing train 2 minutes away at Gloucester Road, but can't display it until you know wether it's going into platform 3 or 4. Similarly - you can have a wimbledon train at High St, but might want to slip a train into plat 4 from Gloucester Road first.

So realistically, as a punter on the platform - the information you see on the dot matrix will be no improvement over the current boards.

The only effective solution to this sort of problem that I've come across is the system in use on the Met platforms at Baker St. In this case in addition to screens on each platform showing the destination and stopping pattern for the next train at that platform there are also departure listing screens dotted about the platforms and concourse, which list the destinations of the next few departures from all platforms along with the usual estimate of time before departure. These latter screens only show which platform each train will actually call at once the matter is beyond doubt but at least it lets the passengers know roughly how long they will have to wait long before the decision is made as to which platform the train will actually depart from. Having said all that these screens are fed from a computer which has some idea where all these trains are. Creating a similar system for Earls Court where the only information likely to be available is from the existing train describer system would almost certainly be more challenging.