I'd say that Putney, which used to be my local station, may well have been one of the last stations to retain manually operated platform indicator boards listing the calling points of the next train. I seem to recall that they were still in use in the late 1980s and maybe even in the early '90s.
Putney station has two outer platforms and a central island platform. In BR days the outer platforms were rarely used except by the odd peak hour train. The Waterloo-bound side of the central platform had boards that were stored vertically in a box and a member of staff would insert the appropriate board into a slot marked "Next train", and the Down side had boards that were pulled down by pulling a lever.
Does anyone remember seeing these at any other stations as late as that, or even later? I think both types of board are still used on some heritage railways.
At least on the Southern Region most stations had their manual boards replaced by mini Solari boards in the 1980s, but Putney never did.
You can see one of those boards that were inserted into a slot 2 minutes 17 seconds into this clip from the last day of operation on the Sanderstead-Elmers End line at
and right at the end of this clip, also from the last day of the Selsdon line:
See also this now closed thread on mini Solari boards at https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/mini-solari-boards-on-platforms.119089/ and this one on Solari boards at main stations at https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/solari-boards.201063
Putney station has two outer platforms and a central island platform. In BR days the outer platforms were rarely used except by the odd peak hour train. The Waterloo-bound side of the central platform had boards that were stored vertically in a box and a member of staff would insert the appropriate board into a slot marked "Next train", and the Down side had boards that were pulled down by pulling a lever.
Does anyone remember seeing these at any other stations as late as that, or even later? I think both types of board are still used on some heritage railways.
At least on the Southern Region most stations had their manual boards replaced by mini Solari boards in the 1980s, but Putney never did.
You can see one of those boards that were inserted into a slot 2 minutes 17 seconds into this clip from the last day of operation on the Sanderstead-Elmers End line at
See also this now closed thread on mini Solari boards at https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/mini-solari-boards-on-platforms.119089/ and this one on Solari boards at main stations at https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/solari-boards.201063
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