by jamesinclair
I believe Alewfie still has the light up signs - they just dont light up.
Railroad Forums
Moderators: sery2831, CRail
boblothrope wrote:At terminals like Alewife, where trains lay over at the platform, what determines when the starting bell rings? Is it automatic on a timer, or does someone in a control center do it?The bells ring off automatically, but the line's Dispatcher can take control over them either preventing it from ringing if a train is to be held, or ringing it sending a train out at a time a trip wasn't scheduled. The "Next Train" signs at Alewife are still there, they just don't use them anymore for some reason. I was happy when I saw they're still used at Forest Hills.
Even if they know when the bell is going to ring, there's a lot of uncertainty in how long it will be until the train actually leaves. Which affects when the outbound train(s) waiting in the tunnel will arrive at Alewife.
At Alewife, these signs will also indirectly tell passengers which train is leaving first, since either Ashmont or Braintree will be listed first.
It's no fun to guess wrong when there are trains parked on both tracks. Train operators hardly ever make an announcement before they close the doors and go. There used to be light-up "Next Train" signs (and still are at Forest Hills), but they were removed a few years ago.
BostonUrbEx wrote: Bowdoin already has countdowns. Even just saw them 5 minutes ago. It displays BRD when an eastbound is boarding. I don't believe it counts down for terminating westbound trains, just the originating eastbounds.Ok, I guess it just wasn't listed due to the station's being closed on Monday.
CRail wrote:The "Next Train" signs at Alewife are still there, they just don't use them anymore for some reason.The sign assemblies are still there, but the panels now say "Ashmont/Braintree ->" rather than "Next Train ->".
boblothrope wrote:Right, but theres one on each side, so if "Ashmont" on the right is lit up, it would be fair to say thats where you want to be.CRail wrote:The "Next Train" signs at Alewife are still there, they just don't use them anymore for some reason.The sign assemblies are still there, but the panels now say "Ashmont/Braintree ->" rather than "Next Train ->".
jamesinclair wrote:If the signs worked like that, the vast majority of passengers would have no idea what they meant.boblothrope wrote: The sign assemblies are still there, but the panels now say "Ashmont/Braintree ->" rather than "Next Train ->".Right, but theres one on each side, so if "Ashmont" on the right is lit up, it would be fair to say thats where you want to be.
The EGE wrote:Every station I've seen so far has had trains in one direction only on each sign. However, Airport has trains in both directions on all signs:I assume it has something to do with how they're wired. The same is true for Back Bay where all signs show both directions and the opposite is true at State where the joint Devonshire entrance only shows Forest Hills trains..
The EGE wrote:I'm really curious if they'll have the display set to rotate through several views at the Green Line stations. At Copley to Government Center, you need a minimum of four slots for the 4 different destinations, and 3 lots at Hynes and Kenmore. The signs seem only able to display 2 slots at once.Rotation should be trivial.
jamesinclair wrote:I would hope so, but I know nothing about the displays. Ultimately, I would hope that the downtown Green Line and transfer stations will get larger boards in select locations showing a larger number of trains. In the early years, Park Street used to have a large board on the westbound platform showing the berths for the next trains to three dozen different locations. A modern large board (i.e, a large flatscreen TV) could show the next two trains to each of the terminals, and perhaps the number of cars per train (like the DC metro does).The EGE wrote:I'm really curious if they'll have the display set to rotate through several views at the Green Line stations. At Copley to Government Center, you need a minimum of four slots for the 4 different destinations, and 3 lots at Hynes and Kenmore. The signs seem only able to display 2 slots at once.Rotation should be trivial.