[PRCo] quick reply...The Clock

[robert simpson]

I once resided in Germany and remember that each hour the radio stations also broadcast a series of five (I think) "beeps" and the last "beep" was exactly when the second-hand crossed 12.  Don't know how they synchronized all the clocks but they did.  Each station of the U-Bahn or the S-Bahn had schedules posted and the trains were precisely on-time.
   
  In those days (1980's),  they had an honor system when you purchased a ticket from a machine but it wasn't collected.  Periodically, however, a team would enter the cars and politely ask to see their tickets.  No ticket resulted in an immediate fine (rather substantial).
   
  Bob
  
Fred Schneider <fwschneider at comcast.net> wrote:
  The note is called thinking out loud or planting ideas.

We can get ideas in the strangest of places. This afternoon I was 
watching a children's show on PBS. The subject was watches and time 
and clocks. The skit started with the actor being asked what time 
is it. He pulled up his sleeve and asked where? New York? 
Chicago? Los Angeles? London? He had watches set for 
everywhere. Digital watches. Analog watches. A sand clock that 
didn't work very well because he had to turn his arm upside-down 
every three minutes.

Do you have any idea where I'm leading you all?

No?

Many of our guests in trolley museums have no idea that trolleys ran 
on tracks. They have no idea that than use electric motors. They 
have no idea that they get the power from a wire overhead.

They don't know that you have to pay a fare to ride because they do it.

And it just occurred to me this afternoon that most ever saw a 
schedule. Most do not understand the relationship between a 
timetable and a clock.

Now do you know where I'm going with this?

I've included the Pittsburgh Railways web site because some of those 
guys are museum members. Some interested. Some may want to help.

I'm think how train stations in Europe always have platform clocks. 
I think Swiss Federal Railways may have even linked all the station 
clocks in the entire country together because I've never found them 
to deviate by seconds from one another. If you are in some of those 
countries like Switzerland or Germany, when the second hand moves to 
the top of its sweep, the train usually starts moving out of the 
station.

Now where do we get a large platform clock to be installed next to 
the platform at Arden (Richfol, and perhaps later moved to the east 
site) so we can show the public (particularly children) how schedules 
and a clock relate?