Philadelphia 30th Street Station Flip-Flap Board

skyscraper · #1 Posted **Dec 12, 2018, 1:23 PM**

Can someone please explain the desire to preserve this thing? I don't get it.

https://www.phillyvoice.com/30th-str...not-be-doomed/

Busy Bee · #2 Posted **Dec 12, 2018, 2:57 PM**

For the same reason that some weirdos thought it was a good idea to hang on to antique automobiles or to not throw every single working primitive computer in the landfill. Do you really not understand why something like this is worth saving? For clarity, are you differentiating between preserving the board at a museum and saving it in place in the station?

skyscraper · #3 Posted **Dec 12, 2018, 3:08 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Busy Bee

For the same reason that some weirdos thought it was a good idea to hang on to antique automobiles or to not throw every single working primitive computer in the landfill. Do you really not understand why something like this is worth saving? For clarity, are you differentiating between preserving the board at a museum and saving it in place in the station?

I really do not understand why this is worth saving.

If it must be preserved, fine, put it in a museum, but I don't think it is even worth that. There's nothing "historic" about it. It was put there in the 1970s as a technological upgrade. Now it is an anachronism. The spirit of this thing is to be able to provide information in the most efficient way possible to the greatest number of people. Let's keep doing that with computer screens and whatever other technology they'll use in the future, not keep antiquated boards around for their kitsch value.
They had the same type of board at Penn Station in NY, and when they went to replace it with computer screens, there was a similar attempt to keep it. It failed, and now there are screens all over the station of all sizes that disseminate the information much faster and better. No one misses the flip flap board there now.

Busy Bee · #4 Posted **Dec 12, 2018, 3:23 PM**

Which is why I asked if you meant preserved in the station or preserved in a museum. It's no going to be special to everyone - hardly anything is. Maybe 2 of 3 people care about art for example and that's a maybe. That being said, there are a lot of people, anyone that would appreciate mechanical engineering, computers and for sure railfans, that this thing is like the Turing Machine to.

skyscraper · #5 Posted **Dec 12, 2018, 3:35 PM**

Let's keep it in a museum then, so that when the impending socialist revolution comes, and all knowledge is lost, people will dig it out of the rubble in decades to come and wonder what it was used for.
I wonder what they would make of it.

Busy Bee · #6 Posted **Dec 12, 2018, 3:46 PM**

What a smart comment

NikolasM · #7 Posted **Dec 12, 2018, 4:49 PM**

Well I for one am hopeful that the socialist revolution will bring a newfound commitment to trains. I hope we spend trillions building a true nationwide network of high speed rail. And all signs better be this click clack flip flap style.

Londonee · #8 Posted **Dec 12, 2018, 6:26 PM**

A mod should just delete this thread.

Busy Bee · #9 Posted **Dec 12, 2018, 6:45 PM**

Or a mod could just delete back to the ridiculous comment about socialism and rubble or some nonsense, everything before that was intelligent.