Tom Anderson wrote:
On Sun, 28 May 2006, Neil Williams wrote:

Tom Anderson wrote:

That seems really quite perverse. Is there a reason for all this?

Yes. It's because the clocks (like the standard BR/NSE 8-segment
ones) are centrally controlled. However, to make things simpler, a
control pulse is only sent once every minute (thus moving the minute
hand on) rather than once every second. Thus, the second hand is on a
local motor, and to ensure it doesn't get out of sync it's set to go
around in about 58 seconds rather than a complete minute.

Bloody hell; that really is a twisted, Heath-Robinson, arse-backwards
piece of engineering. Presumably, the Swiss railway subcontracted its
clocks to British engineers!

Actually, having guessed that was how they worked from this description
(never having been there), I was thinking to myself what a clever piece
of engineering this is. It is essentially a digital hours and minutes
clock with a second hand "for show". Now where can I get one of the BR
digital ones that seem to be becoming quite scarce? When I was younger,
my family would quite often get the 20.05 off Rochester station, and I
always loved watching them tick over from 19.59.59. Also the pattern of
loud and quiet ticks depending on number. I will always remember the
TIC TIC tic TIC TIC tic TIC TIC tic clatter.

Robin