Tim Fenton wrote:

Yes, they'd expect you to catch an IC - would that be one of the Koploper
worked ones that terminate at Schiphol?

I believe so, but those were off that weekend. During the day there
was an express bus, but not at 06ugh in the morning. That said, a
half-hourly service first thing on a Sunday morning is an example to
the UK...

The Stoptrein would be presumably marked for somewhere like Hilversum or
Duivendrecht perhaps (sorry anyone if I got the route wrong, this is from
memory). I think this is the one that carries on to den Haag HS and beyond.

It was to Leiden Centraal, but I think Hilversum was as far as the
Solari display went. I knew (more or less) it was the right train as I
had a HAFAS "all stops" printout, but it was still slightly
nerve-racking, given that a complete screw-up would have meant a missed
flight and probably over a grand to get the whole group (of 10) back to
the UK. I ended up checking at the ticket office, which fortunately
(and surprisingly) was open.

Nonetheless, a number of the group were somewhat surprised when I
explained that it was a quirk of the mainland European railways at
times, and you sometimes had to know these things, and to just believe
me that it was the right train...

The advantage of new technology is that you can do things that you couldn't
with old technology (but may not be arsed so to do).

A very good point - the mainland European railways can be very
conservative at times, NS being no exception. DB's (there are some at
Hamburg Hbf) are similarly poor, and aren't even as readable as the old
flap displays. I wonder if Krone, Solari etc have given up making
flapboards so they had to make the transition to monitors under duress?

Neil