Hungary: Solari split-flap train arrival/departure board at Gyor railway station

Hungary: A Solari split-flap departure board is seen in operation at Gyor railway station.
Recorded 1 September 2023.
-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
A split-flap display, or sometimes simply flap display, is an electromechanical display device that presents changeable alphanumeric text, and occasionally fixed graphics.

Often used as a public transport timetable in airports or railway stations, as such they are often called Solari boards after display manufacturer Solari di Udine from Udine, Italy, or in Central European countries they are called Pragotron after the Czech manufacturer.

Split-flap displays were once commonly used at consumer scale in devices known as flip clocks. It is also used as a connected device to social media platforms like Flapit.

Each character position or graphic position has a collection of flaps on which the characters or graphics are painted or silkscreened. These flaps are precisely rotated to show the desired character or graphic. These displays are often found in railway stations and airports, where they typically display departure or arrival information, although digital equivalents are far more common now.

Sometimes the flaps are large and display whole words, and in other installations there are several smaller flaps, each displaying a single character. The former method is limited to the words it can display on the flaps, while the latter system is not, and output messages can be changed without the need for the addition or replacement of flaps, although images cannot. In the example image on the right, the destinations in the centre of the picture are split into characters, while the messages left and right of these occupy one flap each.

During a power loss or disruption the display will freeze. At first this may be an advantage because the information is still correct. When the information becomes outdated it might be worse than no information.

Flip-dot displays and LED display boards may be used instead of split-flap displays in most applications. Their output can be varied more easily (by reprogramming instead of replacement of physical parts in the case of graphics) but they suffer from lower readability. They also can refresh more quickly, as a split-flap display often must cycle through many states.
-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
Győr is the most important city of northwest Hungary, the capital of Győr-Moson-Sopron county and Western Transdanubia region, and — halfway between Budapest and Vienna — situated on one of the important roads of Central Europe. The city is the sixth largest in Hungary, and one of the seven main regional centres of the country.

The area along the Danube River has been inhabited by varying cultures since ancient times. The first large settlement dates back to the 5th century BCE; the inhabitants were Celts. They called the town Arrabona, a name that was used for eight centuries; its shortened form is still used as the German (Raab) and Slovak (Ráb) names of the city.

Roman merchants moved to Arrabona during the 1st century BCE. Around 10 CE, the Roman army occupied the northern part of Western Hungary, which they called Pannonia. Although the Roman Empire abandoned the area in the 4th century due to constant attacks by the tribes living to the east, the town remained inhabited.

Around 500 the territory was settled by Slavs, in 547 by the Lombards, and in 568-c.800 by the Avars, at that time under Frankish and Slavic influence. Between 880 and 894, it was part of Great Moravia, and then briefly under East Frankish dominance.

Győr is the home of the Győri ETO Sport Club, which has many sport divisions. The most popular sport in the city is handball, with the Győri ETO KC being the city’s main team. Győri ETO FC is a football team.
-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
Hungarian State Railways (Hungarian: Magyar Államvasutak or MÁV) is the Hungarian national railway company, with divisions “MÁV START Zrt.” (passenger transport), “MÁV-Gépészet Zrt.” (maintenance) and “MÁV-Trakció Zrt.”. The “MÁV Cargo Zrt” (freight transport) is sold for ÖBB. The head office is in Budapest.

In Budapest, the three main railway stations are the Eastern (Keleti), Western (Nyugati) and Southern (Déli), with other outlying stations like Kelenföld. Of the three, the Southern is the most modern but the Eastern and the Western are more decorative and architecturally interesting.
-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
@FrontCompVids – Follow us on Twitter!
More FrontCompVids clips are regularly added to so don’t forget to Like and Subscribe!
Click http://www.youtube.com/user/FrontComp… for more details.