A station clock is a

clock A clock or a timepiece is a device used to measure and indicate time. The clock is one of the oldest human inventions, meeting the need to measure intervals of time shorter than the natural units such as the day, the lunar month and ...

at a

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in Track (rail transport), tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the ...

that provides a standard indication of time to both passengers and railway staff. A railway station will often have several station clocks. They can be found in a

clock tower Clock towers are a specific type of structure which house a turret clock and have one or more clock faces on the upper exterior walls. Many clock towers are freestanding structures but they can also adjoin or be located on top of another buildi ...

, in the booking hall or office, on the

concourse A concourse is a place where pathways or roads meet, such as in a hotel, a convention center, a railway station, an airport terminal, a hall, or other space. The term is not limited to places where there are literally pathways or roadways or t ...

, inside a

train shed A train shed is a building adjacent to a station building where the tracks and platforms of a railway station are covered by a roof. It is also known as an overall roof. Its primary purpose is to store and protect from the elements train car ...

, on or facing the station platforms, or elsewhere.

Design

The design of station clocks in Europe was formerly quite diverse. Today, the majority of them are derived from the Swiss railway clock designed by

Hans Hilfiker Hans Hilfiker (15 September 1901 – 2 March 1993) was a Swiss engineer and designer. In 1944, working for the Swiss Federal Railways, he designed the Swiss railway clock, which became an international icon. The SBB clock was not the only contr ...

, a Swiss engineer, in 1944 when he was an employee of the

Swiss Federal Railways Swiss Federal Railways (german: link=no, Schweizerische Bundesbahnen, ''SBB''; french: link=no, Chemins de fer fédéraux suisses, ''CFF''; it, Ferrovie federali svizzere, ''FFS'') is the national railway company of Switzerland. It is usuall ...

. In 1953, Hilfiker added a red second hand to its design in the shape of a railway guard's signaling disc. The technical implementation of the railway clock, the central synchronization by a master clock, was engineered together with Mobatime, a clock manufacturer still producing the Swiss railway clock as well as the German railway clock besides many others. Modern European station standard station clock designs have a white

clock face A clock face is the part of an analog clock (or watch) that displays time through the use of a flat dial with reference marks, and revolving pointers turning on concentric shafts at the center, called hands. In its most basic, globally recogn ...

that is illuminated in the dark, bar shaped black coloured marks or scales, but no numbers, at the periphery of the clock face dial, and bar-shaped hour and minute hands, also coloured black. The second hand on these standard designs is a thin bar, thickened or fitted with a disc at the peripheral end, and often coloured red. Such clock designs are easily legible from a distance.

Examples

File:Clock in Kings Cross.jpg, King's Cross, London File:Hamburg HBF Uhr 02 (RaBoe).jpg,

Hamburg Hauptbahnhof Hamburg Hauptbahnhof (abbrev. ''Hamburg Hbf'') is the main railway station of the city of Hamburg, Germany. Opened in 1906 to replace four separate terminal stations, today Hamburg Hauptbahnhof is operated by DB Station&Service AG. With an aver ...

File:Gare de Lyon xCRW 1311.jpg, Gare de Lyon, Paris File:2010-10-13-london-by-RalfR-046.jpg, Waterloo, London File:LindauBahnhof1.jpg, Round face, with curved pointers. File:Bürk Außenuhr.JPG, Square face, with straight edged pointers. File:LindauBahnhof3.jpg, Modern German station clock next to

split-flap display A split-flap display, or sometimes simply a flap display, is a digital electromechanical display device that presents changeable alphanumeric text, and occasionally fixed graphics. Often used as a public transport timetable in airports or ...

board. File:Heidelberg Hbf Uhr.jpg, Customised design File:Bahnhofsuhr Aarau.jpg, Aarau station clock with a 9 m diameter File:BahnhofsuhrZuerich RZ.jpg, Swiss railway clock, the "mother" of the modern railway clocks File:Stationsklok Antwerpen Centraal.jpg, Belgium File:Bahnsteiguhr.jpg, Classic German DB station clock File:Den Haag Hollands spoor.JPG, Dutch NS station clock File:Jakarta MRT Station Clock.jpg, Jakarta MRT station clock

References

Notes

Bibliography

External links

Railway Station Clocks - Architecture of Time
{{Rail tracks Clocks