{{Short description|Clock for railway passengers and staff}} [[File:Clock tower, Waterbury Union Station.jpg|thumb|Clock tower with station clock, Waterbury Union Station, Waterbury, Connecticut, USA.]] A '''station clock''' is a clock at a railway station 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, in the booking hall or office, on the concourse, inside a train shed, 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, a Swiss engineer, in 1944 when he was an employee of the Swiss Federal Railways.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.swissworld.org/en/switzerland/swiss_specials/swiss_watches/the_swiss_railway_clock/ |title=Remarkable clocks and watches: the Swiss railway clock |work=swissworld.org |publisher=Presence Switzerland, Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs FDFA |location=Berne, Switzerland |access-date=2014-12-11}}</ref> 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.<ref name=HP>{{cite book |editor=Köbi Gantenbein |title=Die Bahnhofsuhr – Ein Mythos des Designs aus der Schweiz |year=2013 |publisher=Edition Hochparterre |location=Zurich, Switzerland |language=de |url=http://www.hochparterre.ch/publikationen/buecher/edition-hochparterre/shop/artikel/detail/die-bahnhofsuhr/ |access-date=2014-10-19 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141104032826/http://www.hochparterre.ch/publikationen/buecher/edition-hochparterre/shop/artikel/detail/die-bahnhofsuhr/ |archive-date=2014-11-04 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.mobatime.com/references/applications/public-transport.html |title=Mobatime – Swiss Time Systems: References |publisher=MOSER-BAER SA |location=Sumiswald, Bern, Switzerland |access-date=2014-10-19}}</ref>
Modern European station standard station clock designs have a white clock face 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.<ref name=HP/>
==Examples== <gallery caption="Older European station clocks" perrow="4"> File:Clock in Kings Cross.jpg|King's Cross, London File:Hamburg HBF Uhr 02 (RaBoe).jpg|Hamburg Hauptbahnhof File:Gare de Lyon xCRW 1311.jpg| Gare de Lyon, Paris File:2010-10-13-london-by-RalfR-046.jpg|Waterloo, London </gallery> <gallery caption="Modern European station clocks" perrow="4"> 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 board. File:Heidelberg Hbf Uhr.jpg|Customised design {{nowrap|(Heidelberg Hbf)}} File:Bahnhofsuhr Aarau.jpg|Aarau station clock with a 9 m diameter
</gallery> <gallery caption="Modern European standard station clock designs" perrow="4"> File:BahnhofsuhrZuerich RZ.jpg|Swiss railway clock, the "mother" of the modern railway clocks File:Stationsklok Antwerpen Centraal.jpg|Belgium File:Bahnhof Kinding (Altmühltal), Bahnsteiguhr 2007.jpg|Classic German DB station clock File:Den Haag Hollands spoor.JPG|Dutch NS station clock File:001971 - Madrid (4401560583).jpg|Spanish Renfe station clock </gallery>
==See also== {{Portal|Trains}} * Electric clock * Railway time * Standard time
==References== ===Notes=== {{Reflist}}
===Bibliography=== {{refbegin}} *{{cite book|last=Lyman|first=Ian P|title=Railway Clocks|year=2004|publisher=Mayfield Books|location=Mayfield, Ashbourne, Derbyshire, England|isbn=0954052560}} {{refend}}
==External links== *[http://www.scotcities.com/railways/clocks.htm Railway Station Clocks - Architecture of Time] {{commonscat-inline|Station clocks}}
{{Rail tracks}}
Category:Clocks Clock