Exploring The Catcher in the Rye   :   album / tour   :   Penn Station

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Pennsylvania Station departures board The old departures board in the waiting area looked like it may be 50 years old. (There are also video monitors for both departures and arrivals, like at airports.) Most people watch this one, though. You can read it from far away and watching it is kind of fun.

When a train departs, you watch all of the digits roll around, much like a slot machine, but making a constant clacking noise, copying what was in the line before up by one to take the place left by the now departed train. It probably takes a good 20 seconds for it to accomplish this. (Here we see the Harrisburg, PA train is about ready to leave.)