The clock on the tower at Albany Station helps light the scene on Friday night.
Hate to tell you this, but the clocks on the tower at Albany Station are out of whack again.
It’s not just one of the four clocks. No, all of them showed different times on Friday, and only one was within about a quarter-hour of being right.
At 8:54 on Friday night, the clock facing west showed 9:08; the one facing south had 9:10; toward the east it was 6:00 on the dot; and from the north it was 7:50.
The clocks have been having trouble for at least a year, off and on. They’ve been fixed twice, but evidently it didn’t take.
Unlike before, no one called my attention to the clocks this time. I was at the station on the bike Friday evening and casually wondered about their status. So I looked up and checked:
At three minutes past 6, it was a quarter past on the clock facing west.
You can read about the past clock adventures at Albany Station in previous stories. Just put “clock tower” in the search field below the small ads on the right and you’ll get there.
Does anybody still rely on clocks like these — or, like me, on an analog Timex — when they have a smartphone in their pocket? Probably not. So the clocks on the Albany tower are no big problem, just a little annoyance if somebody has to keep getting them fixed or reset.
That’s one trouble with big public clocks: If you have them at all, you have to make sure they work, like the one at the Linn County Courthouse, below. (hh)
When the courthouse clock said it was a quarter past 6, it actually was a quarter past 6.
“Punctuality is the thief of time.” – Oscar Wilde
And now it is ‘time’ for Jeff Senders to step in and work his magic for stained glass features (a local artist) with solar lighting….
OK. Victorian design? City Logo? Old train engine? Ex Mayor Kanopa crossing the Willamette on a zip line?
Why bother with hands? Why can’t a reliable digital panel be put in on the four faces. Most everyone has a digital watch so… Ya can’t have a “proper” train station w/o a clock.
Digital? In a “historic” district”?
I’m betting Dick Olsen and the Landmarks commissars are going apoplectic with that solution.
I say screw ’em. At some point common sense must prevail over buffoonery.
Since no one can apparently fins a clock movement that really works, paint a train face on them and have hands with gloves and a finger pointing.
Might as well generate a smile.
The clocks should work. It’s a publicly paid for display. People count on the clocks working. If they can’t be fixed, maybe the company that supplied them can replace them?
The company that built the tower are in Eugene. Budget detemines everything. The biggest issue, is there is only one way into the tower, the taxes paid to the closed schools should be used for this upgrade, and while they are at it upgrade the back lighting to led lighting
Engineering problems of things like this clock and the “public art” lights — unreliable to the extent they are:
1 – Custom designed, hand-made, or hand-assembled, rather than mass produced entirely by robots. Purely mechanical things from the “good old days” designed by crafters with long experience are somewhat exempt — an economically unfeasible lost cause.
2- Not designed in their entirety to withstand outdoor environmental extremes. Both mechanical and electrical components will fail. The failure rate increases with the size, complexity, and number of electrical interconnections.
Don’t bet on a digital LED clock to work any better if it violates these.
All pure speculation from someone with much experience but no relevant credentials.
Of course, “good old” mechanical stuff needs a lot of knowledgeable maintenance, adding to its incompatibility with current economics.
I haven’t decided whether the downfall is bad, good, or just inevitable.
Pick a historic event with a known time it happened. Have the clock stopped at that time (or a different time on each panel).
There could be a small display at the base for info. If nothing else, it would generate more fodder for columns & comments…
Possible events for consideration:
Bombing of Hiroshima and/or Nagasaki
John F. Kennedy assasination
1st Moon landing
4:02 EST, March 16th, Biden surrenders Afghanistan to terrorists
2021-01-06 (Jan. 6th for those not into universal, unambiguous, computer-friendly dates). Whenever each clock finally dies, there will be a story to fit — no need for anyone to climb up there to set the time.
Actually, I’m also upset about Biden (as were many guests and commentators on “liberal” NPR).
Uh, so are you just figuring it out or do you want to keep thousands of troops there FOREVER.
Wonderful idea! It could serve as a monument to the failure of civic technology. Definitely have a different time on each side — more interesting and might help keep anyone from confusing it with real time.
My punk event suggestions wouldn’t be appreciated, so I’ll hold my tongue.
Easy. I’ll explain it before some politician does. It has to do with Time Zones.