Mocubix · Exhibit 05 · Secaucus Junction, New Jersey
An evening at Secaucus, on the boards that still hang there. The hall keeps its own time, a minute every two seconds, and it is not waiting for you: trains board and leave whether you scroll or not, and every change turns through the drums one flap at a time.
TRANSFER AT SUMMIT FOR GLADSTONE BRANCH
One module
Every module is a drum of printed flaps on its own small motor, and it cannot skip. To get from Summit to Dover it has to show every name printed in between, each flap dropping under its own weight. Give a whole board new trains at once and every module sets off on a different journey, so the change never lands in one piece. It arrives the way rain does.
Summit → Summit
stopped
The concourse
Secaucus is where New Jersey’s railroads cross, and every line keeps a board of its own: red for the Northeast Corridor, blue for the Coast, yellow for the Main Line, purple for Pascack Valley. They share one clock and nothing else, so each settles on its own beat.
TRANSFER IN TRENTON TO RIVER LINE AND SEPTA
TRANSFER IN LONG BRANCH FOR SHORE CONNECTIONS
TRANSFER IN HOBOKEN TO HBLR AND NY WATERWAY
Solari di Udine made boards like these for stations and airports from the 1950s on, and a hall full of them sounded like rain. Most have since been replaced by screens. At Secaucus Junction they still hang over the concourse, and the boards on this page are drawn from them, flap for flap.
