iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

David Booth @caleydave.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Niche #GIS question, is anyone aware of public or open dataset for the 1975-1996 #Scottish Regional and/or District Council boundaries? (.shp file or similar) Introduced by Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 & Repealed by Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994. 9 Regional + 3 Island

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David Booth @caleydave.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

#SirenSaturday I had resisted posting buildings where I found no obvious remains of a Siren. Breaking that rule today with a factory hooter. "T. & H. Smith Ltd, Blandfield Chemical Works, Wheatfield Road, Edinburgh" This was given Carrier planning number 254/47 in the early 1960's.

T. & H. Smith Ltd, Blandfield Chemical Works, Wheatfield Road, Edinburgh.

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David Booth @caleydave.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

I rather hope its a temporary glitch on The British Newspaper Archive that I find all folders in my Imported Bookmarks empty!

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Stephen Schwartz @atomicanalyst.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Today in 1979, a United States Vela nuclear-test-monitoring satellite detected the distinctive double-flash signature of a nuclear explosion over the South Atlantic Ocean. Although a White House scientific panel later dismissed the possibility, many speculated it was a clandestine Israeli test.

A color drawing of a Vela satellite orbiting Earth. Triangular and trapezoidal solar panels cover its surface. The satellite also has multiple antennas sticking out of it.

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David Booth @caleydave.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Could be used as a case study on how to bury a story about operating without a Public Entertainment Licence or Alcohol Licence. If the other safety concern had been run the headline would be "In Bizarre fire exit dispute"!

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Andy Arthur💃🏰⚓🦌 Threadinburgh 🧵 @threadinburgh.scot · 13/09/2026

📣 Important PSA! 📽️ I'll be screening and talking about the wonderful 1951 short film "The Singing Street" on next 2 weekends. 📅 19th & 20th, 10AM, Abbeyhill School with Colony of Artists 📆 26th, 12 Noon, Norton Park Centre with Doors Open Day 🎫 Free, unticketed, arrive early to avoid disappointment

A little poster for the event with some stills from the film and the dates and places. "“A WONDERFUL PICTURE OF EDINBURGH – as true perhaps as has ever been put on the screen” The Scotsman"

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David Booth @caleydave.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Controversial statement; Vandalise your books! My Late Grandad was a Relief Clerk for British Railways around Edinburgh in the 1950's. I had taken on some of his books and in an appendix of this one he had marked every passenger station he worked with a tick and each Goods station with a G.

Cover of book: Rail centres: Edinburgh by A.J. Mullay

Appendix 1, this page has the first half of a list of stations in Edinburgh.

Stations marked with a tick are:
Abbeyhill, Balgreen Halt, Colinton, Corstorphine, Craigleith, Dalry Road, Gorgie East, Haymarket, Joppa & Leith North

Goods stations marked with a G: Bonnington Road, Currie, Gorgie East & Granton.

Appendix 1, this page has the second half of a list of stations in Edinburgh.

Stations marked with a tick are: Merchiston, Morningside Road, Piers hill, Portobello, Princes Street, Slateford & Waverley.

Goods stations marked with a G: Leith South, Leith Walk & Portobello

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Duncan Campbell @duncanc.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Serious news - not reported until now. In the week the UK and NATO accused Russia of armed drone attacks in Leipzig, Britain's nuclear deterrent backup link was destroyed over the Yorkshire. Our story is here. bylinetimes.com/2026/09/08/k...

bylinetimes.com

Key UK Nuclear Deterrent Link Destroyed Over Yorkshire

The Ministry of Defence has refused to clarify whether the catastrophic mid-air failure of the Trident relay system was a weather accident or sabotage

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Ian McClellan @ianmac.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Acted as MARWO on a few exercises whilst also passing raid reports to the Radar Managers at Control & Reporting Posts. Thankfully never had to do it for real, I’d love to know how we’d do it now. I’m not exactly filled with confidence that emergency alarms would sound in time before raids hit.

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David Booth @caleydave.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

I believe there are a few tickets left! Relevant to #SirenSaturday , The Bunker housed the Sector Controller for Scotland, who should national communications fail, be responsible for issuing warnings and 28 Groups who's warning team would be in direct contact with the Police for issuing warnings.

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David Booth @caleydave.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

The team, @28group.bsky.social, behind the #ColdWar Bunker at Craigiebarns in #Dundee are running tours on 9-11th October 2026 Great chance to see the combined #ROC 28 Group and #UKWMO Sector Headquarters which would have been used to track Fallout and Nuclear Bomb detonations over Scotland.

eventbrite.co.uk

Dundee Cold War Bunker

Guided tours through Dundees own cold war nuclear bunker and learn the history and about the people who worked there

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David Booth @caleydave.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

eventbrite.co.uk

Dundee Cold War Bunker

Guided tours through Dundees own cold war nuclear bunker and learn the history and about the people who worked there

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Undiscovered Scotland @undisscot.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Spitfire "Red Lichtie" on display at the superb Montrose Air Station Heritage Centre on the north side of Montrose in Angus, celebrating the unexpected home of Britain's first operational military airfield. More pics and info: www.undiscoveredscot... #Scotland #Spitfire #Montrose #Angus

Spitfire "Red Lichtie" on display at the superb Montrose Air Station Heritage Centre. The image shows a Spitfire facing diagonally left and towards us. It has grey and green camouflage and is standing on a grassy area in the foreground, with ties to the ground. There is a wooden hut on the left behind it and other buildings can be glimpsed beyond. The sky is blue.

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Edinburgh O'Clock @edinburghclock.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Edinburgh O'Clock - 3 minutes to every hour. - we run fast so you don't miss your train. A new hourly image to brighten your day taken in #Scotland very often #Edinburgh and shared with love by Tom Duffin @tomduffinphotos.bsky.social. Please repost with your own caption.

Delicious images of Edinburgh from Tom Duffin

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David Booth @caleydave.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Is "The Red Bridge", carrying the path along the old railway over Ferry Road, unofficially now the Birthday Bridge?

The Red Bridge, named only for its colour, carries the path along the old railway over Ferry Road. It is a modern bridge. It is adorned with a number of different shears of cloth all with different "Happy Birthday" messages

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Brutalismbot @brutalismbot.com · 30/08/2026

They keep trying to tear it down r/brutalism

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Mike @mikeyashworth.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

1870 Airey/RCH junction diagram for "Edinboro (Edinburgh) Granton Leith & Haymarket showing the city's railways prior to many changes such as the South Suburban line. But @threadinburgh.scot @joebrownlondon.bsky.social I can't recollect ever seeing evidence of a station at Cairntows?

Lithographed and coloured outline map showing the railways around Edinburgh, Granton, Leith and Haymarket annotated in colour to show ownership by various companies. It is Junction Diagram No. 27 from 1870 in the 1875 combined volume of Railway Junction Diagrams by John Airey issued under the name of the Railway Clearing House.

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David Booth @caleydave.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

Another Repainted #EdinburghPoliceBox this time at St Patrick Square. This might not be a recent repaint, it's been almost exactly a year since I lasted visited, I am pleased it retains the painted castle 🏰. Now branded "Sonas Expression Bar".

Edinburgh Police Box at St Patrick Square.
It is now painted Blue with a cream top, windows and doors.
It is now branded as "Sonas Expression Bar"
Offering "Specialist Coffee".

A "Edinburgh Castle" emblem from the front of a Police Box at St Patrick Square.
It has been carefully painted with a light blue sky, grey castle, brown rocks, windows and doors in black and 3 miniature saltires.

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David Booth @caleydave.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

The Carrier Control Point for 257 North Berwick Carrier Area was in (appropriately enough) the North Berwick Police Station. Key to the warning system was the supporting and distribution equipment located in Telephone Exchanges, such as the North Berwick Exchange. #SirenSaturday

The former North Berwick Police Station on north Berwick High Street.

North Berwick Telephone Exchange on Nungate Road.

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David Booth @caleydave.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

And here is why I took a Trip to the North Berwick Law: Royal Observer Corps North Berwick Post. At stand down it reported to 24 Edinburgh Group ROC HQ & was the Master (Radio Equipped) post for Cluster 24/25 consisting of: 24/25 North Berwick 24/26 Cockburnspath 24/27 Garvald #ColdWar

View of the North Berwick Royal observer Corps Post Hatch.
To the left of the hatch is the mounting point of the "Ground Zero Indicator".
The Tube in the Grass behind is for the "Fixed Survey Meter".
To the rear is a Vent.

View of the North Berwick Royal observer Corps Post Vent.
The Metal Bulge on the side was for the (now gone) connectors into which the radio mast could be plugged.

The Tube in the Grass in front is for the "Fixed Survey Meter".
To Hatch can just be seen through the Grass.

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David Booth @caleydave.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Turns out "The Law" isn't small, it was just far away. Onwards and upwards 😅

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David Booth @caleydave.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Ignoring the risk of sudden self-combustion if I crossed the threshold, Sometimes you see a building for sale and think if I could I would. St Stephen's Church, Edinburgh

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David Booth @caleydave.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

For this #SirenSaturday I have a famous abandoned London Siren. This is located on a railway bridge on Waterloo Road just outside Waterloo Station. It appears to be a Carter Siren. I deliberately travelled back from The National Archives to Waterloo Station so I could grab a quick picture.

An Air Raid Soren on a railway bridge on Waterloo Road, London just outside Waterloo Station.

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David Booth @caleydave.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

We like to see a newly repainted #EdinburghPoliceBox This Box, Canongate at Cranston Street, is once again in use as a cafe, appropriately named "Beat Box", and has only opened in the last week. (Of course I stopped for a drink as I was thirsty!)

This Box, Canongate at Cranston Street, is once again in use as a cafe, appropriately named "Beat Box", and has only opened in the last week. It is painted blue with the name in white along with a white painted mascot of a beatbox with arms, legs and eyes in the speakers holding a coffee.

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David Booth @caleydave.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

Yesterday was Archive Trip 3/4 and the last unique one. I took the Caledonian Sleeper down to London to visit The National Archives. I can safely say I was not a fan of the seats on the sleeper, I did not sleep at all. I Came back the same (long) day on LNER pulling into Waverly 24hr after it left.

Electric locomotive 92018 at London Euston on 18/08/2026 having just pulled the lowland Caledonian Sleeper.

Photograph of The National Archives main entrance on 18/08/2026

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David Booth @caleydave.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

"David", you cry, "I am sure they are not actually interfering with the roof of the Bunker..." I could make a grand statement or I could swear loudly, either way its a cry into the wind. Why settle for 5 years stagnation when you could try to reverse the restoration progress.

Screenshot of a Reel on Facebook from Barnton Bunker.
It shows an individual loading a wheel barrow with a shovel"
Caption Read
"You see digging.
We see progress."

Screenshot of a Reel on Facebook from Barnton Bunker.
It shows the location where they are digging.
Caption Read
"they are escavating
behind the bunker to
clear the tunnel
roof and make space"

(They spelt excavating wrong in the original text)

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Iain Hepburn @iainhepburn.me · 14/08/2026

Watch out for wildfires lads.

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David Booth @caleydave.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

Archive trip two has begun and the journey has proved to be interesting so far We have had an IRN-BRU flavoured tram (I didn't taste test this) The Haymarket Shunter spotted in the open and not hiding away in its burrow (shed) And a Boat on a Boat Boat! (This isn't an optical illusion)

Full sized IRN-BRU advert on a Edinburgh tram at Haymarket.
"Running on rails made from girders" reads the tag line on the side.

Class 08 Shunter (08704) at Haymarket depot alongside the rear of a HST class 43 power car.

A unidentified ship on the back of a specialist unidentified ship carrying ship

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David Booth @caleydave.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

I am on Holiday so it is time for Archive trip 1/4. Sub theme, Trains that took me there. Today it was the National Records of Scotland. This is my first time this year and I am back here again at the end of my holidays. The Scotland's Lighthouses exhibition is worth a look.

Class 170 at South Gyle Station.

ScotRail 2G04 0840 Leven to Edinburgh 12/08/2026.
Units were 170403 and 170450.

Exterior of the National Records of Scotland.

Poster on the exterior of the National Records of Scotland advertising the exhibition:
"FOR THE SAFETY OF ALL
SCOTLAND'S
LIGHTHOUSES"

Class 158 at South Gyle Station.

ScotRail 1L85 1337 Edinburgh to Perth 12/08/2026.
Units were 158711 and 158727.

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Edinburgh O'Clock @edinburghclock.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

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David Booth @caleydave.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

A Lovely picture of the Police Box at Albert Street in Leith. Notice the Box holding the temperature sensor for the Heaters to the left of the Siren. The heaters themselves are the ring on the front. Given how "Square" the base looks it may be a Secomak Siren. #SirenSaturday #EdinburghPoliceBox

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Edinburgh Libraries @edinburghlibraries.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

Visitors to Central Library may have noticed a new digital cabinet in the front hall... It's part of the @britishlibrary.bsky.social on Tour programme and gives users the opportunity to zoom into the fascinating detail of a selection of historic maps - see it before end of Sept 2026! zurl.co/bwW2R

zurl.co

Exploring Edinburgh’s maps

Visitors to Central Library can now examine some of the city’s most significant historic maps in unusually close detail, following the arrival of an interactive digital cabinet in the front h…

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Aaron Meyers @aaronmeyers.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

"Today is August 4, 2026" There Will Come Soft Rains By: Ray Bradbury

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David Booth @caleydave.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

Dear tourists on Edinburgh trams with all the luggage; do not get off at Edinburgh Park Central, you want Edinburgh Park Station. The only exceptions are when you should have gotten off at the Gyle or, having dumped your bags, you are visiting Patina.

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Ian McClellan @ianmac.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

Many scopies based at RAF Buchan and RAF Saxa Vord during the #ColdWar would have tracked the SR-71s based in the UK. They’d head north on reconnaissance flights and then we’d see them return. Always made a night shift at Saxa more interesting to see them coming back. #RadarLove

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David Booth @caleydave.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

Vent: Let's talk about why this is a one-way ticket to the Buildings At-Risk register. That is not a natural hill they are digging into, that is a thin layer of top soil on top of Shale brought in from West Lothian which was used to cover a concrete building built on the floor of a Quarry. 🧵

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David Booth @caleydave.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

Always good to see an #EdinburghPoliceBox get a makeover. Here we have the Box outside the "The Johnnie Walker Experience" now sporting branding for said Experience. This one has a Siren Mount but has been moved here #SirenSaturday

Police Box at the Junction of Hope Street, Queensferry St and Shandwick Place. Now sporting a complicated colour pattern and "The Johnnie Walker Experience" branding. This is a Front view.

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David Booth @caleydave.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

A reminder that the Management and ownership has never changed at #BarntonBunker ( #BarntonQuarry ). It doesn't matter if you are there for a few days or 10 years, as a volunteer you are disposable, replaceable and a problem if you raise concerns. (And its #Corstorphine Hill not Carlton)

bbc.co.uk

Fire fears, accidents and emu attacks among safety concerns at Cold War bunker

Volunteers restoring a former Edinburgh nuclear bunker are worried someone will be hurt because of safety issues.

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David Booth @caleydave.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

bbc.co.uk

Fire fears, accidents and emu attacks among safety concerns at Cold War bunker

Volunteers restoring a former Edinburgh nuclear bunker are worried someone will be hurt because of safety issues.

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Jon Agar @jonagar.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

Here's another meaning for the Radio Telescope: it is a military tracker of satellites and by implication ballistic missiles (the capacity to launch is the same) A Lovell ally tells prime minister Harold Macmillan : 'the country is very lucky to have had ready a radar instrument which is capable'

Letter from Lovell's ally to Harold Macmillan. It points out gow lucky the country was to have ready a radar instrument capable of detecting and observing the Russian satellite and rocket, and goes on to say that the telescope is in debt still

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Jon Agar @jonagar.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

As a historian of Jodrell Bank, I agree! And the reason it is important is that it has been made to mean different things to different people at different times. Who's up for a mega thread on how and why? (I'm off for lunch now, but I'll do it after. I'll need the energy...)

Cover of my book Science and Spectacle: the Work of Jodrell Bank in Post-war British Culture

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David Booth @caleydave.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

Fighting against burnout by registering for Reader tickets for The National Archives. Now I have 13 weeks to get down to Kew!

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David Booth @caleydave.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

Slowly making progress in 5 minute chunks in between life and work. I Made good progress on the Basics embedded in a web page using Leaflet, now to find the time improve on the basics. #EdinburghPoliceBox #SirenSaturday

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David Booth @caleydave.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

As we watch parts of the Country Burn with increasing frequency is it worth the lament that there was once a supply of Pumps kept in reserve &, going back further still, Trained Volunteers to Operate them? With climate change & war fears accelerating when do we expand our underfunded Fire Brigades?

A page from a 1960's Civil Defence recruiting booklet.
It reads:
"Auxiliary Fire Service"
"saving lives and homes from fire is humane work. In the nuclear age, it is also a scientific job, because fire-fighting is a science, a highly skilled one. In the A.F.S. you are taught to fight fires by the most modern methods, and with the most modern equipment, some of it designed especially for nuclear war."

The Cover of this Red Booklet dating from the early 1950's reads:
"Auxiliary Fire Service
CD
Civil Defence
Men and Women are needed now in
the
A.F.S."

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Abbiistabbii @abbiistabbii.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

Scotland has a wildfire season. That should concern everyone.

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David Booth @caleydave.bsky.social · 18/07/2026

The Imperial War Museum released a video on Thursday about "Protect and survive". There is a deviation towards the middle where they discuss the warning system. During this they show the the Carrier Control Point and Siren on display at the IWM youtu.be/XK9bqjAq3jE?... #SirenSaturday

youtu.be

Why Protect and Survive became so Controversial

YouTube video by Imperial War Museums

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Aaron Bateman @aaronbateman.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

The declassified 1962 memo for the UK prime minister informing him (in shakespearean prose) that the US accidentally fried Britain's Ariel satellite with its Starfish Prime nuclear test.

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David Booth @caleydave.bsky.social · 11/07/2026

If you skip over @edinburghlive.co.uk mistaking cast iron for Wood there is a story on some businesses located in a #EdinburghPoliceBox Interviewed are: Sam the owner of "Pourboy" at Orwell Terrace at the Telfer Subway. Vaaghisar the owner of "Step One Coffee" at Morningside Park/Road outside

edinburghlive.co.uk

The hidden struggles of running a business from an Edinburgh police box

"It's been a very rewarding experience"

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