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Andy Arthur💃🏰⚓🦌 Threadinburgh 🧵 @threadinburgh.scot · 2h

I remember my shoe getting stuck between the platform edge and train door, aged about 5, and they just waited for folk to get off and reversed the train out the way to get it back for me before putting it back in the platform.

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Reposted by Andy Arthur💃🏰⚓🦌 Threadinburgh 🧵

Andy Arthur💃🏰⚓🦌 Threadinburgh 🧵 @threadinburgh.scot · 14h

In the good/bad old days of British Rail's orange plastic Traveller's Fare branding, Waverley had the Talisman Buffet and the bar was called the Nor' Loch. I imagine they were probably actually more civilised than modern offerings. www.flickr.com/photos/18578...

flickr.com

Edinburgh Waverley station, 17 Feb 1981

The Talisman buffet with its violent orange decor contrasts with the handsome stonework of the late Victorian two-storey buildings in the main waiting area. The plastic orange seating roundel complete...

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Reposted by Andy Arthur💃🏰⚓🦌 Threadinburgh 🧵

Past Glasgow @pastglasgow.co.uk · 5h

In February 1972, 20 students from Glasgow School of Art greeted Gordon Campbell, the Scottish Secretary of State, as he opened the Charing Cross section of the M8. They waved banners that are as relevant now as they were then as Campbell passed beneath in the Lord Provost's car. 📷 Newqsquest

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Andy Arthur💃🏰⚓🦌 Threadinburgh 🧵 @threadinburgh.scot · 4h

Thanks. So the basic plan is there is no permanent plan. Just like City of Edinburgh archives but on a national scale! I can't believe it isn't more of a scandal but then it's got a lot of competition with other HES-related scandals!

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Andy Arthur💃🏰⚓🦌 Threadinburgh 🧵 @threadinburgh.scot · 8h

✋STOP PRESS! I made the mistake of reading the HES press releases. They already cancelled the Bonnyrigg project 2 years ago and have some un-specified "temporary" solution instead. This ought to be some sort of scandal but I suppose all HES' other scandals got in the way.

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Andy Arthur💃🏰⚓🦌 Threadinburgh 🧵 @threadinburgh.scot · 8h

Oh it's not surprising at all, so long as the investment returns on PBSA far exceed those for flats for housing and so long as refurbishment/conversion is more expensive than both, that's where the market will go with a weak planning regime that allows them to

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Andy Arthur💃🏰⚓🦌 Threadinburgh 🧵 @threadinburgh.scot · 8h

Oh gosh, you're right, so it has... so... Is there an alternative plan? I can't find any press releases that say it was cancelled (but it's reported in some places) and can't find any press releases saying what the alternative is.

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Andy Arthur💃🏰⚓🦌 Threadinburgh 🧵 @threadinburgh.scot · 10h

The new bit to the story today is that the building is to be demolished and replaced by PBSA

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Andy Arthur💃🏰⚓🦌 Threadinburgh 🧵 @threadinburgh.scot · 10h

The plans were first publicly unveiled 3 years ago, I think they already had a shed out in Bonnyrigg for long term storage and are re-using that site. So it's not a short-term plan rather a long term one so a deliberate decision made to relocate out of central Edinburgh rather than foisted upon them

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Andy Arthur💃🏰⚓🦌 Threadinburgh 🧵 @threadinburgh.scot · 10h

Interested to find out from my own auto-slopped AI profile on Google that I'm a representative of @edinburghbug.bsky.social

Google AI text - "Public Advocacy: He is a prominent voice in local active travel and a representative for the Edinburgh Bus Users Group, "

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Andy Arthur💃🏰⚓🦌 Threadinburgh 🧵 @threadinburgh.scot · 10h

It's very amusing, worth watching a couple of episodes on Youtube to refresh that learning and have plenty giggles.

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Andy Arthur💃🏰⚓🦌 Threadinburgh 🧵 @threadinburgh.scot · 10h

I have nothing against industrial estates in Bonnyrigg for the record, they're great places if you happen to want to start a light industrial concern. They're just not accessible compared to a city centre (it's a 30 minute walk from Eskbank station or 40 minute bus, every half hour, from Edinburgh)

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Andy Arthur💃🏰⚓🦌 Threadinburgh 🧵 @threadinburgh.scot · 10h

Even my basic and rusty Gaelic was able to work out the actual captions from the elementary conversation being had (~097% accuracy for spelling) by listening, but with the subtitles on churning out this garbage I couldn't. Had to turn them off (they're in the alt text if you're interested)

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Andy Arthur💃🏰⚓🦌 Threadinburgh 🧵 @threadinburgh.scot · 10h

You've got me! 😆 In my defence I was meeting my sister

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Andy Arthur💃🏰⚓🦌 Threadinburgh 🧵 @threadinburgh.scot · 10h

Yes it's amazing there's still multiple projects coming through (three today including this one) for PBSA when there's now a surplus of capacity to the point where they are finding alternative uses for some blocks and a pipeline of existing approved projects

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Andy Arthur💃🏰⚓🦌 Threadinburgh 🧵 @threadinburgh.scot · 11h

Can they not stick them on Trove so nobody can find them? 😆

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Andy Arthur💃🏰⚓🦌 Threadinburgh 🧵 @threadinburgh.scot · 11h

An (inter)nationally important archive and library being moved to an industrial estate in Bonnyrigg so the existing site in central Edinburgh can be turned over to student housing is so very on trend.

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Andy Arthur💃🏰⚓🦌 Threadinburgh 🧵 @threadinburgh.scot · 11h

Going anywhere nice on your holidays? Yeah, Jewish Totora this year for two weeks.

Caption "this is the west coast of Jewish totora North Uist". instead of "Uibhist a Tuath, North Uist"

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Andy Arthur💃🏰⚓🦌 Threadinburgh 🧵 @threadinburgh.scot · 11h

HELLO MARTIN, IT'S MUCH MORE LIKELY TO MINUTE HER SHOCK HAMMER. (Halo. Madainn mhath. Is mise Morag Nicleoid. Ciamar a tha sibh?" - "Hello, good morning. My name is Morag Mcleod, how are you?")

Hello Martin hello it's much more likely to minute her shock hammer

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Andy Arthur💃🏰⚓🦌 Threadinburgh 🧵 @threadinburgh.scot · 11h

Youtube trying to subtitle an episode of Speaking our Language (a Gaelic language learning show from the 1990s for listeners outwith Scotland) has inevitably spectacularly wrong but also amusing results.

Caption "hello Liana give it her chef ah kobata love connacher fien cleaver" instead of "halo Catriona, ciamar a tha sibh? Tha gu math tapadh leat. Ciamar a tha sibh thein? Gle mhath"

caption "market Danielle had this shot Kirsty in unicum" instead of "seo a mac Neil agus seo Kirsty a nighean agam"

Caption "I guess showing the yeah console this Chuck Fionna and you nothing" instead of "Agus seo agam Domhnall, agus seo Catriona tha nighean agam"

Caption "it's mission more a collage hello all right come on a high shelf" instead of "Is mise Morag Nicleoid, Halo Morag, ciamar a tha sibh?"

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Andy Arthur💃🏰⚓🦌 Threadinburgh 🧵 @threadinburgh.scot · 12h

Norton detecting itself as a threat and trying to remove itself is a classic. In my job I used to do some reporting based on threat detection logs from the corporate enterprise-wide Mcafee install and much of them were Mcafee classifying itself as a threat and trying to take action against itself.

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Andy Arthur💃🏰⚓🦌 Threadinburgh 🧵 @threadinburgh.scot · 12h

Yes +2 for that, or if you've less time the Doric just over the road. Or if you're feeling energetic a quick jog up Fleshmarket Close to either Jinglin' Geordie or the Halfway House

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Andy Arthur💃🏰⚓🦌 Threadinburgh 🧵 @threadinburgh.scot · 12h

That said Ryries felt a tad gentrified last time I was in, upstairs at least

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Andy Arthur💃🏰⚓🦌 Threadinburgh 🧵 @threadinburgh.scot · 12h

They were pretty ubiquitous in the public realm in 70s and 80s, weren't a BR-specific design. If you ever went to a shopping centre/ bus station/ swimming pool in those decades you'll more than likely have sat in them.

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Andy Arthur💃🏰⚓🦌 Threadinburgh 🧵 @threadinburgh.scot · 13h

Adjacent to the Burger King / Marks & Spencer off the main ticket hall that now no longer has the ticket office. It's a Brew Dog these days.

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Andy Arthur💃🏰⚓🦌 Threadinburgh 🧵 @threadinburgh.scot · 13h

Jury seems to be split between "they were comfy" and "designed to make you slide out after 2 minutes once you began to sweat"

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Andy Arthur💃🏰⚓🦌 Threadinburgh 🧵 @threadinburgh.scot · 13h

"Deja Vu" was the latest effort from British Rail in trying to appeal to a more sophisticated sector of the travelling public beyond football hooligans. Queen Street got "Berlin" and Central got "Tropics". All were in a European Brasserie style. They still served Tennents and McEwans though

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Andy Arthur💃🏰⚓🦌 Threadinburgh 🧵 @threadinburgh.scot · 13h

I think you are right, sure I've seen photos

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Andy Arthur💃🏰⚓🦌 Threadinburgh 🧵 @threadinburgh.scot · 13h

The Talisman finally got its licence in the October. In 1986 another bar - "Deja Vu" - was opened next door as part of an "Upper Crust" food court (yes, Upper Crust started out as an arm of British Rail Catering). It was literally aimed at a higher social demographic than the Talisman adjacent

Dark and grainy newsprint photo of bar staff lined up behind the counter of a brasserie-style pub interior

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Andy Arthur💃🏰⚓🦌 Threadinburgh 🧵 @threadinburgh.scot · 13h

The Talisman Buffet was opened on 12th August 1974 by British Rail after a £300,000 remodelling. The Bar's opening was delayed because BR had forgotten to apply for a licence. Pictured below is Hugh Gowans, Waverley station manager, in the Talisman

Newsprint photo of a man in a business suit and glasses standing in a low-ceilinged pub with very 1970s decor .The Scotsman. Published Monday, 12 August 1974

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Andy Arthur💃🏰⚓🦌 Threadinburgh 🧵 @threadinburgh.scot · 13h

I think St James Centre had them in an olive/puke green colour

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Andy Arthur💃🏰⚓🦌 Threadinburgh 🧵 @threadinburgh.scot · 13h

Can you imagine that happening now! Only photo I can find shows it had full-length brown tinted glazing with heavy curtains behind so you can't see what the interior was like

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Andy Arthur💃🏰⚓🦌 Threadinburgh 🧵 @threadinburgh.scot · 14h

Linlithgow has a decent real ale pub right outside, but it isn't technically a station pub I guess

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Andy Arthur💃🏰⚓🦌 Threadinburgh 🧵 @threadinburgh.scot · 14h

For those asking, the seats were based on the 1969 "Carousel" by American industrial designer Elsie Crawford and used the very a la mode new material of fibreglass. They pop up online for sale occasionally but we're talking multiple thousands of pounds

Orange plastic "carousel" 6 person fibreglass moulded seat

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Andy Arthur💃🏰⚓🦌 Threadinburgh 🧵 @threadinburgh.scot · 14h

I think there's an episode of Speaking Our Language filmed here in late 80s or early 90s too.

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Reposted by Andy Arthur💃🏰⚓🦌 Threadinburgh 🧵

kenny brown @kennybrown131.bsky.social · 14h

Immortalised in this video The Scars - All About You youtu.be/Q_-AAkei_gY

youtu.be

Scars - All About You (1981)

YouTube video by ClassicVideos80s

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Andy Arthur💃🏰⚓🦌 Threadinburgh 🧵 @threadinburgh.scot · 14h

If you could smell it over the clouds of diesel fumes and leaking engine oil.

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Andy Arthur💃🏰⚓🦌 Threadinburgh 🧵 @threadinburgh.scot · 14h

It should be easy to find pictures of the inside of Waverley Station in the 1980s, but it's not because everyone with a camera was pointing it at a train or something. But if you can look past the Deltic "Alycidon" here we can see the welcoming orange plastic canopy of the Talisman Buffet.

Interior of Waverley Station 1980. https://www.flickr.com/photos/126254131@N05/28528142644/ Photo Jeremey Chapter - jc_snapper via Flickr

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Andy Arthur💃🏰⚓🦌 Threadinburgh 🧵 @threadinburgh.scot · 14h

The 1981 music video for "All About You" by the Scars was filmed partly in Waverley Station, in all its orange plastic glory. I do have to correct myself though, it was called the Talisman Bar at that time - it was Nor'Loch later on.

4 dapper looking guys in a post punk band performing on a luggage trolley on the platform at the east end of Waverley station in 1981. Scars - All About You.

The Scars strut past a red plastic chair, a blue plastic John Menzies and an Orange plastic BR station bar. Filmed in Waverley station in 1981. Scars - All About You.

The Scars strut past a red plastic chair, and an orange plastic BR station buffet. Filmed in Waverley station in 1981. Scars - All About You.

The Scars sit in an orange plastic BR station chair. In the background are passengers and BR station branding for Information and public telephones. Filmed in Waverley station in 1981. Scars - All About You.

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Andy Arthur💃🏰⚓🦌 Threadinburgh 🧵 @threadinburgh.scot · 14h

As always @mikeyashworth.bsky.social has the goods if you want to know what was on offer from Travellers Fare. Think I'll start with a 13p fruit juice, have a 51p Bacon Egg and Sausage with a side of cream potatoes and mixed salad (34p) and finish off with 3p of cream: www.flickr.com/photos/36844...

flickr.com

Travellers-Fare tariff : price list : British Rail : nd [c.1975] : tariff

A shiny British Rail "Travellers-Fare" menu card that likely dates from the mid-1970; the only evidence comes from the one item that definately was not to be available on the menu and that was the BR ...

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Andy Arthur💃🏰⚓🦌 Threadinburgh 🧵 @threadinburgh.scot · 14h

flickr.com

Edinburgh Waverley station, 17 Feb 1981

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Andy Arthur💃🏰⚓🦌 Threadinburgh 🧵 @threadinburgh.scot · 15h

The people who do this sort of thing are more than willing to travel far to keep ahead of the Plod: like up from Manchester, West Midlands or West Yorkshire far before disappearing again. It comes in cycles, they popped up in Aberdeenshire 13 years ago for a bit: www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scot...

bbc.co.uk

New Deer RBS ATM theft probed in Aberdeenshire

A fourth attack on a cash machine in the north east of Scotland in recent days is being probed by police.

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Andy Arthur💃🏰⚓🦌 Threadinburgh 🧵 @threadinburgh.scot · 16h

Waverley's station pub on the other hand is just embarrassing

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