Spotting planes and trains just ain't what it used to be - Scott Reid

When it comes to pastimes there are several vying for top billing in the saddo list and I will freely admit to partaking in two of them.

Today's lack of aircraft variety and viewing facilities could signal the twilight years for planespotting.

Both trainspotting and planespotting tend to conjure up a certain image. You know the sort of thing - notepads, binoculars, packed lunches, brightly coloured anoraks. All of which, it must be said, can prove very useful when heading off to the nearest airport or railway station to while away the hours jotting down numbers.

Of the two activities, spotting trains is clearly the more accessible, given the thousands of miles of track and hundreds of stations still in existence. There are challenges, of course, besides Britain’s unpredictable weather, delays, cancellations and all-out strikes. Gaining a platform ticket ain’t as straightforward as it once was, particularly given the predominance of automatic ticketing barriers these days. Obstacles aside, the hobby has gained an unexpected but welcome dose of coolness in the past couple of years thanks to internet sensation Francis Bourgeois. His videos have attracted millions of views thanks to his distinctive filming technique and infectious enthusiasm for all things rail-related.

But not even the irrepressible Mr Bourgeois can fix the issue of a lack of variety on the tracks. Trains have become too homogenised. There simply isn’t the variety of locomotives and rolling stock - carriages to the uninitiated - that there once was.

And it’s the same on the planespotting front, I’m sorry to have to report. My most recent visit to Edinburgh Airport provided fleeting glimpses of about half a dozen aircraft types, and pretty much all from the two dominant plane makers - Airbus and Boeing. What I wouldn’t give to revisit my peak planespotting days of the late 70s and early 80s at a Turnhouse terminal teeming with Tridents, Viscounts, BAC One-Elevens and even the odd Comet.

Putting the rose-tinted binocs to one side, reinstating the airport building’s outdoor viewing terrace might help the cause, but I fear in the modern era of commercial priorities, health and safety and security paranoia that is never going to happen. At least there’s always a visit to the National Museum Of Flight and its myriad aeronautic attractions.