On the face of it not directly refurbishment and re-modelling related, but perhaps helping to emphasise the need for it.
I have been having a nostalgic trawl through my bookshelf and found in 'British Rail at Work: Scotrail' by Colin Boocock (Ian Allan 1986) an undated photo of 'the micro-dot edifice' (departure and arrival board) at Queen St. This board had replaced the previous 'Solari(?)' board which perhaps dated from circa 1970.
I would guess the photo perhaps dates from the very late 70's or early 80's - the book is very much focussed on scene as it was in the early 1980s.
It portrays the standard alternate hour departure and arrivals.
14.00 Edinburgh - first stop Haymarket (which may help date it if anyone can recall when the second Falkirk High call was added in each hour)
14.08 Falkirk Grahamston -
14.30 Edinburgh - Falkirk High and Haymarket only
14.38 Dunblane
15.00 Edinburgh
The arrivals panel has the inward workings of these plus a 13.50 arrival from Aberdeen - did that go back at 15.25?
So the basic pattern was four trains per hour plus an Aberdeen in alternate hours. Additional to these various times through the day would be the occasional Inverness (two, or maybe three, per day plus the overnight, the three per day to Oban (4 in summer), two per day to Fort William/Mallaig (3 in summer) and some extras in the peaks.
In the pre covid normal there would 'now' be 4 Edinburghs, 2 Edinburgh via Cumbernauld & Grahamston, one each to Dunblane and Alloa, two to Anniesland and an hourly Aberdeeen - have I missed anything, that makes 11 per hour plus the now more frequent occasional West Highland and Inverness & Dundee trains.
Admittedly we are talking about a change over a forty year period but that is still quite an explosion in the number of departures and arrivals as well as some being longer trains, underlining the need to update Queen St to cater for modern needs.