THE railwaymania that engulfed the country in the 1840s meant that there was no shortage of ideas about different ways in which the Aberdeenshire market town of Alford could be added to the railway map.
One proposal would have seen the Deeside Railway extended from its Banchory terminus north through Lumphanan and Cushnie to Alford. Another would have left the Deeside line at Colford before heading up through Echt, Waterton and Tillyfourie.
Other options included leaving the GNoSR main line between Aberdeen and Huntly, and heading west. One plan involved a junction with the main line at Buchanstone, but that would mean a 700-yard tunnel through the Bryndie Hill and very severe gradients.
ON THE MAP: the Alford Valley line GRAPHIC: Alan Young
An easier route without a tunnel and with gentler gradients could be made by going from Kintore through Tillyfourie, and this was the line for which parliamentary sanction was sought and granted, the GNoSR line offering the prospect of greater flexibility with connecting journeys for both passengers and goods than the Deeside route.
The Alford Valley Railway was duly authorised in 1856, opened on March 21, 1859 and merged with the GNoSR in 1866.
Kintore had opened in 1854 with the main line from Kittybrewster to Huntly, but now became a three-platform station, with a bay platform on the west side at the north end for the Alford branch.
Here there was a goods yard, signalbox and turntable for the branch line locomotive and a short sawmill siding between the main line and the branch. Originally the station boasted only a passing loop, but the main line from Dyce was doubled in 1880 and on to Inveramsay in 1882.
UP THE JUNCTION: Kintore station in 1975 PICTURE: Alan Young
Kintore closed to passengers in 1964 and goods in 1966, the same year that saw the Alford branch close to goods. The main line was singled in 1969, the platforms remaining disused. But the line was redoubled again to Inverurie in 2020 and a new station opened on the site of the Alford branch junction.
When the branch opened, four passenger trains ran daily in each direction, called at Kemnay, Monymusk and Whitehouse. An additional station was opened at Tillyfourie in 1860.
But with trains running through such agricultural terrain to a small town with only about 1,200 inhabitants, no one was under any illusions about the potential profitability of passenger services on the line.
Nonetheless, the granite industry around Kemnay provided good business for the railway, in the same way that other north-east lines relied on fast fish trains to London or busy cattle markets to bolster modest passenger trade.
Kemnay station itself may be nothing more than a memory, buried beneath a housing development, but its quarries were to become famous, the railway enabling stone to be transported all over the country for bridges, buildings and monuments, from the Liver Building in Liverpool to Marischal College in Aberdeen and the Thames Embankment in London.
LONG GONE: the site of Kemnay station PICTURE: Alan Young
The new station completed here in 1901 on land set aside by the local laird was quite a substantial edifice in its prime, complete with passing loop and still in good condition years after closure.
Local 28-year-old entrepreneur John Fyfe had taken a lease of the Paradise Hill quarry in 1858 while the railway was still being built and would turn it into a flourishing business that 30 years later would be employing 250 men.
Other quarries sprang up along the line too, though Paradise Hill remained the biggest and most famous, a siding there still being served by the daily freight train that ran for years after the branch closed to passengers in January 1950.
By contrast, the next station along the route was the sleepy little single-platform station at Monymusk, eight miles from the main line and buried away in a thick wood some three-quarters of a mile from the village.
WOODED SPOT: Monymusk in 1978 PICTURE: Alan Young
Taking a trip on a freight train along the line in 1959 to celebrate the centenary of its opening, J Spencer Giles wrote of the evocative scent of gorse, heather and wood shavings emanating from the timber yard at the eastern end of the station.
From there the branch climbed through rugged moorland towards Tillyfourie and on towards the summit at the 24½ milepost from Aberdeen, passing into a deep mile-long cutting blasted through particularly hard granite before the views opened up towards Alford.
Originally a single-platform station, Tillyfourie’s passing loop and eastbound platform were added later. The brick-built station building closed to passengers in 1950 but survived after closure to become a private dwelling.
PRIVATE DWELLING: Tillyfourie PICTURE: Alan Young
The small goods yard shut in 1952, but there were sidings serving quarries on both sides of the station, including Corrennie quarry which produced distinctive salmon-pink granite favoured for decorative use and gracing buildings such as Glasgow City Chambers.
Next stop, Whitehouse, a single-platform station with a goods yard on the north side of the line which remained open long after the station shut to passengers in 1950. Although Spencer Giles wrote in 1960 that the extensive sidings filled with empty vans looked largely disused, goods services continued until the line closed completely in 1966.
At Alford, the modest single-platform terminus was never exactly a bustling transport hub and rising operating costs coupled with a decline in local traffic after the end of the Second World War resulted in the closure of the branch to passengers on January 2, 1950.
MODEST TERMINUS: Alford in June 1962 PICTURE: Carl Marsden
Goods trains continued to run until November 7, 1966, when the line was completely closed, but Spencer Giles’ portrait for Railway Magazine of the daily freight train in 1960 is a flashback to a much quieter era.
By that stage the branch is single track throughout and the freight train makes just one round trip each day, a little J36 0-6-0 tank engine from Kittybrewster trundling around with a selection of wagons, cattle trusks and brake vans like a Hornby Dublo train set.
After swapping wagons at some of the quarry lines and dropping parcels at Kemnay, there’s some serious shunting to do in the yard at Alford, where it’s market day. At this stage, the signalling system is still intact and the station boasts an engine shed, carriage shed, water column, signalbox and extensive sidings serving various cattle docks.
CHANGE OF GAUGE: Alford in 1978 PICTURE: Alan Young
Flash forward to the late 1970s and there’s still a lot of the infrastructure remaining, including the old brown and cream station buildings, albeit in poor condition.
It looks like the perfect spot for a heritage railway and by the end of the decade local railway enthusiast James Gordon managed to open a 2ft narrow-gauge railway running for about a mile to Haughton Country Park.
RECONSTRUCTED: Alford station in 2009 PICTURE: Alan Young
The railway used track, wagons and a locomotive dating from the 1930s rescued from an industrial peat-cutting operation at New Pitsligo and officially opened in 1980, later expanding to use the reconstructed station buildings of the original terminus.
More steam and diesel engines were purchased over the years along with passenger carriages, but concerns about the condition of the track and rolling stock led to the closure of the railway in 2017.
END OF THE LINE: Alford in 2009 PICTURE: Alan Young
It reopened six years later as the Alford Valley Community Railway, running weekend round trips to the country park from March to September and handily located for the nearby Grampain Transport Museum and Alford Heritage Museum.
With the station buildings smartly repainted in blue and white, the new railway’s mission has been to restore the track, engine shed and small single-platform station at Haughton Park.
BACK IN BUSINESS: Alford station in 2023 PICTURE: AVCR
It’s a welcome renaissance. It may be a different gauge, but more than 75 years after the original passenger service closed, visitors can once more board a train at Alford station – and long may that continue.
ALFORD VALLEY RAILWAY
Authorised, under agreement with the GNoSR: 23/6/1856 Merged with GNoSR: 1/8/1866
IT’S the best part of a century since passenger trains ran into the Aberdeenshire village of Oldmeldrum, and perhaps it’s not so hard to understand why the service didn’t survive longer.
The five-mile branch line from Inverurie on the Aberdeen to Inverness main line was seen as a way of revitalising the fortunes of what had once been a thriving market town before Inverurie’s canal link to Aberdeen gave it a trading advantage.
REVIVAL BID: the Oldmeldrum branch MAP: Alan Young
When the Great North of Scotland Railway opened its main line from to Huntly in 1854, small towns across the north-east realised that a link to the railway would be essential for future prosperity.
The Inverury and Old Meldrum Junction Railway was authorised in 1855, opened in 1856, leased to the GNoSR in 1858 and merged with the larger company in 1866. But it was never financially lucrative, even by the turn of the century when it was recording more than 50,000 passenger journeys a year and hundreds of wagons of goods and livestock.
SURVIVOR: Oldmeldrum station in 1978 PICTURE: Alan Young
At Oldmeldrum, the station was at Strathmeldrum, some five minutes’ walk downhill from the main square, originally surrounded by fields and comprising a granite station house, engine shed, carriage shed, a range of goods sheds and the usual loading bay.
There was originally a turntable, although it was removed in the 1880s, and the original station building was replaced by a wooden structure in the early 1890s designed to the standard format favoured for other GNoSR stations.
But after the First World War road services became an important competitor for the line, with passenger buses and later goods lorries stealing away much of its traffic, and services reduced to a couple of trains each way daily.
END OF THE LINE: Oldmeldrum closed in 1966 PICTURE: Alan Young
By the time the London and North Eastern Railway had absorbed all the GNoSR lines in 1923, the line was already losing money. It closed to passengers from November 2, 1931 but would remain open to goods until 1966.
Locals may have mourned the loss of “Meldrum Meg”, as the branch line tank engine had been nicknamed by local poet Dufton Scott, but although the poet lamented that “we’ll never see anither like the Meldrum Train” no one was truly surprised by the closure.
By the 1970s the station buildings were still in good condition, restored by a company supplying agricultural equipment and repainted in blue and white. The loading bay and main platform were still evident too.
NO TRACE: the site of Fingask PICTURE: Alan Young
But volunteers from the Royal Deeside Railway, a local heritage line, had designs on the building for their platform at Milton of Crathes station, where it would be rebuilt and restored as their headquarters.
Outside Oldmeldrum, no traces remain of the short wooden platform and simple wooden shelter which was Fingask Platform, opened in June 1866 and renamed Fingask Halt in 1924. It had no goods facilities and closed completely in 1931 when passenger services were withdrawn from the line.
PERCHED: Lethenty station PICTURE: Alan Young
The next stop along was at Lethenty, opened with the line in 1856, where the single-track platform remained perched over a river after the station buildings were demolished, along with a single siding serving the local meal mill. The station remained open to freight until 1961 and the whole line shut completely in 1966, more than a century after it opened.
INVERURY & OLD MELDRUM JUNCTION RAILWAY
Authorised: 15/6/1855 Leased to the GNoSR: 14/6/1858 Merged with the GNoSR: 1/8/1866
Stations LETHENTY (P 2/11/31 G/CC 6/2/61) FINGASK PLATFORM (P/CC 2/11/31) [no goods, also known as Fingask Halt] OLDMELDRUM (P 2/11/31 G/CC 3/1/66) [Originally spelt Old Meldrum]
Station openings Lethenty and Old Meldrum were opened on 26/6/1856. Fingask opened in 1866.
Closures: The line closed to passengers in 1931, when Fingask closed completely. Lethenty remained open to goods until 1961. Oldmeldrum was open to goods until 1966 when the line closed completely.
IMAGINE a railway line with stations so rural you can hear only birdsong and the bleating of sheep when you stand on the platform.
Imagine a route with spectacular views over clifftops and picturesque fishing villages, with the shimmering North Sea stretching off to the distant horizon.
For 80-odd years, such experiences were a reality for passengers on the Moray Coast line of the Great North of Scotland Railway, offering a glorious coastal detour away from the Aberdeen to Inverness main line between Huntly and Elgin.
SEA VIEWS: the beach at Cullen
Steam trains would leave the main line at Cairnie Junction on the Aberdeenshire-Banffshire border and head north on the Banff, Portsoy and Strathisla Railway route that had opened to Banff Harbour on July 30, 1859, with a short branch to Portsoy.
Retracing the route on foot as a teenager in August 1975, seven years after the line closed completely, there were still plenty of traces of the past for the sharp-eyed to spot.
And three years later when fellow enthusiast Alan Young toured the line chronicling what remained of its stations, their remote rural locations had ensured that many of them remained remarkably untouched by vandals, though many of the wooden structures were slowly succumbing to the ravages of the weather.
INTACT: Cornhill station in 1978 PICTURE: Alan Young
Turning north towards the coast, the line ran through Knock and Glenbarry towards Cornhill and Tillynaught, surely one of the quietest and most remote junction stations in the country.
At Cornhill, the brown and white wooden station buildings on the single platform remained intact and in fair condition, on my visit being still used for storage by Aberdeen and Northern Marts. The loading bay was still in use by the same firm.
From here in the 1970s it was more or less possible to follow the trackbed all the way round the coast to Spey Bay, although the route became increasingly overgrown and difficult to traverse as the years passed and key bridges were demolished.
At Cornhill, Bridge 883 had gone, having once carried the railway over the B9022, but the next two remained, carrying the rails over field access paths for farm vehicles. At the site of an old level crossing, the red “stop, look, listen” sign remained intact.
LONELY: the junction station at Tillynaught PICTURE: Alan Young
Moving on towards lonely Tillynaught, the line passed over a small stream on Bridge 886. At 887, where a farm track crossed the rails, an old GNoSR trespass sign was still on site, dated Aberdeen 1/10/09. As the single line widened out at the approach to Tillynaught, Bridge 888 once carried the now divided lines over a farm track.
Here the disused station master’s house and another private dwelling remained, but in poor condition. The station buildings had gone, though, and the Banff branch platform was heavily overgrown.
From here the original line headed north on a short spur to Portsoy, recalling the days when the Banff branch was the original main line. The remaining bridges crossed farm tracks and small streams but to the north of 891 was the site of a signalbox, and to the north of 892 was milepost 60¼, proclaiming the distance from the old Waterloo Goods station at Aberdeen which was the original terminus for the GNoSR.
GOODS YARD: the original line ended at Portsoy PICTURE: Alan Young
At Portsoy, the original terminus dated from 1859 and was retained as a goods station when the Moray Coast line opened a quarter of a century later.
Authorised in 1882, the line opened in 1884 from Portsoy to Tochineal and from Lossie Junction at Elgin to Garmouth. But it was another two years before the main central section from Tochineal to Garmouth opened for traffic.
The new double-track passenger station at Portsoy opened on April 1, 1884 and the main station buildings remained on one of the curving platforms when I visited in 1975, the windows and doors all boarded up.
BOARDED UP: the 1884 station at Portsoy PICTURE: Alan Young
Once the coast line opened the first station closed to passengers. There was a carriage shed too, with a notice on the loading bay still proudly proclaiming: “Engines and bogie carriages must not be run into the carriage shed.”
On the secondary platform the buildings had been demolished, but milepost 61 remained, along with a couple of Railway Executive anti-trespassing notices. Track was lifted from a short spur to Portsoy Harbour back in Spring, 1910.
HUGGING THE COAST: the line from Portsoy to Spey Bay MAP: Alan Young
From Portsoy, the next stop was Glassaugh, but although the single platform and loading bays remained, the station buildings had been demolished, along with bridges 905 and 906. Between 909 and the demolished 910 were the distinct remains of an old signalbox, with the line doubling on the approach to Tochieneal station to provide a passing loop.
Both Glassaugh and Tochieneal closed to passengers in the 1950s, so it was unsurprising to find the station buildings demolished. Both platforms and a loading bay remained at Tochieneal, though densely overgrown.
Beyond here the single line heads back to the coast and the glorious seaside resort of Cullen, the viaduct 923 striding over the rooftops of the quaint Seatown cottages on eight huge arches.
HUGE ARCHES: the viaduct at Cullen
By 1975 the main station buildings on the single curving platform at Cullen had been demolished, but the platform remained, along with traces of the yard and loading bays.
Heading west, the line passes along the embankment above Cullen golf links towards Portknockie, which boasted a passing loop with staggered platforms, sidings and loading bay, but with the station buildings demolished following vandalism.
GLORIOUS: boats in Cullen harbour
The villages along this coast enjoyed a thriving fishing industry between the 17th and the early 20th centuries, and substantial harbours were built in both Portknockie and Findochty in the 1880s as the Banffshire coastal communities turned increasingly to herring fishing.
But if both villages were shaped by their maritime connections and strong community ties, they were pretty sleepy places during our summer holiday visits every year, far enough off the beaten track for many tourists to discover their enduring appeal, despite their picturesque harbours and empty beaches.
OFF THE BEATEN TRACK: Findochty
As a child in the 1960s, an unfamiliar car negotiating those narrow streets might be a talking point, and fishing nets were still hung out at the back to dry.
The railway may have been picturesque, but it was hardly busy, and with hindsight closure was inevitable, even if someone with vision might have foreseen a day when enthusiasts would lament the loss of a line with such glorious sea views.
By the 1970s, up on the clifftop at the single-track station, the platform and loading bay remained, but the wooden station building had been levelled. However even in its overgrown state, it wasn’t hard to imagine how special it must have felt to alight from a steam train on this platform on a summer’s evening.
LOST LINE: Findochty in 1978 PICTURE: Alan Young
When bigger vessels began to move along the coast to Buckie, Findochty harbour adapted to smaller boats and later leisure craft.
Proposals to build another harbour for Portessie at Craigenroan failed to materialise but there was hot competition to capitalise on the lucrative fish trade at Buckie, where the new harbour completed in 1880 tripled landings of herring and enabled larger trawlers to operate.
In the end, Buckie and Portessie would have two railways fighting for that fish traffic, both receiving royal assent in 1882. But the Highland Railway was able to steal a march on its rival by completing its line across the Enzie braes from Keith two years before the Moray Coast line would be completed through Buckie.
JOINT ENTERPRISE: Portessie station PICTURE: Alan Young
The railways would meet to pass under the single-track bridge 932, just east of a joint station at Portessie, where two platforms would serve the Great North line and one platform would be used by the Highland Railway, the latter opening in 1884 as the terminus of the branch line from Keith.
Villagers turned out in force for the special round-trip excursion train to the annual Keith Show on July 31 that year, but the four mixed trains that ran each way daily on the route took 40 minutes or more to climb over the braes and the sparsely populated settlements offered minimal passenger traffic.
Completion of the GNoSR coast route would effectively doom the branch, offering shorter westbound journeys and faster, more frequent and more convenient services to Aberdeen.
BIG DAY OUT: the annual Keith Show
The original intermediate Highland stations were at Forgie (later Aultmore), Enzie, Rathven and Buckie, with crossing loops at Forgie and Enzie, but after the inhabitants of Drybridge petitioned for a station, another opened on 1 April 1885 between Enzie and Rathven (despite the gradient being 1 in 60!).
But services on the line were shortlived. The onset of war saw the line closed in 1915 and the track lifted in 1917 to be reused at the Invergordon US naval base. Track was later restored from Keith to the distillery at Aultmore and between Portessie and Buckie in 1919, operated by the GNoSR.
The early closure ensured that by the 1970s most of the line was impassable, with station buildings and many other structures destroyed.
Back on the main coast line, the central part of the coastal route opened in 1886, though by the time of my visit in 1975 to Buckie, the station buildings were in poor repair and badly vandalised.
VANDALISED: Buckie station PICTURE: Alan Young
On the stone-built main buildings at the time there was a Caledonian Railway-coloured wooden board with the barely distinguishable lettering “British Railways – Buckie”, along with blue enamel Way Out and British Railways signs.
On the east side the line was blocked by the shipyard development, but to the west station footbridge 939 still bore the inscription Blaikie Brothers, Aberdeen, 1886 – an engineering company specialising in ironwork.
BLOCKED: the view towards Portessie PICTURE: Alan Young
Traces of loading bays remained on the harbour side of the station, along with the wooden waiting room in familiar dark green and cream colours. The old Highland line ran parallel to the Moray Coast line out of Buckie, with bridges 935 and 934 spanning all three sets of tracks.
In the other direction, bridges 940-949 led towards the single-platform station at Buckpool, some carrying other inscriptions: the pedestrian footpath at 944 was built by James Abernethy & Co (Engineers) of Aberdeen, while the iron footbridge 948 was built at the Rose St Foundry in Inverness in 1892.
HEADING WEST: the view towards Buckie town PICTURE: Alan Young
At Buckpool, the single platform and loading bay remained, but the station buildings had been demolished. An LNER anti-trespass sign at the entrance to the station from the east was a reminder of how from January 1, 1923 the Great North was swallowed up into the London and North Eastern Railway, one of the “Big Four” companies created by the Railways Act of 1921.
The company had a geographical monopoly on the eastern side of the country, while the London, Midland and Scottish Railway operated 7,000 route miles on the west. Both became part of British Railways in 1948, from which time all the old north-east lines became part of the Scottish Region.
West of Buckpool, mileposts 74 and 74¼ remained, along with two LNER anti-trespass signs at the entrance to Portgordon station.
POOR CONDITION: Portgordon station PICTURE: Alan Young
The wooden building on the single platform at Portgordon was still there in the 1970s, though in very poor condition, along with traces of the loading bay platforms. But while the demolition of bridges along the coastal section of the route gradually made life harder for ramblers, the creation of the Moray Coast trail from the 1990s helped to revitalise sections of the old line.
Running for 44 miles from Forres to Cullen, the trail developed from the late 1990s to showcase the wilderness quality of the imposing cliffs, coastal villages and glorious views over the Moray Firth.
Spey Bay was named Fochabers-on-Spey when it opened and went through various iterations before adopting its final name in 1918.
NAME CHANGES: Spey Bay in 1978 PICTURE: Alan Young
Opened as a twin-platformed station with a goods yard to the north, it was originally flanked by a pair of signalboxes though these closed in 1912 to be replaced by a single box which remained in use until 1966.
In the 1970s the brown-and-cream main station buildings on the eastbound platform were in a sorry state, remarkably still with old LNER and GNoSR consignment notes fluttering around the dilapidated booking hall, though later it would be transformed into an impressive private dwelling.
To the west of the station was the impressive Spey Viaduct, an iron girder structure which had become a vital part of the Moray Coast trail prior to its collapse into the water in December 2025.
On the other side, the trackbed leads towards Garmouth, with its single slightly curving remaining platform, two-sided loading bay and overgrown yard.
YOUTH CLUB: Garmouth station PICTURE: Alan Young
By the time of my visit in 1980, the main station buildings had been repainted in grey/blue and were being used by a local youth club group while those at the next station, Urquhart, were restored in lime and white as offices and toilet for a campsite.
Even in 1980 signs remained of an old clock, fountain and loading bay, though the missing loop line was overgrown.
RESTORED: the station buildings at Urquhart PICTURE: Alan Young
The final stop before rejoining the main line at Lossie Junction outside Elgin was Calcots, another neat wooden station with two platforms and a passing loop. It also once boasted a generous goods yard for agricultural traffic, a goods shed and two signalboxes.
Aside from these passing loops, the line was predominantly single track apart from a double track section between Buckie and Portessie. And remarkably, most of the remote stations survived intact until the final days of passenger traffic on the line in 1968.
NEAT: Calcots station PICTURE: Alan Young
The only early victims were Tochineal, which closed to passengers in 1951, and Glassaugh, which shut in 1953. Both closed completely in 1964 when a raft of other stations along the line shut to goods. Buckpool shut completely in 1960.
That left 15 stations open to passengers until that fateful day in May 1968 when the line shut completely. Cornhill, Portsoy, Cullen and Buckie clung onto their goods services until that date too, the faintest of reminders of the halycon days when hundreds of thousands of tons of fish were landed at north-east ports for rapid transit south to restaurants and dining tables around the country…
BANFF, PORTSOY & STRATHISLA RAILWAY
Authorised (Cairnie Junction – Banff Harbour): 27/7/1857 Renamed Banffshire Railway: 21/7/1863 Merged with the GNoSR: 12/8/1867
*: Only one train ran on this date, prior to a derailment. Full services began on August 2. **: Goods only. This section opened to passengers on 1/5/1886. ***: The loop was authorised retrospectively, on 19/7/1887.
Closed: Grange loop (Grange – Grange North Junction): P 7/3/60 Cairnie (jn) – Elgin (Lossie Jn) via Buckie: P/G/CC: 6/5/68
*: Originally a conditional halt called Barry, closed in 10/1863. RO 19/2/1872 as Glenbarry. **: Original 1859 terminus replaced by a new station in 1884 on extension to the south. The first station was retained for goods. ***: The Highland Railway line to a separate platform at Portessie O 1/8/1884.
Station openings Stations between Cairnie jn and Portsoy O 2/8/1859. Portsoy (2nd station), Glassaugh and Tochieneal O 1/4/1884. Garmouth, Urquhart and Calcots O 12/8/1884. Stations from Cullen to Fochabers-on-Spey O 1/5/1886.
Closures Tochieneal closed to passengers in 1951 and Glassaugh in 1953. Buckpool closed completely in 1960 and the Grange North junction loop was closed to passengers. Goods services were withdrawn from many stations on the line in 1964, when Glassaugh and Tochieneal closed completely. The remaining stations closed on 6/5/68 when passenger services were withdrawn and the line was closed completely.
Sincere thanks to Alan Young for permission to reproduce his pictures from Autumn 1978 chronicling stations on the route still standing on that date.
IT’S August 1975 and I’m standing on the platform of the dilapidated Banff station on the Moray coast surveying the remains of a once proud little terminus.
I’m 17 and if I do take any pictures with my very unreliable camera, they have been long lost.
But unbeknown to me, a fellow enthusiast arrived at the same spot three years later, and his pictures reveal that the site had changed little in the intervening period.
DILAPIDATED: the terminus at Banff station PICTURE: Alan Young
For me, it’s part of a summertime foray to walk as much as I can of the old Moray Coast line which ran from Cairnie Junction near Keith up to Portsoy and then along the cliffs towards Buckie and Elgin.
Alan Young, from Newcastle upon Tyne, was fascinated as a child by the disused Byker station not far from his home in Heaton, and continued to seek out closed stations and look into why and when they closed.
END OF THE LINE: Banff Harbour opened in 1859 PICTURE: Alan Young
By the early 1970s he had resolved to photograph all the country’s stations if he could, and his travels took him to the north-east of Scotland in Autumn 1978.
My notes from my 1975 visit reveal that the station buildings still remained, with their distinctive green and white colouring, although much vandalised and in very poor condition, including the adjoining disused station master’s house.
DERELICT: the station master’s house PICTURE: Alan Young
Under the awning were the remains of the ticket office, waiting room and offices, along with a double-siding platform and a small loading bay nearby which still housed the base of an old water pump.
The remnants of an old wooden sign proclaimed Banff Goods Station, erected after its closure to passengers on July 6, 1964, along with the other stations on the branch.
In its heyday, it must have looked like the sort of perfect little coastal terminus that railway modellers would love to replicate. By the time I returned in 1980, the buildings had been completely demolished, the sign was gone and the bay platform was filled with rubble.
NETWORK: the GNoSR routes MAP: Alan Young
The Great North of Scotland Railway was formed in 1845 with the ambition of building a double-track main line from Aberdeen to Inverness. In the end, the railway only got as far as Keith, with a separate line – later part of the Highland Railway – being built to form what was to become the main line to Inverness.
Meanwhile the line from Cairnie Junction to Banff Harbour was originally the main line of the Banff, Portsoy and Strathisla Railway, authorised in 1857 and opened to Banff Harbour on July 30, 1859, with a short branch to Portsoy, although an early derailment meant full services did not begin until August 2.
The GNoSR agreed to work the line in 1863 and the railway was renamed the Banffshire Railway later the same year, amalgamating with the GNoSR in 1867.
RENAMED: Banff Harbour became Banff in 1928 PICTURE: Alan Young
Originally Banff Harbour station, Banff was renamed in June 1928, the single-track line to Tillynaught passing through a couple of halts which had opened in 1914 at Golf Club House and Bridgefoot before reaching Ladysbridge station, which had been known as Lady’s Bridge until 1886.
Here, when I visited in 1976 and again in 1980, the platforms remained along with the lights in the station yard, the loading bay and level crossing gates.
On the other side of Ladysbridge was another mysterious little farming halt dating from the opening of the line but which had disappeared from the timetables by 1864.
RURAL: Ordens Platform in 1978 PICTURE: Alan Young
Ordens Platform reappeared in Bradshaw between 1/17 and 9/20, but may have remained as a conditional and unadvertised stop before this time. It featured in the LNER timetables from 14/7/24 and was also known as Ordens Halt, serving such a rural area that its flimsy looking wooden shelter remained intact for years.
None of the three halts had any goods facilities, so they closed completely when the line shut to passengers in 1964. But if Ordens felt remote, the junction station at Tillynaught was hardly any less rural.
OVERGROWN: the junction station at Tillynaught PICTURE: Alan Young
Named after a local farm and heavily overgrown by the time I visited, it was hard to believe that this was ever a station with much local business – though my uncle did say he remembered the station master yelling out the name “Tillynaught, Tillynaught…change here for Banff” when the Moray Coast line trains passed through.
The station master’s house and another private dwelling were both in poor condition when I arrived there one August day in 1975, walking on foot along the old main line from Cornhill to Portsoy. The stone island platform was much overgrown, particularly on the Banff branch line side, but although all the station buildings had gone, a stone loading bay remained on the Portsoy side.
But then Tillynaught, along with many smaller stations on the Moray Coast line, had already lost its goods services in April 1964, three months before the Banff branch had its passenger services withdrawn.
Trains still ran on the main line round through Buckie until May 6, 1968, but that was the dreaded day when all trains stopped running into the little station at Banff after more than a century.
BANFF, PORTSOY & STRATHISLA RAILWAY
Authorised: 27/7/1857 RN Banffshire Railway: 21/7/1863 Merged with the GNoSR: 12/8/1867
Stations ORDENS PLATFORM (P/CC 6/7/64) no goods LADYSBRIDGE (P 6/7/64 G/CC 6/5/68) BRIDGEFOOT HALT (P/CC 6/7/64) no goods GOLF CLUB HOUSE HALT (P/CC 6/7/64) no goods BANFF [BANFF HARBOUR] (P 6/7/64 G/CC 6/5/68)
IT WAS in the summer of 1974 that I discovered the appeal of exploring old railway stations and closed railway lines.
Perhaps it was a timely transition from teenage trainspotter to railway historian, but the trigger was a glorious summer holiday exploring the railways of the Lake District with schoolfriends.
SUMMER HOLIDAY: on the Settle & Carlisle line
Based in a small cottage beside the west coast main line near Shap, we roamed across Cumberland and Westmorland uncovering the route of the Cockermouth, Keswick and Penrith Railway, visiting the picturesque Settle & Carlisle line and venturing east along the old North Eastern Railway route to Barnard Castle.
Though tracks had been lifted and some structures demolished, overgrown platforms and some station buildings remained years after closure, albeit frequently in poor condition.
Some detective work was needed to track down precise locations of forgotten stations, and more research was required to piece together the history of the line and find out when it actually closed to passengers and goods.
LOST LINES: inside the old terminus at Banff station PICTURE: Alan Young
All of which helped to ignite a lifelong interest in the infrastructure of our railway system that existed prior to the notorious Beeching cuts of the 1960s, when thousands of miles of routes were closed. I even ended up writing a book chronicling the opening and closing of lines across the South-east of England.
Days after our glorious Lake District holiday, I joined my parents for their annual trip to visit family on the Moray Coast – a perfect opportunity to take a closer look at what remained of what was once one of the most scenic railways in the country.
The Great North of Scotland Railway network fanned out west and north from Aberdeen to Ballater on Deeside and across to Keith, Elgin and Boat of Garten, where it met its great rival, the Highland Railway.
NETWORK: the GNoSR routes MAP: Alan Young
A series of branches took travellers towards the coastal towns of Boddam, Peterhead, Fraserburgh, Macduff and Lossiemouth – and a glorious loop ran from Cairnie Junction near Keith up to Portsoy and then along the cliffs towards Buckie and Elgin.
IMPOSING: the old railway viaduct at Cullen
A tentative exploration in August 1974 took me along the short clifftop stretch either side of the village where my mother had been born and grew up: Findochty, or Finechty as the locals pronounce it.
BUSTLING: the harbour at Findochty
The historic fishing village once had a bustling harbour supporting dozens of boats during the 18th and 19th centuries, and our family had strong trawler fishing connections, although these days leisure craft dominate the view of the church where my parents were married in 1954.
COLOURFUL: fishermen’s cottages in Findochty
Throughout the village, traditional fishermen’s cottages cluster around the narrow streets, profiles low to resist the wind and with colourful stone facings around the windows and doors, a distinctive style characterised in other adjoining fishing villages along the coast.
SANDY HAVEN: the east beach
On the other side of the village, the east beach where we played as children is as beautiful as ever, a wonderland of rockpools and soaring cliffs, caves and crashing waves on the edge of the eternally chilly North Sea.
From here you can see the cemetery on the cliffs where generations of the family are buried, as beautiful a location as any might wish for.
SEA VIEWS: the cemetery on the cliffs
Back in the day, you could catch a plume of steam up there on the clifftop too. After my parents’ wedding, guests from down south were seen off at the station, a wooden building similar in style to many others along the coast.
But by the time of my visit in 1974, the station buildings had been demolished and only the single platform and loading bay remained, along with foundations of a signalbox. Just outside the station bridge no 930 still carried the A942 over the old trackbed.
OVERGROWN: Findochty Station in 1978 PICTURE: Alan Young
The scene was little changed four years later in August 1978 when a fellow enthusiast, Alan Young, visited most of the old GNoSR stations as part of an ambitious resolve to visit all of the stations in Britain and Ireland.
Today, the view over the village from the cemetery remains as spectacular as ever but steam trains no longer pound along the cliffs towards Portknockie and Cullen as they once did.
SPECTACULAR: the view from the clifftop cemetery
The route closed completely on May 6 1968 along with 17 of the most remote and scenic stations in the country. But if Alan was not on hand to capture steam on the line in its heyday, he was able to provide pictures to help illustrate the memories I retained from walking the route as a teenager in the mid-1970s.
Inspired by that Lake District holiday in 1974, it wasn’t long before I was back on the overgrown platform at Findochty ready to find out more about the fate of the Moray Coast line – but that, as they say, is another story.
