GNoSR – The Beyonder

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.

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

Opened: Tillynaught – Banff Harbour: 30/7/1859

Closed: Tillynaught – Banff
6/7/64 (passengers)
6/5/68 (goods/completely)

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.

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.

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.

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.

Tag: GNoSR

Crumbling remnants of the branch line to Banff

Moray Coast line is gone, but not forgotten