Buckpool railway station was a

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

Buckpool Buckpool is a village on the coast of Moray, Scotland. Originally known as Nether Buckie, it is now effectively a part of the town of Buckie as the nearby fishing settlements merged as they expanded. Buckpool Harbour was built in 1857 by local la ...

near

Buckie Buckie ( gd, Bucaidh) is a burgh town (defined as such in 1888) on the Moray Firth coast of Scotland. Historically in Banffshire, Buckie was the largest town in the county until the administrative area was abolished in 1975. The town is the ...

Moray Moray () gd, Moireibh or ') is one of the 32 local government council areas of Scotland. It lies in the north-east of the country, with a coastline on the Moray Firth, and borders the council areas of Aberdeenshire and Highland. Between 1975 ...

. The railway station was opened by the

Great North of Scotland Railway The Great North of Scotland Railway (GNSR) was one of the two smallest of the five major Scottish railway companies prior to the 1923 Grouping, operating in the north-east of the country. Formed in 1845, it carried its first passengers the fr ...

(GNoSR) on its Moray Firth coast line in 1886, served by

Aberdeen Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), and ...

to Elgin trains. The village and station were originally named Nether Buckie station and the station was renamed 'Buckpool' on 1 January 1887, closing to regular passenger traffic on 7 March 1960, several years before the closure of the line itself in 1968. In 1923 the GNoSR became part of the

London and North Eastern Railway The London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) was the second largest (after LMS) of the " Big Four" railway companies created by the Railways Act 1921 in Britain. It operated from 1 January 1923 until nationalisation on 1 January 1948. At th ...

and at nationalisation in 1948 became part of

British Railways British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four British rai ...

. The line was recommended for closure by

Dr Beeching Richard Beeching, Baron Beeching (21 April 1913 – 23 March 1985), commonly known as Dr Beeching, was a physicist and engineer who for a short but very notable time was chairman of British Railways. He became a household name in Britain in the ...

's report "The Reshaping of British Railways" and closed on 6 May 1968.

History

Background

In 1881 the

put a bill to parliament to extend its

Portsoy Portsoy ( gd, Port Saoidh) is a town in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Historically, Portsoy was in Banffshire. The original name may come from ''Port Saoithe'', meaning "saithe harbour". Portsoy is located on the Moray Firth coast of northeast Scotlan ...

line along the

Moray Firth The Moray Firth (; Scottish Gaelic: ''An Cuan Moireach'', ''Linne Mhoireibh'' or ''Caolas Mhoireibh'') is a roughly triangular inlet (or firth) of the North Sea, north and east of Inverness, which is in the Highland council area of north of Scotl ...

as far as

. In 1882 the Great North of Scotland applied for permission to build a line from

following the coast to

and then running on to Elgin.

Great North of Scotland Railway

The GNoSR station opened as Nether Buckie on 1 May 1886 with the central section of the coast line, served by through Aberdeen to Elgin trains. In 1923 the Great North of Scotland Railway was absorbed by the

. This was nationalised in 1948, and services provided by

. The line was recommended for closure by

in his report "The Reshaping of British Railways" and closed on 6 May 1968.

Services

The GNoSR station was served by through trains running between Aberdeen and Elgin. There were no Sunday services.

The station infrastructure

Buckpool station had a single platform with a wooden station building and the name 'Buckpool' displayed on the glass window above the platform doors. A cattle loading dock stood facing the passenger platform. The 1902 OS map shows a small goods shed and a couple of sidings with a slaughter house nearby. By 1928 and on to 1938 the slaughter house had enlarged, explaining the cattle dock and a signal box is shown on the

Portgordon Portgordon, or sometimes Port Gordon, ( gd, Port Ghòrdain) is a village in Moray, Scotland, south-west of Buckie. It was established in 1797 by Alexander Gordon, 4th Duke of Gordon as a fishing village. It had a population of 844 at the time ...

side of the station building. The line was predominantly single track apart from a double track section between

and Portessie. Track lifting took place shortly after closure in 1968. The station footbridge servicing the footpath to the beach survived until at least 2012, the retaining wall survives and the bridge abutments, however the platform does not survive.

Operation Sea Lion and the German spies

In September 1940 a German spy named Robert Petter, whose real name was Werner Walti, had been landed by seaplane and after coming ashore in a dinghy had walked to Buckpool railway station, just missing his train connection to

. One of the staff suggested that he might try catching a bus to Buckie station where he could catch a connecting train. The bus conductress remembered Petter as he had oddly given her a 10 shilling note when the fare was only a penny. He had a two-hour wait at

for an Edinburgh bound train and upon arriving there was soon arrested. His two colleagues had already been arrested at

station after similar suspicious behaviour. The trio had intended to spy on the military facilities in the area, especially the airfields, in preparation for the German invasion of the United Kingdom, code named '

Operation Sea Lion Operation Sea Lion, also written as Operation Sealion (german: Unternehmen Seelöwe), was Nazi Germany's code name for the plan for an invasion of the United Kingdom during the Battle of Britain in the Second World War. Following the Battle o ...

'.Silly Spies in Scotland (and Kent)
Accessed : 2015-01-20

The Speyside Way

This is one of four Long Distance Routes to be found in Scotland, starting in

Aviemore Aviemore (; gd, An Aghaidh Mhòr ) is a town and tourist resort, situated within the Cairngorms National Park in the Highlands of Scotland. It is in the Badenoch and Strathspey committee area, within the Highland council area. The town is popul ...

and ending at

's old harbour, making a trail some 65 miles long. The

Speyside Way The Speyside Way (Doric: '; gd, Slighe Shrath Spe) is a long-distance path in the Scottish Highlands. The route begins in Buckie and ends at Newtonmore, away. There is an optional spur leading off the main route to Tomintoul, adding and of as ...

uses sections of the old railway, including the Spey Viaduct near

Garmouth Garmouth ( gd, Geàrr Magh narrow plain" spurious gd, Gairmeach, A' Ghairmich; sco, Gairmou', Garmo), is a village in Moray, north east Scotland. It is situated close to the mouth of the River Spey and the coast of the Moray Firth at nearby ...

References

Footnotes

Sources

* * * * * * {{cite book, last=Vallance, first=H. A. , title= Great North of Scotland Railway, series=The History of the Railways of the Scottish Highlands Vol. 3., date=27 June 1991, publisher=David St John Thomas, isbn=978-0-946537-60-0

External links

RAILSCOT on Moray Coast RailwayRailwayanamichael
A photograph of Buckpool station. Former Great North of Scotland Railway stations Disused railway stations in Moray Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1886 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1960 Buckie