Calcots railway station was a railway station in the parish of St Andrews-Lhanbryd,

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 (GNoSR) on its Moray Firth coast line in 1884, served by Aberdeen to Elgin trains. It served a rural area rather than a discrete settlement and closed to regular passenger traffic on 6 May 1968 on the same date as the line itself. 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 in

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 to all traffic on 6 May 1968.

History

Background

In 1881 the Great North of Scotland Railway put a bill to parliament to extend its Portsoy 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 Buckie. In 1882 the Great North of Scotland applied for permission to build a line from Portsoy following the coast to Buckie and then running on to Elgin.

Great North of Scotland Railway

The GNoSR station opened as Calcots on 12 August 1884, served by through Aberdeen to Elgin trains. In 1923 the Great North of Scotland Railway was absorbed by the

. This company was nationalised in 1948 and services were then provided by

until closure. As stated, the station and line were recommended for closure by

's in his report "The Reshaping of British Railways" and closed in 1968.

Services

This GNoSR station was served by through trains between Aberdeen to Elgin. There were no Sunday services.

The station infrastructure

Calcots station had two platforms with the typical wooden station buildings found at many of the stations on the line. The goods yard had more sidings than most of the stations on the line, reflecting the actual or expected agricultural traffic, with a goods shed and several points that allowed for interchange between the goods shed and the loading docks, etc.Elginshire, Sheet 008.09. Publication date: 1905. Revised: ca. 1904
/ref> The station had a neat and compact appearance with a typical footbridge, two signal boxes and several flower beds with what may be an enclosed fruit garden. The station was host to a

LNER LNER may refer to: *London and North Eastern Railway, a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1923 until 1947 *London North Eastern Railway, a train operating company in the United Kingdom since 2018 * Liquid neutral earthing resistor, a type ...

camping coach from 1935 to 1936 and possibly one for some of 1934. The Moray Coast line was predominantly single track apart from a double track section between Buckie and Portessie. Track lifting took place shortly after closure in 1968. The station was demolished and only a part of one of the platforms survived in 2005.

References

Footnotes

Sources

* * * * * * *

External links

RAILSCOT on Moray Coast Railway
{{Portal, Scotland Former Great North of Scotland Railway stations Disused railway stations in Moray Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1884 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1968 Beeching closures in Scotland