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 from
Kittybrewster, in
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), ...
, to
Huntly
Huntly ( gd, Srath Bhalgaidh or ''Hunndaidh'') is a town in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, formerly known as Milton of Strathbogie or simply Strathbogie. It had a population of 4,460 in 2004 and is the site of Huntly Castle. Its neighbouring settleme ...
on 20 September 1854. By 1867 it owned of line and operated over a further .
The early expansion was followed by a period of forced economy, but in the 1880s the railway was refurbished, express services began to run and by the end of that decade there was a suburban service in Aberdeen. The railway operated its main line between Aberdeen and and two routes west to , connections could be made at both Keith and Elgin for
Highland Railway
The Highland Railway (HR) was one of the smaller British railways before the Railways Act 1921, operating north of Perth railway station in Scotland and serving the farthest north of Britain. Based in Inverness, the company was formed by mer ...
services to
Inverness
Inverness (; from the gd, Inbhir Nis , meaning "Mouth of the River Ness"; sco, Innerness) is a city in the Scottish Highlands. It is the administrative centre for The Highland Council and is regarded as the capital of the Highlands. Histo ...
. There were other junctions with the Highland Railway at and , and at Aberdeen connections for journeys south over the
Caledonian and
North British Railway
The North British Railway was a British railway company, based in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was established in 1844, with the intention of linking with English railways at Berwick. The line opened in 1846, and from the outset the company followe ...
s. Its eventual area encompassed the three Scottish counties of
Aberdeenshire
Aberdeenshire ( sco, Aiberdeenshire; gd, Siorrachd Obar Dheathain) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland.
It takes its name from the County of Aberdeen which has substantially different boundaries. The Aberdeenshire Council area incl ...
,
Banffshire
Banffshire ; sco, Coontie o Banffshire; gd, Siorrachd Bhanbh) is a historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area of Scotland. The county town is Banff, although the largest settlement is Buckie to the west. It borders the Mora ...
and
Moray, with short lengths of line in
Inverness-shire
Inverness-shire ( gd, Siorrachd Inbhir Nis) is a historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area of Scotland. Covering much of the Highlands and Outer Hebrides, it is Scotland's largest county, though one of the smallest in populat ...
and
Kincardineshire.
Fish from the
North Sea
The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian S ...
ports and whisky from the distilleries of
Speyside became important goods traffic. The
Royal Family
A royal family is the immediate family of kings/queens, emirs/emiras, sultans/ sultanas, or raja/ rani and sometimes their extended family. The term imperial family appropriately describes the family of an emperor or empress, and the term p ...
used the Deeside Line for travel to and from
Balmoral Castle
Balmoral Castle () is a large estate house in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, and a residence of the British royal family. It is near the village of Crathie, west of Ballater and west of Aberdeen.
The estate and its original castle were boug ...
and when they were in residence a daily special 'Messenger Train' ran from Aberdeen; for most of the railway's life this was its only Sunday service. The company ran three hotels, and a network of feeder bus services was developed in the early 20th century. In 1923, it 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 tha ...
as its Northern Scottish area, passing on of line and 122 steam locomotives, most of them
4-4-0 tender locomotives. The railway had several branches, but only its main line remains today as part of the
Aberdeen to Inverness Line
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), an ...
.
History
Half way to Inverness, 1845–1858
Establishment and construction
In 1845 the Great North of Scotland Railway was formed to build a railway from
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), ...
to
Inverness
Inverness (; from the gd, Inbhir Nis , meaning "Mouth of the River Ness"; sco, Innerness) is a city in the Scottish Highlands. It is the administrative centre for The Highland Council and is regarded as the capital of the Highlands. Histo ...
. The proposed route, which needed few major engineering works, followed the
River Don to
Inverurie, via
Huntly
Huntly ( gd, Srath Bhalgaidh or ''Hunndaidh'') is a town in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, formerly known as Milton of Strathbogie or simply Strathbogie. It had a population of 4,460 in 2004 and is the site of Huntly Castle. Its neighbouring settleme ...
and
Keith
Keith may refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Keith (given name), includes a list of people and fictional characters
* Keith (surname)
* Keith (singer), American singer James Keefer (born 1949)
* Baron Keith, a line of Scottish barons ...
to a crossing of the
River Spey
The River Spey (Scottish Gaelic: Uisge Spè) is a river in the northeast of Scotland. At it is the eighth longest river in the United Kingdom, as well as the second longest and fastest-flowing river in Scotland. It is important for salmon fishi ...
, and then to
Elgin
Elgin may refer to:
Places
Canada
* Elgin County, Ontario
* Elgin Settlement, a 19th-century community for freed slaves located in present-day North Buxton and South Buxton, Chatham-Kent, Ontario
* Elgin, a village in Rideau Lakes, Ontario ...
and along the coast via
Nairn
Nairn (; gd, Inbhir Narann) is a town and royal burgh in the Highland council area of Scotland. It is an ancient fishing port and market town around east of Inverness, at the point where the River Nairn enters the Moray Firth. It is the t ...
to Inverness. Branch lines to
Banff,
Portsoy,
Garmouth and
Burghead would total . At the same time the Perth & Inverness Railway proposed a direct route over the
Grampian Mountains
The Grampian Mountains (''Am Monadh'' in Gaelic) is one of the three major mountain ranges in Scotland, that together occupy about half of Scotland. The other two ranges are the Northwest Highlands and the Southern Uplands. The Grampian range ...
to
Perth
Perth is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the Australian states and territories of Australia, state of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth most populous city in Aust ...
, and the Aberdeen, Banff & Elgin Railway suggested a route that followed the coast to better serve the
Banffshire
Banffshire ; sco, Coontie o Banffshire; gd, Siorrachd Bhanbh) is a historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area of Scotland. The county town is Banff, although the largest settlement is Buckie to the west. It borders the Mora ...
and
Morayshire
Moray; ( gd, Moireibh ) or Morayshire, called Elginshire until 1919, is a historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area of Scotland, bordering Nairnshire to the west, Inverness-shire to the south, and Banffshire to the east. It ...
fishing ports. Three
private bills were presented to
Parliament
In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. ...
seeking permission to build a railway, but the Aberdeen, Banff & Elgin failed to raise funds, and the Perth & Inverness Railway was rejected because the railway would be at altitudes that approached and needed steep gradients. The ''Great North of Scotland Railway Act'' received
Royal Assent
Royal assent is the method by which a monarch formally approves an act of the legislature, either directly or through an official acting on the monarch's behalf. In some jurisdictions, royal assent is equivalent to promulgation, while in othe ...
on 26 June 1846.
In the aftermath of the
railway mania railway companies became an unpopular investment and the necessary finance could not be raised. The company suggested at a meeting in November 1849 that whereas £650,000 was needed for a double-track railway from Aberdeen to Inverness, only £375,000 would be needed for a single-track railway from Kittybrewster, from Aberdeen, to Keith, half way to Inverness. The meeting recommended that the bridges and works be built wide enough for a second track when this was needed. Construction eventually began in November 1852, albeit to Huntly, short of Keith, with
William Cubitt as engineer. The severe winter the following year delayed work. Between Inverurie and Aberdeen the line took over the
Aberdeenshire Canal, the purchase of which delayed construction as it was necessary to settle the claims of each shareholder individually.
Opening
After an inspection by the
Board of Trade
The Board of Trade is a British government body concerned with commerce and industry, currently within the Department for International Trade. Its full title is The Lords of the Committee of the Privy Council appointed for the consideration of ...
, the railway opened to goods on 12 September 1854 and approval for the carriage of passengers was given two days later. The railway was officially opened on 19 September, and two locomotives hauling twenty-five carriages carrying 400 passengers left Kittybrewster at 11 am. The number of passengers had grown to about 650 by the time the train arrived to a celebration at Huntly at 1:12 pm. Public services began the following day.
There were stations at:
*
*Buxburn ( after 1897)
*
Dyce
Dyce ( gd, Deis) is a suburb of Aberdeen, Scotland, situated on the River Don about northwest of the city centre. It is best known as the location of Aberdeen Airport.
History
Dyce is the site of an early medieval church dedicated to the ...
*
Kinaldie (open after 1 December)
*
Kintore
*Inverury ( after 1866)
*
Pitcaple
*
Oyne
Oyne is a small village in rural Aberdeenshire at the bottom of Bennachie in Scotland.
Locality
The village has limited local resources. It once had a railway station which closed 6 May 1968, and now has a daily bus service to Inverurie away ...
*
Buchanstone (open after 1 December)
*
Insch
*
Wardhouse (open after 1 December)
*
Kennethmont
*
Gartly
*
Huntly
Huntly ( gd, Srath Bhalgaidh or ''Hunndaidh'') is a town in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, formerly known as Milton of Strathbogie or simply Strathbogie. It had a population of 4,460 in 2004 and is the site of Huntly Castle. Its neighbouring settleme ...
The railway was single track with
passing loop
A passing loop (UK usage) or passing siding (North America) (also called a crossing loop, crossing place, refuge loop or, colloquially, a hole) is a place on a single line railway or tramway, often located at or near a station, where trains or ...
s at the termini and at Kintore, Inverurie and Insch; the loop at Kittybrewster was clear of the platform to allow the locomotive to run round the carriages and push them into the station. A daily goods train took up to 3 hours 40 minutes for the , the goods to Aberdeen also carried passengers and mail and spared cattle a two-day drive to market. Initially there were three passenger services a day taking two hours, fares being
old pence (d) a mile for first class and d for third; on one train a day in each direction it was possible to travel for the statutory fare of 1d a mile. Although cheaper than travelling by coach, these fares and the charges for the transport of goods were considered high but not reduced for thirty years.
The railway opened short of rolling stock as only half of the twelve locomotives and twenty-four of forty passenger carriages ordered had arrived. The carriage builders, Brown, Marshall & Co of Birmingham, stated that based on their experience they had expected the line to open at least two months late. The third day after opening to passengers, on 23 September, there was a collision between two trains at Kittybrewster that resulted in the death of a passenger and several serious injuries. The inquiry found that the driver, attempting to make up time after a late start, had over-run previous stations and been approaching the terminus with excessive speed. The driver attempted to select reverse gear to slow the train but had failed to hold on to the lever, which slipped into forward, propelling the train into carriages waiting at the platform. The report also criticised the station staff, who should not have allowed the carriages to be waiting at the station. The layout at Kittybrewster was altered after the accident.
Waterloo, Keith and Inverness
The
Aberdeen Railway (AR) opened from the south to
Ferryhill
Ferryhill is a town in County Durham, England, with an estimated population in 2018 of 9,362. The town grew in the 1900s around the coal mining industry. The last mine officially closed in 1968. It is located between the towns of Bishop Auckla ...
, south of Aberdeen, in April 1850. It had been previously arranged that the Aberdeen and Great North would amalgamate, but this was annulled that year and the Aberdeen was seeking alliances with railways to the south. In 1854 the AR opened its Guild Street terminus in Aberdeen and the Great North sought and obtained powers for a branch that followed the Aberdeenshire Canal from Kittybrewster to a terminus at
Waterloo
Waterloo most commonly refers to:
* Battle of Waterloo, a battle on 18 June 1815 in which Napoleon met his final defeat
* Waterloo, Belgium, where the battle took place.
Waterloo may also refer to:
Other places
Antarctica
*King George Island (S ...
by the docks. The line was opened to goods traffic on 24 September 1855 and passengers on 1 April 1856. Kittybrewster station was rebuilt with through platforms and the offices moved to Waterloo station from premises at 75 Union Street. The stations were apart and a goods line was built though the docks linking the two railways, worked by horses as steam locomotives were prohibited.
The Inverness & Nairn Railway was authorised in 1854 to build a railway from Inverness to Nairn. The Great North, still seeking to reach Inverness, had objected but withdrew after running rights over the railway were promised. The line was opened on 6 November 1855, and Inverness & Elgin Junction Railway was formed to extend this line to Elgin. The Great North objected again, this time citing the expense of crossing the Spey, but withdrew after it was suggested that the cost of a bridge would be shared. The new company changed its name to
Inverness & Aberdeen Junction Railway, but no final undertaking on running rights was made.
The extension of the Great North to Keith was opened on 10 October 1856, with two intermediate stations at and
Grange. Initially five services a day ran between Aberdeen and Keith, taking between 2 hours 40 minutes and 3 hours 5 minutes, although the number of services was later reduced to four. The route between Nairn and Keith authorised on 21 July 1856 required less earthwork, reducing cost, but had steeper gradients than had originally been proposed, and the Great North contributed £40,000 towards a bridge over the Spey. The line reached
Dalvey
Dalvey is a settlement in Jamaica
Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies ...
(near Forres) in 1857, and Keith on 18 August 1858. Three services a day ran the between Aberdeen and Inverness, increasing to five a day east of Keith, and the journey to Inverness took between 5 hours and 55 minutes and 6 hours 30 minutes. The Great North did not insist on running rights west of Keith, but through carriages were probably provided from the start.
Expansion, 1854–1866
Formartine and Buchan Railway
Permission to build a line to serve the fishing ports at
Peterhead and
Fraserburgh was received in 1846, but this lapsed during the financial collapse that had followed. Two rival bills were presented in 1856, one by the Formartine and Buchan Railway and backed by the Great North, and another by the Aberdeen, Peterhead & Fraserburgh Railway. Both companies failed to obtain permission for two years, but in 1858 the Formartine and Buchan Railway was successful. A long railway from
Dyce
Dyce ( gd, Deis) is a suburb of Aberdeen, Scotland, situated on the River Don about northwest of the city centre. It is best known as the location of Aberdeen Airport.
History
Dyce is the site of an early medieval church dedicated to the ...
to Old Deer (renamed in 1867) opened on 18 July 1861 and the main line between Kittybrewster and Dyce was doubled. The branch was extended the to a
station at Peterhead the following year and a long branch north from to
Fraserburgh station
Fraserburgh (; sco, The Broch or ; gd, A' Bhruaich) is a town in Aberdeenshire, Scotland with a population recorded in the 2011 Census at 13,100. It lies at the far northeast corner of Aberdeenshire, about north of Aberdeen, and north of P ...
opened on 24 April 1865. Three or four services a day ran between Aberdeen, Fraserburgh and Peterhead, with the trains dividing at Maud; travel times were between and hours. The railway was absorbed by the Great North of Scotland Railway on 1 August 1866.
Alford Valley Railway
The
Alford Valley Railway
The Alford Valley Railway is a narrow gauge railway in the Howe of Alford, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It is located at what used to be the terminus of the passenger and goods Alford Valley Railway which connected with the Great North of Scotl ...
left the main line at Kintore for . The railway was authorised in 1856 with the backing of the Great North; most of the company's directors were also on the board of the Great North. The line was steeply graded over a summit at Tillyfourie, at between 1 in 70 and 1 in 75. The line opened in 1859 with a service of four trains a day calling at , and . In 1862 the Great North guaranteed the company's debts and it was subsequently absorbed by the Great North of Scotland Railway on 1 August 1866.
Inverury and Old Meldrum Junction Railway
The branch from Inverurie, backed by local residents with funding from the Great North, was authorised on 15 June 1855. The official opening took place on 26 June 1856 with public services starting on 1 July. Journeys took from 18 to 20 minutes to cover the to Old Meldrum with a stop at ; a further station opened in 1866 at . In June 1858 the line was leased to the Great North for a rental of £650 per year (). The railway was absorbed by the Great North of Scotland Railway on 1 August 1866.
Banff, Macduff and Turriff Railways
Plans to reach fishing ports at Macduff and Banff from Inverurie were proposed when the Great North was first suggested, but failed because of the lack of financial support. A different route, from
Milton Inveramsay
Milton may refer to:
Names
* Milton (surname), a surname (and list of people with that surname)
** John Milton (1608–1674), English poet
* Milton (given name)
** Milton Friedman (1912–2006), Nobel laureate in Economics, author of '' Free ...
, allowed for a shorter route with easier gradients. Unable to raise sufficient money for a line to the coast, a shorter line to was built. The Great North invested in the railway, and directors sat on the board of the Junction Railway. The new line, together with a junction station at , opened on 5 September 1857. A separate company, the Banff, Macduff and Turriff Extension Railway, built an extension to a station called . The line was operated by the Great North from 4 June 1860, and served an inconvenient terminus high on a hill from
Macduff and from the bridge across the
River Deveron to Banff. Four trains a day ran from Inveramsay, taking between 1 hour 30 minutes and 1 hour 50 minutes, with connections with services to Aberdeen. Both railways were absorbed by the Great North of Scotland Railway on 1 August 1866, and the line was extended to a new station in 1872.
Banff, Portsoy and Strathisla Railway
The railway was authorised in 1857 from Grange, on the Great North main line, to
Banff, with a branch from to . The chairman of the company, Thomas Bruce, was also deputy chairman of the Inverness & Aberdeen Junction Railway, with the other directors being made up of local men; most of the investments were raised locally and in small amounts. Most of the line was built with gradients up to 1 in 70, but the half-mile of 1 in 30 goods line to the harbour at Portsoy was restricted to one locomotive and four wagons. The railway opened on 30 July 1859, with public services starting on 2 August following a derailment on the opening day. Services connected with the Great North at Grange. With the railway struggling to pay the interest on its debt, in 1863 the Great North took over running the services and the line renamed the Banffshire Railway. The Great North provided three trains a day between Grange and Banff that connected at Tillynaught for Portsoy, and two trains a day along the coast between Banff and Portsoy. Permission for a extension from Portsoy to Portgordon was given, but the necessary investment could not be found. Amalgamation with the Great North was authorised in 1866, but financial problems delayed this until 12 August 1867, and the Portgordon extension was abandoned.
Keith and Dufftown Railway
The Great North sought to have its own route west of Keith, with
Grantown-on-Spey as an objective, where it hoped to meet any possible line between Perth and Inverness. To this end, it invested in the Keith and Dufftown Railway; this company was incorporated on 27 July 1857, but lack of money slowed progress. Powers for a longer, but cheaper, route between the two towns were secured on 25 May 1860. The revised route included steeper gradients than those planned in 1857; the maximum gradient was now 1 in 60 instead of 1 in 70. There was a viaduct over the
Fiddich of two spans, and there were three intermediate stations: Earlsmill (renamed in 1897), Botriphnie (renamed in 1862) and . When the line opened on 21 February 1862, the trains were worked by the Great North under an agreement dating from the formation of the company. The railway was absorbed by the Great North of Scotland Railway on 1 August 1866.
Strathspey Railway
With promises of substantial goods traffic of iron and timber and from the local whisky distilleries, extension of the line to Dufftown into Strathspey was sought and obtained on 17 May 1861. The Strathspey Railway was sponsored by the Keith & Dufftown and Great North of Scotland Railways, who appointed directors to the board, and the Great North undertook to run the services. The line first headed north to meet an extension of the Morayshire Railway at Strathspey Junction (called from 1864), before following the River Spey to
Abernethy. The Act also permitted a branch to the proposed
Inverness & Perth Junction Railway at Grantown-on-Spey. The gradients were not severe, but the route required the Spey and its tributaries to be crossed many times, with three bridges built over the river itself. The line was placed in cuttings greater than deep, and there was one long tunnel. The line was opened on 1 July 1863 to Abernethy (later called ). The line between Dufftown and Craigellachie became the main line and services continued over the Morayshire Railway, opening up a route between Keith and independent of the Inverness & Aberdeen Junction Railway (IAJR). The IAJR kept most of the through traffic as its line was more direct, only instead of via the Great North route. The Great North ran four trains a day from Elgin to Keith via Craigellachie, with through carriages or connections for three trains for Aberdeen at Keith. Connections at Elgin were poor because travel over the two routes took a different length of time.
The line from Craigellachie became a branch with three trains a day calling at all stations at an average speed of about . The link to Grantown-on-Spey was not built, but on 1 August 1866 services were extended to meet the IAJR (now the
Highland Railway
The Highland Railway (HR) was one of the smaller British railways before the Railways Act 1921, operating north of Perth railway station in Scotland and serving the farthest north of Britain. Based in Inverness, the company was formed by mer ...
) at . The railways met north of Boat and conflict arose over the manning of the signalbox at the junction, with the Highland refusing to make any contribution. For a while between March and June 1868 Great North services terminated at Nethy Bridge, after which separate tracks side by side were provided for both companies to Boat. Prompt connections were available with the Great North at Craigellachie, but there was usually a long wait for connections with the Highland at Boat. The railway's was absorbed by the Great North of Scotland Railway on 1 August 1866, and the line's main source of income came from the local distilleries.
Morayshire Railway
A double-track railway had been proposed from
Lossiemouth
Lossiemouth ( gd, Inbhir Losaidh) is a town in Moray, Scotland. Originally the port belonging to Elgin, Moray, Elgin, it became an important fishing town. Although there has been over 1,000 years of settlement in the area, the present day town wa ...
to
Craigellachie in 1841 and necessary permissions granted in 1846, the route having changed to take advantage of the proposed Great North of Scotland Railway between Elgin and Orton. The financial situation delayed construction, but work eventually started on the section from Lossiemouth to Elgin in 1851. The line opened on 10 August 1852 with a special train from Elgin to festivities in Lossiemouth. Public services started the next day with five services a day, each taking 15 minutes with two request stops. First and second class accommodation was provided at d and 1d a mile. However, it was the Inverness & Aberdeen Junction Railway (IAJR) who was to build the line from Elgin to Orton; permission to build a branch from this line to
Rothes
Rothes (; gd, Ràthais) is a town in Moray, Scotland, on the banks of the River Spey, south of Elgin. The town had a population of 1,252 at the 2011 Census. A settlement has been here since AD 600.
History and castle
At the south end of the ...
was granted to the Morayshire on 14 July 1856. The IAJR built its own station at Elgin, linked to the Morayshire's station by a junction to the east. The IAJR opened on 18 August 1858 and the Morayshire Railway started running services on 23 August.
Initially the Morayshire ran trains over the IAJR, but its lightweight locomotives struggled with the gradients and proved unreliable, and after six weeks carriages were attached and detached from IAJR trains at Elgin and Orton. Conflict arose over through ticketing, and the directors of the Morayshire responded with plans to build its own line between the two stations. The Great North sponsored the new line and offered to provide services after the lines had been physically connected. Permission was granted on 3 July 1860, goods were carried from 30 December 1861 and passengers from 1 January 1862, reducing the travel time from 55 to 45 minutes. The Morayshire station at Elgin was enlarged in anticipation of Great North services, albeit in wood.
In 1861 permission was granted to the Morayshire Railway to cross the Spey and join with the Strathspey Railway at Craigellachie. The Morayshire extension and the Strathspey both opened on 1 July 1863 and the Great North provided a service of four trains a day over the line, which gave an alternative route between Keith and Elgin. On 30 July 1866 permission was given to the Morayshire and Great North to amalgamate with agreement, and the loss-making services between Orton and Rothes were withdrawn without notice the following day. It would be August 1881 before the Morayshire became fully part of the Great North.
Aberdeen joint station
The wooden station building at Waterloo was a from the Aberdeen and Deeside's Guild Street station and passengers were conveyed between the termini by omnibus, paid for in the through fare and with forty five minutes being allowed for the transfer. The Great North refused to hold its trains to connect with those arriving at Guild Street and insisted that tickets were purchased at least five minutes before the train was due to depart. The mail train would be held until the Post Office van had arrived and the mail was on board, but the station locked at the advertised departure time to prevent connecting passengers further delaying the train. This inconvenienced passengers, as was pointed out to the general manager during a parliamentary committee meeting by a
Member of Parliament
A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house ...
who had missed a connection, although his family and luggage had been sent on. The Great North promoted onward traffic by sea and approached the
Aberdeen Steam Navigation Company
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), an ...
to see if rates could be reduced for through traffic and through ticketing by rail was not available until 1859, when the Great North joined the
Railway Clearing House.
A joint line through the Denburn Valley to link the Great North to the south had been planned, and the Great North had approached the railways using the Guild Street station in 1853 and 1857 but were unhappy with the assistance that had been offered. Permission was granted in 1861 to the Inverness & Perth Junction Railway to build a line from , on the Inverness & Aberdeen Junction Railway, direct to Perth. The Great North protested, and won the right for a booking office in Inverness. The line opened in 1863 and in 1865 the Inverness & Perth Junction and Inverness & Aberdeen Junction merged to become the Highland Railway. The Aberdeen Railway, which had now been absorbed by the
Scottish North Eastern Railway (SNER), approached the Great North, concerned that the new line had bypassed Aberdeen, but no agreement was reached.
The Limpet Mill Scheme was a line presented in an 1862 bill by the nominally independent Scottish Northern Junction Railway, but supported by the SNER. This proposed a long railway between Limpet Mill, to the north of on the SNER, to the Great North at Kintore. A junction with the Deeside Railway was also planned, over which the SNER unsuccessfully tried to obtain running rights. Unpopular, this was given permission by parliament, but the Great North succeeded in inserting a clause that this would be suspended if it obtained an Act by 1 September 1863. The Great North proposed a route, known locally as the ''Circumbendibus'', that was longer but cheaper than the direct route through the Denburn Valley. Despite local opposition, the route was approved by parliament in 1863, but was revoked the following year when the SNER obtained permission for a railway through the Denburn Valley. The Great North contributed the £125,000 that its Circumbendibus line would have cost and the SNER contributed £70,000 out of the £90,000 it had been prepared to advance the Limpet Mill Scheme. The SNER built the double-track railway, culverting the Denburn and digging two short tunnels. The joint station opened on 4 November 1867 and consisted of three through tracks, one with a long platform, together with two bay platforms for terminating trains at either end. Two lines to the west were provided for goods traffic, and the stations at Waterloo and Guild Street closed to passengers and became goods terminals. The line to the north of the station passed to the Great North and the long Hutcheon Street tunnel became its longest.
Deeside Railway
A railway to serve
Deeside
Deeside ( cy, Glannau Dyfrdwy) is the name given to a predominantly industrial conurbation of towns and villages in Flintshire and Cheshire on the Wales–England border lying near the canalised stretch of the River Dee that flows from neigh ...
was authorised on 16 July 1846, but it was decided to wait for the Aberdeen Railway to open first. The company survived after the railway mania as the Aberdeen Railway bought a large number of shares. Interest in the line was restored after
Prince Albert
Prince Albert most commonly refers to:
*Albert, Prince Consort (1819–1861), consort of Queen Victoria
*Albert II, Prince of Monaco (born 1958), present head of state of Monaco
Prince Albert may also refer to:
Royalty
* Albert I of Belgium ...
purchased
Balmoral Castle
Balmoral Castle () is a large estate house in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, and a residence of the British royal family. It is near the village of Crathie, west of Ballater and west of Aberdeen.
The estate and its original castle were boug ...
, to which the Royal Family made their first visit in 1848, and the Aberdeen Railway was able to sell its shares. Investors were still hard to find, but a line as far as
Banchory
Banchory (, sco, Banchry, gd, Beannchar) is a burgh or town in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It is about west of Aberdeen, near where the Feugh River meets the River Dee.
Prehistory and archaeology
In 2009, a farmer discovered a short cist b ...
was ceremonially opened on 7 September 1853; public services began the following day with three trains a day that took about an hour. First class accommodation was available for d a mile, reduced to 1d a mile for third class. Initially services were operated by the Aberdeen Railway to its terminus at Ferryhill, and the Deeside Railway used a horse to shunt wagons at Banchory. In 1854 the Deeside introduced its own rolling stock and ran through to the Aberdeen's Guild Street station which opened the same year.
A new company, the Aboyne Extension, was formed to reach . Instead of building two bridges across the Dee, as had been proposed in 1846, the railway instead took a cheaper but longer route through
Lumphanan
Lumphanan ( ; gd, Lann Fhìonain) is a village in Aberdeenshire, Scotland located from Aberdeen and from Banchory.
History
Lumphanan is documented to be the site of the Battle of Lumphanan of 1057 AD, where Malcolm III of Scotland defeate ...
, and services were extended over the new line on 2 December 1859. The Aboyne & Braemar Railway was formed to build a line from Aboyne the to
Braemar
Braemar is a village in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, around west of Aberdeen in the Highlands. It is the closest significantly-sized settlement to the upper course of the River Dee sitting at an elevation of .
The Gaelic ''Bràigh Mhàrr'' pr ...
. The line was to follow the Dee before crossing it from Braemar, but the plans were modified to terminate the line at
Bridge of Gairn
A bridge is a structure built to span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, which is usually somethi ...
with the passenger terminus short at . This route opened to Ballater on 17 October 1866, and the line to Bridge of Gairn remained unfinished. By 1855 there five services a day over the long line, taking between 1 hour 50 minutes and hours.
The Royal Family used the line from 1853 to travel to Balmoral Castle; in September 1866 the
British Royal Train used Ballater station nearly a month before public services reached the station. At first
Queen Victoria
Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of any previ ...
visited once a year, this becoming twice a year after Albert died in 1861. The number of visits returned to one a year after
Edward VII
Edward VII (Albert Edward; 9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Emperor of India, from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910.
The second child and eldest son of Queen Victoria a ...
became king in 1901. From 8 October 1865 a daily 'Messenger Train' ran when the Royal Family was at Balmoral. First class accommodation was available on these trains; accompanying servants were charged third class fares. In the late 1850s and early 1860s the Great North and the Scottish North Eastern Railway (SNER) were in conflict over the joint station in Aberdeen. Frustrated with lack of progress, the SNER proposed a new line that crossed the Deeside Railway. Whilst in discussions with the SNER about a link from this new line to the Deeside, a lease for the Deeside Railway was offered to the Great North, which was rapidly accepted. The Deeside board accepted the lease by a majority vote on 13 May 1862, and it was approved by Parliament on 30 July 1866. The Aboyne & Braemar remained independent, although services were operated by the Great North.
Amalgamation
After opening to Keith in 1854 the Great North of Scotland Railway operated over of line. Ten years later this had almost quadrupled but more than three-quarters was over leased or subsidiary railways. Eventual amalgamation with many of these railways had been prompted from the start. The necessary authority was sought and on 30 July 1866 the ''Great North of Scotland Railway (Amalgamation) Act'' received Royal Assent, this Act also permitting the Great North to lease the Deeside Railway. The other companies merged two days later, except the Banffshire and Morayshire, which had started as separate undertakings and were not included in the 1866 Act, although permission for the Banffshire to merge was gained the following year. After the extension of the Deeside opened in 1866 and the merger of the Banffshire the following year the Great North of Scotland Railway owned of line and operated over a further .
Austerity, 1866–1879
In 1855, the first full year after opening, the Great North of Scotland declared a
dividend
A dividend is a distribution of profits by a corporation to its shareholders. When a corporation earns a profit or surplus, it is able to pay a portion of the profit as a dividend to shareholders. Any amount not distributed is taken to be re-inv ...
of per cent, which rose to the following year and 5 per cent in 1859. The dividend reached a maximum of per cent in 1862 before dropping to 7 per cent the following year and 5 per cent in 1864, but in 1865 the directors could not pay any dividend on ordinary shares. At the directors' suggestion a committee was set up to look into their actions; the report's main recommendation was the abandonment of the Port Gordon extension. The opening of direct route over the Highland Railway to the south had lost the through mail business, resulting in the withdrawal of Sunday services, and had lost revenue equivalent to a five per cent dividend. Joining the Clearing House system had resulted in the loss of twenty-five per cent of goods traffic income and the conflict over the joint station in Aberdeen had been expensive and resulted in an overpriced lease on the Deeside. The collapse of
Overend, Gurney and Company Bank in 1866 meant that for three months the bank rate rose to 10 per cent, making the company's financial situation worse.
The whole board resigned and six members did not seek re-appointment. At the beginning of 1867 the company owed £800,000 () and the new board imposed austerity measures. It would be 1874 before most of the company's debt was settled and it became possible to pay a dividend again. The only line built in the early 70s was the to Macduff and few carriages and no locomotives were built until 1876. The Deeside Railway merged in 1875, the Aboyne & Braemar extension to Ballater in January 1876, and the Morayshire Railway was absorbed in 1880. After an engine boiler exploded at Nethy Bridge in September 1878, the inquiry found the testing of boilers infrequent and inadequate. It was sixteen months before the locomotive was repaired.
Renaissance, 1879–1899
Renewal and extension
In 1879 the chairman, Lord Provost Leslie, died and was replaced by William Ferguson of Kinmundy. The following year both the Secretary and General Manager resigned and William Moffatt was appointed to both posts, and A.G. Reid became Superintendent of the Line. The railway was now paying a dividend and seeing increased traffic, but rolling stock, track, signals and stations all needed replacing in a project that was to cost £250,000 (). By June 1880 the main line was doubled as far as Kintore, and over the next five years of iron rail track, much of it without
fishplates
A fishplate joins two lengths of track
A fishplate, splice bar or joint bar is a metal connecting plate used to bolt the ends of two rails into a continuous track. The name is derived from ''fish'', a wooden reinforcement of a "built-up" ship's ...
, was replaced with steel rails and the main line doubled between
Dyce
Dyce ( gd, Deis) is a suburb of Aberdeen, Scotland, situated on the River Don about northwest of the city centre. It is best known as the location of Aberdeen Airport.
History
Dyce is the site of an early medieval church dedicated to the ...
and
Inveramsay
Balquhain, also known as Balquhain Stone Circle, is a recumbent stone circle from Inverurie in Scotland. It is a scheduled ancient monument.
Description and measurements
It is located in farmland at an altitude of c. on a terraced hillside lea ...
. The railway had acquired a reputation for running slow trains on a perverse timetable and ill-treating its passengers, and now resolved to address this. By the mid-1880s services were faster, there was upholstery in third class and the branches saw an accelerated service as a result of running fewer mixed trains.
On 27 November 1882 Inverythan Bridge on the Macduff Branch near collapsed as a locomotive hauling five goods wagons, a brake van and four carriages crossed. The locomotive and tender crossed the bridge, but the wagons and carriages fell to the road below, killing five people who had been travelling in the first and second carriages and injuring fifteen others. The Board of Trade report found that the collapse was due to an internal fault in a cast iron beam that had been fitted when the bridge had been built in 1857.
A bill was introduced to parliament in 1881 to extend the line from Portsoy along the
Moray Firth to
Buckie, to be opposed by the Highland and rejected. The following year both the Great North and Highland railways applied to parliament, the Great North for a line from Portsoy along the coast through Buckie to Elgin, and the Highland for a branch from Keith to Buckie and
Cullen. Authority was granted, but in the case of the Highland Railway only for a line as far as
Portessie, with running rights over the Great North coast line between Buckie and Portsoy and the Great North obtaining reciprocal rights over the Highland railway between Elgin and Forres. The coast line opened in stages, the outer sections from Portsoy to Tochieneal and Elgin to Garmouth opening in 1884. The centre section, which involved heavy engineering, with a long viaduct with a central span of over the Spey at Garmouth and embankments and viaducts at Cullen, opened in May 1886. The line was served by four trains a day and a fast through train from Aberdeen that reached Elgin in hours. The Highland Portessie branch had opened in 1884 and the Highland did not exercise its running rights over the Coast Line, thus preventing the Great North running over its lines west of Elgin.
The Great North had opened using a system of telegraphic train orders, and as the signalling was being upgraded this was being replaced with electric tablet working over the single line sections. Now express trains had to slow to exchange tokens in a process that frequently left railwaymen injured, so James Manson, the locomotive superintendent, designed an automatic token exchange system based on apparatus used to move cotton in a factory. At first tokens were exchanged at , but soon they were exchanged at line speed. After trialling on the Fraserburgh line, the system was installed on the coast route in May 1889, and by 1 January 1893 it was in operation on all single-line sections.
Aberdeen to Inverness
The Great North and Highland had agreed in 1865 that Keith would be the exchange point for traffic between the two railways, but in 1886 the Great North had two lines to Elgin that, although longer than the Highland's direct line, served more populous areas. The coastal route between Keith and Elgin was long but had easier gradients than the via Craigellachie. The Highland's main line south from Inverness was via Forres, the Great North believing that their competitors treated the line to Elgin as a branch. In 1883 a shorter route south from Inverness was promoted by an independent company, the bill defeated in parliament only after the Highland had promised to request authority for a shorter line. The following year, as well as the Highland's more direct line from Aviemore, the Great North proposed a branch from its Speyside Section to Inverness. The Highland Railway route was chosen, but the Great North won a concession that goods and passengers that could be exchanged at any junction with through bookings and with services conveniently arranged.
In 1885 the Great North re-timed the 10:10 am Aberdeen service to reach Keith at 11:50 am with through carriages that reached Elgin via Craigellachie at 1 pm. This connected with a Highland service at both Keith and Elgin, until the Highland re-timed the train and broke the connection at Elgin. The Great North applied to the Board of Trade for an order for two connections a day at Elgin. This was refused, but in 1886 the Great North and Highland railways came to an agreement to pool receipts from the stations between Grange and Elgin and refer any disputes to an arbiter. The midday Highland train was re-timed to connect with the Great North at Keith and Elgin, and a service connected at Elgin with an Aberdeen train that had divided en route to travel via the coast and Craigellachie.
In 1893 the Highland cancelled the traffic agreement and withdrew two connecting trains, complaining that they were unprofitable. One of the trains was reinstated after an appeal was made to the
Railway & Canal Commissioners and a frustrated Great North applied to parliament in 1895 for running powers to Inverness, but withdrew after it was agreed that the Railway & Canal Commissioners would arbitrate in the matter. With no judgement by 1897, the Great North prepared to apply again for running powers over the Highland to Inverness, this time agreeing to double track the line, but the commissioners published their finding before the bill was submitted to parliament. Traffic was to be exchanged at both Elgin and Keith, the services exchanged at Elgin needed to include through carriages from both the Craigellachie and the coast routes, and the timetable had to be approved by the commissioners. The resulting Commissioners' Service started in 1897 with eight through services, four via the Highland to Keith taking between and 5 hours, and four with carriages exchanged at Elgin with portions that travelled via Craigellachie and the coast, two of these taking hours. The 3 pm from Inverness to Aberdeen via Keith took 3 hours 5 minutes. Initially portions for the coast and Craigellachie divided at Huntly, but Cairnie Platform was opened at Grange Junction in summer 1898. The main line was double track to Huntly in 1896 and Keith in 1898, except for a single-track bridge over the Deveron between Avochie and Rothiemay, which was replaced by a double-track bridge in 1900.
Subbies and hotels
In 1880 an express was introduced on the Deeside Line, taking 90 minutes to travel from Aberdeen to Ballater; by 1886 this had reduced to 75 minutes. In 1887 the service between Aberdeen and Dyce had improved with more local trains and new stations; by the end of that year there were twelve trains a day, eventually becoming twenty trains a day calling at nine stops in twenty minutes. The trains were initially called the ''Jubilees'', as it was
Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee, but became known as the ''Subbies''. Suburban services were also introduced between Aberdeen and Culter on the Deeside Line in 1894, after the track had been doubled, starting with ten down and nine up trains calling at seven stops in twenty-two minutes. The number of trains was eventually doubled and an additional station provided.
In 1891 the company offices were moved from Waterloo to a new building in Guild Street with direct access to the station. The same year the Great North took over the Palace Hotel (closed after a fire in 1941), near the joint railway station in Aberdeen and modernised it, installing electric lighting and building a covered way between the hotel and station. Encouraged by its success, the company obtained permission in 1893 to build an hotel and golf course at
Cruden Bay, about north of Aberdeen. The hotel was linked to the Great North by the
Boddam Branch, a new single-track branch from Ellon, on the Buchan section, which served Cruden Bay and fishing town at
Boddam. The line opened in 1897 with services from Ellon taking about forty minutes. The hotel opened in 1899, connected to the railway station by the
Cruden Bay Hotel Tramway. This was nearly long, with a gauge of and operated by electric tramcars that took power from an overhead line. Seasonal through services to Aberdeen began in 1899 with an up service in the morning; for some years an afternoon up service returned in the evening. Excursions for tourists had operated on the Deeside Line from 1881, later joined by special services on the Strathspey Line and the Coast Line alongside the Moray Firth, promoted as the ''Scottish Riviera''.
Maturity, 1900–1914
There was interest at the end of the 19th century in using the new ''
Light Railways Act 1896'' to approve lines to serve rural areas. The long Aberdeenshire Light Railway was independently promoted in 1896 to serve
Skene and
Echt
Echt may refer to:
* Echt, Aberdeenshire, a village in Scotland
* Echt-Susteren, a municipality in the Netherlands
** Echt, Netherlands, a city in the municipality
*** Echt railway station
* Echt (band), a 1997–2002 German pop group
* Echt ...
, with tracks laid along the public roads in Aberdeen. The Great North proposed an alternative Echt Light Railway and a line to
Newburgh that would both use the
Aberdeen tramway
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), ...
tracks in the city. In 1897 a line from Echt to Aberdeen was approved, but only as far the city outskirts after opposition to laying tracks in the public roads or using the tramways for goods traffic. The plans were changed to connect the line with the Great North at Kittybrewster, but the scheme abandoned after the costs had started to rise.
The Great North was granted a
Light Railway Order on 8 September 1899 for a light railway from Fraserburgh to
St Combs
St Combs is a small fishing village in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, immediately southwest of Inverallochy. It has existed since at least the 17th century, and takes its name from a church to St Colm (or Columba) that used to exist in the area and was ...
. The Order included a clause, unusual for the time, permitting the use of electric traction; but the company opted for steam traction, and the locomotives were fitted with
cowcatchers as the line was unfenced. Services started on 1 July 1903, with six trains a day that took 17 minutes to complete the journey. A light railway was proposed to cover the from Fraserburgh to
Rosehearty, but the scheme was abandoned after opposition to laying tracks on the public road.
Finding its locomotive works at Kittybrewster cramped and inadequate, the Great North began construction on a new
works at Inverurie in 1898, electric lighting being provided in the buildings. The carriage and wagon department moved in 1901, the locomotive department in 1902, the offices the following year and the permanent way department in 1905; the buildings still stand and are
listed Category B. Inverurie station was rebuilt nearer the works in 1902, and is similarly a Category B building. The Great North built houses nearby for its staff, lit by electricity generated at the works, and the
Inverurie Loco Works Football Club was formed by staff in 1902.
The Great North rebuilt Elgin station in 1902 to replace a temporary wooden building dating from the 1860s, a joint structure with the adjacent station having been declined by the Highland Railway. Following negotiations, amalgamation of the Highland and the Great North of Scotland Railways was accepted by the Great North shareholders in early 1906, but the Highland board withdrew after opposition from a minority of its shareholders. The Aberdeen and Inverness trains were jointly worked after 1908 and locomotives were no longer exchanged at Keith or Elgin; between 1914 and 1916 the Highland paid the Great North to provide locomotives for all of the services through to Inverness.
In spring 1904 the Great North began a motor omnibus service to Braemar, connecting with trains at Ballater. These early buses had solid tyres and a legal speed limit of , but were faster than the horse-drawn coaches they replaced. By 1907 buses connected with Great North train services and conveyed passengers to
Strathdon
Strathdon (; Gaelic: ''Srath Dheathain'') is an area in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It is situated in the strath of the River Don, 45 miles west of Aberdeen in the Highlands. The main village in the strath is also called Strathdon, although it wa ...
,
Midmar, Echt,
Cluny Castle and
Aberchirder
Aberchirder ( sco, Fogieloan, Gaelic: ''Obar Chiardair'') known locally as Foggieloan or Foggie, is a village in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, situated on the A97 road six miles west of Turriff.
Etymology
The name Aberchirder, recorded in c.120 ...
, between
Cock Bridge and
Tomintoul a horse-drawn coach was used as the motor buses could not ascend the steep road. Services from Aberdeen connected with trains at , where a refreshment room was built. In 1914 the railway had 35 passenger road vehicles that, together with 15 five-ton lorries, worked daily.
Aberdeen joint station was congested, resulting in delayed trains, and the low, open platforms were frequently covered in oily slime due to the large quantities of fish that passed through. Agreement with the
Caledonian Railway
The Caledonian Railway (CR) was a major Scottish railway company. It was formed in the early 19th century with the objective of forming a link between English railways and Glasgow. It progressively extended its network and reached Edinburgh an ...
over rebuilding the station had been reached in 1899, but the companies fell out over widening the line to the south. Moving the goods station to the east was similarly complex, with conflicts with the harbour commissioners and the town council. In 1908 new platforms on the western side opened and the adjoining station hotel was bought in 1910. Foundations for the new building were laid in 1913 and the station was largely complete by July 1914, although outbreak of war delayed further progress and the station was finally completed in 1920.
War and grouping, 1914–1922
With
Britain's declaration of war on the German Empire on 4 August 1914, the government took control of the railways under the ''Regulation of the Forces Act 1871''. Day-to-day operations were left in the control of local management, but movements necessary for the war were coordinated by a committee of general managers. The Great North of Scotland's main role was providing a relief route when the Highland Railway route south to Perth was congested, on one Sunday conveying twenty-one troop specials from Keith to Aberdeen. Timber from the forests of the north of Scotland were carried from sidings at Kemnay, Knockando and Nethy Bridge. A total of 609 staff left to serve in the war, and a memorial to the 93 who died in action was erected at the offices in Aberdeen. Services were maintained until 1916, when staff shortages reduced services, although no lines were closed.
The railways were in a poor state after the war, costs having increased, with higher wages, the introduction of an
eight-hour day
The eight-hour day movement (also known as the 40-hour week movement or the short-time movement) was a social movement to regulate the length of a working day, preventing excesses and abuses.
An eight-hour work day has its origins in the 1 ...
and increased price of coal. A scheme was devised whereby the railways would be grouped into four large companies; this was approved by parliament as the ''
Railways Act 1921
The Railways Act 1921 (c. 55), also known as the Grouping Act, was an Act of Parliament enacted by the British government and intended to stem the losses being made by many of the country's 120 railway companies, by "grouping" them into four l ...
''. At the start of the 20th century the company's shares had been restructured; the final dividends were 3 per cent on preferred stock, unaltered from previously, and per cent on ordinary stock, slightly above average. Before grouping the Great North of Scotland Railway operated of track.
London and North Eastern Railway
On 1 January 1923 the Great North of Scotland became an isolated part of the Scottish division 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 tha ...
(LNER), the Caledonian to the south and Highland to the west both becoming part of a different group, the
London, Midland and Scottish Railway
The London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMSIt has been argued that the initials LMSR should be used to be consistent with LNER, GWR and SR. The London, Midland and Scottish Railway's corporate image used LMS, and this is what is generally ...
. That summer a sleeping carriage operated between Lossiemouth and , and a through carriage ran from to Cruden Bay on Fridays. Sunday services were re-introduced; from 1928 Aberdeen suburban services ran hourly during the afternoon and evenings. Afterwards the economic situation deteriorated and the railway companies advised the trade unions in 1928 that wages would need to be cut; this was implemented in August 1930 after the
Wall Street Crash the previous year. Economy measures were introduced and unprofitable passenger services withdrawn, the Oldmeldrum branch closing on 2 November 1931 and the branch to Cruden Bay and Boddam on 31 October 1932. Road transport was arranged for guests at the Cruden Bay hotel, from Ellon for the first summer season, and then from Aberdeen.
Carriages were transferred in to replace the older four-wheelers, former
North Eastern Railway vehicles in 1924–25 and fifty former
Great Eastern Railway
The Great Eastern Railway (GER) was a pre-grouping British railway company, whose main line linked London Liverpool Street to Norwich and which had other lines through East Anglia. The company was grouped into the London and North Eastern R ...
six-wheelers between 1926 and 1929 for the Aberdeen suburban services. By 1936 more up to date
Gresley bogie carriages were used on the primary trains. Optimism returned and traffic increased after 1933, and a luxury rail land cruise, the "Northern Belle", ran over former Great North lines. However, the Aberdeen subbies had been losing money for some time as a result of competition from the local buses, and from 5 April 1937 the local services between Aberdeen, Dyce and Culter were withdrawn and most of the intermediate stations closed.
The railways were again placed under government control on 1 September 1939, and
Britain was at war two days later. The Cruden Bay Hotel was used as an army hospital and the tramway ceased operating in 1941. Handed back to the railway in 1945, it never reopened. The Palace Hotel burnt down in 1941. The Station Hotel was used as an admiralty administrative centre, and reopened in 1950 after refurbishment.
British Railways
Britain's railways were nationalised on 1 January 1948 and the former Great North of Scotland Railway lines were placed under the control of the
Scottish Region of
British Railways. To reduce costs the Alford branch was closed to passengers on 2 January 1950, followed by the Macduff Branch on 1 October 1951.
The
1955 Modernisation Plan, known formally as the "Modernisation and Re-Equipment of the British Railways", was published in December 1954, and with the aim of increasing speed and reliability the steam trains were replaced with electric and diesel traction. In 1958 a battery-electric railcar was introduced on the Deeside Line and a diesel railbus on the Speyside Section.
Diesel Multiple Unit
A diesel multiple unit or DMU is a multiple-unit train powered by on-board diesel engines. A DMU requires no separate locomotive, as the engines are incorporated into one or more of the carriages. Diesel-powered single-unit railcars are als ...
s (DMU) took over services to Peterhead and Fraserburgh in 1959 and from 1960 cross-country types were used on an accelerated Aberdeen to Inverness service that allowed hours for four stops. By 1961 the only service still using steam locomotives was the branch from Tillynaught to Banff.
In 1963
Dr Beeching published his report "The Reshaping of British Railways", which recommended closing the network's least used stations and lines. Only the Aberdeen to Keith main line survived, albeit without its stopping services and the remaining former Great North lines closed to passengers. The Lossiemouth and Banff branch closed in 1964 and the following year the St Combs branch, line from Dyce to Peterhead and Fraserburgh and the Speyside section closed and local services to Inverurie were withdrawn. Attempts to save the Deeside section to Banchory failed and it closed in 1966. On 6 May 1968 services were withdrawn on the Coast Line, the former Great North line via Craigellachie and the local services between Aberdeen and Elgin. The Beeching Report had recommended Inverurie and Insch stations for closure, but these were saved by the subsequent inquiry.
The goods service at individual stations was also withdrawn after Beeching's report. A
freightliner depot opened at Aberdeen in 1966, allowing the Peterhead line to close completely on 7 September 1970. In 1969–70 the line between Aberdeen and Keith was singled, with passing loops, the line to Fraserburgh closing completely in 1979 and that from Keith to Dufftown in 1985. In the 1969 timetable there were early morning trains between Aberdeen and Inverurie, and five services a day between Aberdeen to Inverness, supplemented by two Aberdeen to Elgin services that by the late 1970s were running through to Inverness. The cross-country DMUs were replaced in 1980 by diesel locomotives hauling
Mark I compartment coaches, later
Mark II open saloons. These were similarly replaced in the late 1980s and early 1990s by newer DMUs, first the
Class 156 ''Super Sprinter'' and then
Class 158 ''Express'' and
Class 170 units.
Legacy
The
Aberdeen to Inverness Line
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), an ...
currently uses the former Great North of Scotland Railway line as far Keith with stations at Dyce, Inverurie, Insch, Huntly and Keith. Eleven trains a day run between Aberdeen and Inverness, taking about hours, supplemented between Aberdeen and Inverurie by approximately the same number of local trains. In a project scheduled for completion in 2030, the line is to be improved to allow a regular hourly Aberdeen to Inverness service, additional commuter trains into Inverness and Aberdeen and new stations at Kintore and Dalcross, near Inverness airport.
Heritage and tourist railways also use the former Great North of Scotland Railway alignment. The
Keith and Dufftown Railway
The Keith and Dufftown Railway ("The Whisky Line") is a heritage railway in Scotland, running for from , Keith (Ordnance Survey grid reference ) to () via () and Auchindachy.
Originally the former Great North of Scotland Railway's Keith ...
runs seasonal services over the between Keith Town and Dufftown using
Class 108 diesel multiple units. The
Strathspey Railway operates seasonal services over the former Highland Railway route from to
Grantown-on-Spey via the joint Highland and Great North Boat of Garten station. The
Royal Deeside Railway
The Royal Deeside Railway is a Scottish heritage railway located at Milton of Crathes railway station on a part of the original Deeside Railway.
Original Railway
Originally constructed between 1853 and 1866, the Deeside Railway ran between ...
operates over of former Deeside Railway at Milton of Crathes near Banchory during summer weekends and in December, and based at Alford railway station is the
Alford Valley Railway
The Alford Valley Railway is a narrow gauge railway in the Howe of Alford, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It is located at what used to be the terminus of the passenger and goods Alford Valley Railway which connected with the Great North of Scotl ...
, which seasonally operates a narrow gauge railway.
Former alignments have been opened as long distance
rail trails
A rail trail is a shared-use path on railway right of way. Rail trails are typically constructed after a railway has been abandoned and the track has been removed, but may also share the right of way with active railways, light rail, or streetca ...
for pedestrians, cyclists and horses. The
Formartine and Buchan Way runs from
Dyce
Dyce ( gd, Deis) is a suburb of Aberdeen, Scotland, situated on the River Don about northwest of the city centre. It is best known as the location of Aberdeen Airport.
History
Dyce is the site of an early medieval church dedicated to the ...
to
Maud before dividing to follow the two branches to Peterhead and Fraserburgh. The
Deeside Way is open between Aberdeen and
Kincardine O'Neil
Kincardine O'Neil ( gd, Cinn Chàrdainn, sco, Kinker) is a village in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It is situated between the towns of Banchory and Aboyne approximately 25 miles (40 km) west of Aberdeen on the north bank of the River Dee.
...
and
Aboyne
Aboyne ( sco, Abyne, gd, Abèidh) is a village on the edge of the Highlands in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, on the River Dee, approximately west of Aberdeen. It has a swimming pool at Aboyne Academy, all-weather tennis courts, a bowling green an ...
and
Ballater
Ballater (, gd, Bealadair) is a village in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, on the River Dee, immediately east of the Cairngorm Mountains. Situated at an elevation of , Ballater is a centre for hikers and known for its spring water, once said to c ...
.
Nestrans (The North East of Scotland Transport Partnership), the organization responsible for local transport strategy, consider that building new railways along these routes would not be beneficial at the moment but the alignments are protected from development.
The
Speyside Way, one of Scotland's
Long Distance Routes, mostly follows the route of the Speyside section between Craigellachie and Ballindalloch and
Grantown and Nethy Bridge.
Rolling stock
Locomotives
Early locomotives
The first locomotives were
2-4-0 tender engines, built by
Wm Fairbairn in Manchester to the design of the locomotive superintendent
Daniel Kinnear Clark. Twelve were ordered for the opening of the first line, seven passenger and five goods. They were all fitted with Clark's patent smoke preventing system that improved fuel economy and painted green with black borders, and red buffer beams. There was no protection for the driver or fireman and braking was by wooden blocks on the four wheels of the tender. The railway opened with only five locomotives, and within days one had been seriously damaged in the collision at and a second had a mechanical fault. Two more locomotives had arrived by the end of 1854, and the order was complete by summer 1855. Four more passenger locomotives were ordered in 1857, weatherboards and sanding equipment had been fitted by 1860, and cabs added in the 1880s. John Folds Ruthven replaced Clark in 1855 and an order was placed with
Beyer, Peacock & Co. for two
0-4-0 tank engines to
bank
A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital markets.
Becau ...
trains on the line to
Waterloo
Waterloo most commonly refers to:
* Battle of Waterloo, a battle on 18 June 1815 in which Napoleon met his final defeat
* Waterloo, Belgium, where the battle took place.
Waterloo may also refer to:
Other places
Antarctica
*King George Island (S ...
near Aberdeen harbour. After
William Cowan became locomotive superintendent nine more locomotives arrived in 1859–61. These were followed by nine
4-4-0s, also built by
R. Stephenson & Co., and delivered between 1862 and 1864. Six more powerful 4-4-0 locomotives arrived from Neilsons in 1866, and were fitted with a more modern bogie. Three passed to 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 tha ...
after the
1923 Grouping, and No. 45 hauled a train at the Railway Centenary celebrations in 1925 before being scrapped.
In 1863 the Great North took over the operation of the
Banffshire
Banffshire ; sco, Coontie o Banffshire; gd, Siorrachd Bhanbh) is a historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area of Scotland. The county town is Banff, although the largest settlement is Buckie to the west. It borders the Mora ...
and
Morayshire Railways and absorbed their locomotives. The Banffshire had four locomotives, two 0-4-2 tanks, named "Banff" and "Portsoy", built by Hawthorns of Leith for the line's opening in 1859. The other two locomotives were 0-4-2 tender engines, one bought secondhand from the
Scottish Central Railway, having been built in 1848 by the Vulcan Foundry in Warrington and named "Keith", and a similar tender engine built by Hawthorns. The
Morayshire Railway had started services in 1852 with two
2-2-0 engines designed by
James Samuel and built by Neilsons. The locomotives had proved inadequate and were replaced by two larger 2-4-0 tank engines. The Great North took over the operation of the
Deeside Railway
The Deeside Railway was a passenger and goods railway between Aberdeen and Ballater in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Opening in 1853 to Banchory, an extension reached Aboyne in 1859. A separate company, the Aboyne & Braemar Railway, built an extens ...
in 1866. Its first two locomotives were 0-4-2 tank engines, built by Hawthorns and arrived in 1854. No. 3, a tender locomotive, was delivered in 1854 from
Dodds & Son of Rotherham, but this had mechanical defects and was never satisfactory. Between 1857 and 1866 four 0-4-2 tender locomotives arrived from Hawthorns; these were similar to the Banffshire's Nos. 3 and 4; the Deeside also bought the Banffshire's No. 4 in 1864. One of these locomotives was given a large six-wheeled tender to allow it to haul the Royal Trains from Aberdeen to without stopping. The tender locomotives were found to be unstable at high speeds were all withdrawn by 1880.
The company's financial difficulties after 1866 had precluded the purchasing of any more locomotives until six 4-4-0 locomotives were built in 1876 by Neilson's, partly to replace the Deeside locomotives. These had larger boilers and fireboxes than previous locomotives and were the first to be built with cabs. The next twelve locomotives had rounded splashers over the trailing driving wheels, meaning the shape of the cab was different, but retained the brass dome on the firebox, copper capped chimney and had brass bands joining the firebox and boiler. After
James Manson became locomotive superintendent in 1883 he introduced a more contemporary design of locomotive, with inside cylinders and doors on the side of cabs and without brass domes or copper chimneys. The first six were built by Kitson & Co in Leeds in 1884, followed by three similar but lighter in 1885. The railway had inherited most of its tank engines from the Deeside, Morayshire and Banffshire Railways and these needed replacing, so six arrived in 1884 and three slightly larger the following year. The first tank engines in the country to be fitted with doors on the cabs, these worked on the suburban services and one was fitted with a cowcatcher to work the St Combs Light Railway at
Fraserburgh. In 1887 two locomotives were built at Kittybrewster works. Although there was only space for four locomotives in the cramped repair shops the board expected to save £300 to £400 by building the locomotives themselves. Nine express locomotives with six-wheeled tenders were built by Kitsons in 1888 and these were followed by six more with eight-wheeled tenders built by Stephenson & Co, one of which was successfully trialled in 1914 with a
superheater
A superheater is a device used to convert saturated steam or wet steam into superheated steam or dry steam. Superheated steam is used in steam turbines for electricity generation, steam engines, and in processes such as steam reforming. There ar ...
. Most of Manson's later locomotives were subsequently fitted with superheaters, the eight-wheeled tenders being replaced in most cases with six-wheeled tenders during the rebuild.
Class S and later
In 1890 Manson was replaced as locomotive superintendent by
James Johnson James Johnson may refer to:
Artists, actors, authors, and musicians
*James Austin Johnson (born 1989), American comedian & actor, ''Saturday Night Live'' cast member
* James B. Johnson (born 1944), author of science nonfiction novels
*James P. Joh ...
, the son of
Samuel W. Johnson, then locomotive superintendent at the
Midland Railway
The Midland Railway (MR) was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1844. The Midland was one of the largest railway companies in Britain in the early 20th century, and the largest employer in Derby, where it had its headquarters. It ama ...
. In 1893 Neilsons delivered six new 4-4-0 tender locomotives that were more powerful any previous Great North locomotive and the first not to have Clark's smoke prevention apparatus. Classified as Class S and known for rapid acceleration and sustained high speed, these were the blueprint for the later Great North tender locomotives. Manson had left a design for a 0-4-4 tank locomotive and Johnson changed the firebox, boiler and value gear so they were the same as the Class S tender locomotives before ordering nine to work the Deeside Line. These arrived in 1893 and most were transferred to the Aberdeen suburban services in 1900.
William Pickersgill replaced Johnson in 1894, and between 1895 and 1898 twenty-six new locomotives were purchased from Neilsons. Similar to Johnson's Class S, they were recorded at speeds of and running the from to in 23 minutes 46 seconds. A further order for ten was placed in 1899, but train mileage had been reduced and five were sold to the
South Eastern & Chatham Railway. Pickersgill saw the works move from Kittybrewster to Inverurie before
Thomas Heywood took over in 1914, three months before the outbreak of war. The railway took over the working of the Aberdeen harbour railway and in 1915 purchased four 0-4-2 tank locomotives from
Manning Wardle. After the war, six more locomotives were built in 1920 by the
North British Locomotive Company
The North British Locomotive Company (NBL, NB Loco or North British) was created in 1903 through the merger of three Glasgow locomotive manufacturing companies; Sharp, Stewart and Company (Atlas Works), Neilson, Reid and Company (Hyde Park Wor ...
, and two locomotives the following year at Inverurie. Similar to the 1899 locomotives but with Robinson superheaters, these were given names. Heywood changed the livery during the war, and the traditional green being replaced by black lined with yellow and red.
On 1 January 1923 the Great North of Scotland became a part of the Scottish division 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 tha ...
(LNER), who received a total of 122 locomotives, 100 4-4-0 tender locomotives and 22 tank engines, all capable of being used on either passenger or goods trains. Forty-four locomotives were still in service when the railway was nationalised in 1948, and the last two Great North locomotives to be withdrawn were two of the Aberdeen harbour tanks in 1960. No. 49, ''Gordon Highlander'' was restored to Great North green in 1958, although it had not previously carried the green livery as it appeared in Heywood's lined black. It was used on special trains before becoming a static exhibit at the
Glasgow Transport Museum in 1965, and is currently on loan to the
Scottish Railway Museum at Bo'ness.
Carriages
The first carriages were four-wheelers, long. Painted a dark brown with yellow lining and lettering, they had Newall's
chain brake
A Heberlein brake is a continuous railway brake used in Germany that is applied by means of a mechanical cable. Train braking is therefore initiated centrally from the locomotive using a winder. This causes the brake clips to be applied on individu ...
and a seat for the guard on the roof. Two classes of accommodation were provided: the first class carriages were divided into three compartments each with six upholstered seats and lit by two oil lamps hung between the partitions. Third class passengers were seated on wooden benches in a carriage seating 40 passengers sharing one oil lamp. The Great North never owned any second class carriages. Built by Brown, Marshall & Co, only half the number of carriages ordered had arrived for the start of public services in 1854. Later the guard's seat was removed and longer vehicles with six wheels were built. Accommodation for third class passengers was improved in the 1880s and the seats were upholstered.
The Westinghouse
air brake was trialled on carriages in the 1880s and this became standard in 1891. As the
Highland Railway
The Highland Railway (HR) was one of the smaller British railways before the Railways Act 1921, operating north of Perth railway station in Scotland and serving the farthest north of Britain. Based in Inverness, the company was formed by mer ...
used vacuum brakes, carriages used on the Aberdeen to Inverness were dual-fitted. The livery changed in the late 1890s, when the upper half was painted cream and the lower purple lake, with gold lining and lettering. Corridor carriages, long on six wheels, lit with electric lamps using Stone's system and with both classes having access to a lavatory appeared in 1896. Bogie corridor carriages, long and weighing were built for the Aberdeen to Inverness express in 1898 with provision for vestibule connections. The Great North also had Royal Saloon carriage that, unusually for the Great North, was built with a clerestory roof. This was long, lit by electric lamps and with steam heating, and divided into a first class compartment and an attendant's coupe, which was fitted with a cooking stove. Later, shorter six-wheeled and bogie compartment carriages were built for secondary services, and communication cords and steam heating were fitted in the early years of the twentieth century. No. 34, a 6-wheel carriage built in the 1890s is preserved at the
Embsay & Bolton Abbey Steam Railway
The Embsay and Bolton Abbey Steam Railway (E&BASR) is a heritage railway in North Yorkshire, England, formed in 1979 and opened in 1981.
The preserved railway was part of the former Midland Railway route from Skipton to Ilkley Line, Skipton ...
as part of the Stately Trains collection.
In 1905 the Great North introduced two articulated
steam railcar
A steam railcar, steam motor car (US), or Railmotor (UK) is a railcar that is self powered by a steam engine. The first steam railcar was an experimental unit designed and built in 1847 by James Samuel and William Bridges Adams in Britain. In 1 ...
s. The locomotive unit was mounted on four wheels, one pair driven and with the Cochran patent boiler that was common on stationary engines, but an unusual design for a locomotive. The saloon carriage accommodated 46 third class passengers on reversible lath-and-space seats and a position for the driver with controls using cables over the carriage roof. The cars were introduced on the Lossiemouth branch and the St Combs Light Railway, but when in motion there was considerable vibration that was uncomfortable for the passengers and caused problems for the steam engine. Before they were withdrawn in 1909–10, one was tried on Deeside suburban services, but had insufficient accommodation and was unable to maintain the schedule.
Constituent railways
The Great North of Scotland Railway absorbed the following railways in 1866:
*Aberdeen and Turriff Railway had been the
Banff, Macduff and Turriff Junction Railway prior to 1859. The Great North supported the railway, operated the services from opening and was guarantor from 1862.
*Banff, Macduff and Turriff Extension Railway extended the Aberdeen and Turriff from Turriff. Services were extended by the Great North over the new line from opening.
*Most of the
Alford Valley Railway
The Alford Valley Railway is a narrow gauge railway in the Howe of Alford, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It is located at what used to be the terminus of the passenger and goods Alford Valley Railway which connected with the Great North of Scotl ...
's directors also served on the board of the Great North, which operated services from opening and was guarantor from 1862.
*
Formartine and Buchan Railway was worked by the Great North from opening in 1861, with services from Aberdeen. The Great North was guarantor from 1863.
*
Inverury and Old Meldrum Junction Railway
The Inverury and Old Meldrum Junction Railway was a railway company in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, that opened a short branch line between the places in its name. (The spelling has been changed over the years.) It was built by local people to revive ...
opened in 1856, the line was leased to the Great North from 1858.
*
Keith and Dufftown Railway
The Keith and Dufftown Railway ("The Whisky Line") is a heritage railway in Scotland, running for from , Keith (Ordnance Survey grid reference ) to () via () and Auchindachy.
Originally the former Great North of Scotland Railway's Keith ...
was worked as an extension of the main line, services operated by the Great North from opening in 1862.
*
Strathspey Railway was sponsored by the Great North, which operated services from opening.
These companies operated by the Great North in 1866 were merged later:
*Banffshire Railway had been
Banff, Portsoy and Strathisla Railway when it opened in 1859, the Great North taking over the operation of services from 1863 and the company renamed. Amalgamation was authorised in an 1867 Act.
*
Deeside Railway
The Deeside Railway was a passenger and goods railway between Aberdeen and Ballater in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Opening in 1853 to Banchory, an extension reached Aboyne in 1859. A separate company, the Aboyne & Braemar Railway, built an extens ...
leased from 1 September 1866, merged 1 August 1875.
*Aboyne & Braemar Railway was the extension of the Deeside to Ballater, and was operated by the Great North from its opening on 17 October 1866. Merged 31 January 1876.
*
Morayshire Railway was opened in 1852, worked by the Great North from 1863 when the extension to Craigellachie opened. The 1866 Act provided for the merging of the two companies when terms where agreed, and the companies were merged in 1880.
Notes and references
Notes
References
Books
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Further reading
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External links
Great North of Scotland Railway AssociationRAILSCOT
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London and North Eastern Railway
Pre-grouping British railway companies
London and North Eastern Railway constituents
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