Milton of Crathes railway station is located at

Milton of Crathes Milton of Crathes is a complex of restored 17th-century stone buildings,United Kingdom Ordnance Survey Map Landranger 45, Stonehaven and Banchory, 1:50,000 scale, 2004 associated with, and previously an outlier of, Crathes Castle in Aberdeenshire, ...

, three miles east of

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 ...

Royal Deeside The River Dee ( gd, Uisge Dhè) is a river in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It rises in the Cairngorms and flows through southern Aberdeenshire to reach the North Sea at Aberdeen. The area it passes through is known as Deeside, or Royal Deeside in ...

Aberdeenshire Aberdeenshire ( sco, Aiberdeenshire; gd, Siorrachd Obar Dheathain) is one of the 32 Subdivisions of Scotland#council areas of Scotland, council areas of Scotland. It takes its name from the County of Aberdeen which has substantially differe ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

Crathes (Castle) Station

Crathes Castle station, located to the east of Milton of Crathes was opened by the original

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 1853 for the private use of the Laird of Crathes. In 1863 ''Crathes Castle'' was renamed ''Crathes'' and became a public railway station, a role it retained until the closure of the railway line in 1966 due to the famous Beeching cuts. The Crathes station building and replica of the original signal box were placed on the market during 2021 and sold to new owners.

Milton of Crathes Station

''Milton of Crathes'' station is the headquarters of the Royal Deeside Railway Preservation Society (RDRPS). The station is currently the first station of the rebuilt

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 ...

which will eventually run for over two miles west into the town of

. The station itself consists of a single platform and two tracks (which form a locomotive run-round loop and headshunts). The station was officially opened on 14 April 2007 by Aberdeenshire Provost Raymond Bisset. At the east end of the station, the former ''Oldmeldrum'' station building has been re-erected and restored by the volunteers of the RDRPS. The station building itself now houses a museum with memorabilia and a ticket office which is also run by a set of volunteers. The station also has numerous parking spaces available, picnic spots next to the main line as well as fantastic space to observe and capture train operations. Currently all passenger services always start here and are operated using a selection of rolling stock including

British Rail Class 03 The British Rail Class 03 locomotive was, together with the similar Class 04, one of British Railways' most successful 0-6-0 diesel-mechanical shunters. 230 were built at Doncaster and Swindon works between 1957 and 1962, and were numbered ...

diesel shunters, three

British Rail Mark 2 The Mark 2 family of railway carriages are British Rail's second design of carriages. They were built by British Rail workshops (from 1969 British Rail Engineering Limited (BREL)) between 1964 and 1975. They were of steel construction. Introdu ...

coaches in BR Crimson and Cream livery and the carriages which form the

British Rail BEMU The British Rail BEMU was an experimental two-car battery electric multiple unit (BEMU), converted from the prototype Derby Lightweight Diesel multiple units. The train was powered by many lead-acid batteries, and was used on the Deeside Railw ...

"Gemini" Battery Railcar. Various items of rolling stock are either stored at the station or elsewhere along the railway line. Milton of Crathes is also home to the former Aberdeen Gas Works

steam locomotive A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, oil or, rarely, wood) to heat water in the locomot ...

: 0-4-0 "Bon Accord", which completed her 10-year overhaul in 2019 and is currently used to operate the steam service. Attractions:

Crathes Castle Crathes Castle (pronounced ) is a 16th-century castle near Banchory in the Aberdeenshire region of Scotland. It is in the historic county of Kincardineshire. This harled castle was built by the Burnetts of Leys and was held in that family for a ...

(opposite), various heritage

rolling stock The term rolling stock in the rail transport industry refers to railway vehicles, including both powered and unpowered vehicles: for example, locomotives, freight and passenger cars (or coaches), and non-revenue cars. Passenger vehicles can b ...

items.

References

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External links

Website of the Royal Deeside Railway Preservation Society
Heritage railway stations in Aberdeenshire Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1853 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1966 Railway stations built for UK heritage railways 1853 establishments in Scotland 1966 disestablishments in Scotland Railway stations opened in 2007