Rathven railway station was a station which served the hamlet of that name, about a mile away in the parish of

Rathven Rathven ( sco, Raffin) is an ecclesiastical parish, village and former civil parish in the historic county of Banff, now in Moray, Scotland. The civil parish was last used as a census subdivision in 2001 when the population was 12,378, The for ...

, Scottish county of

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

. It was served by trains on the Buckie and Portessie Branch north of

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 ...

History

The station was opened by the

Highland Railway The Highland Railway (HR) was one of the smaller United Kingdom, British railways before the Railways Act 1921, operating north of Perth railway station, Scotland, Perth railway station in Scotland and serving the farthest north of Britain. Base ...

in 1884 to serve the small village and rural area of

but had a short life with services being suspended during World War I on 9 August 1915 and the rails south of

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

removed, although it was hoped to restart services. The line remained closed in 1923, when the Highland Railway was absorbed by 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 u ...

(LMS). After this the track was relaid, but services were not restarted and the track removed again in 1937. The line to Aultmore became the terminus of a goods spur from Keith and continued in use until 1966. The station was located next to the turnpike road and in 1915 it was reported that it had handled 3000 tons of goods traffic, mainly grain, meal, coal, potatoes and livestock. It is said that the station had been built at the behest of the Countess of Seafield who used the station to travel to Castle Grant from her home at Cullen House. Work had begun on the Keith to Portessie line of the

on 7 November 1882. Wartime economies led to closure of the line on 9 August 1915 and in 1917 the track between Aultmore (towards Keith) and

Portessie Portessie ( sco, Peterhythe or The Sloch) is a small fishing village east of Buckie, on the north-east coast of Scotland. It is commonly nicknamed "the Sloch", due to the name of the original settlement being Rottenslough. The village is sandwich ...

was requisitioned by the Admiralty. The

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

(GNoSR) re-opened the north and south sections of line by 1919, but the Aultmore to Portessie section (passing through Drybridge) was never re-opened and the track was again removed in 1937. The construction of the GNoSR Moray coast route ''"effectively doomed the Highland route. Westbound journeys were shorter via the GNSR, and although the route to Aberdeen was longer, the Moray Coast Railway had services that were faster, more frequent and more convenient, with through trains running from Elgin, along the coast and to Aberdeen. As a rather straggly branch line, the Highland route struggled to compete, and the population between Buckie and Keith was too sparse to provide much additional traffic."''Long Lost Railways
Accessed : 2015-01-23 The fair ground for the 'Peter Fair' and extra trains were run on these days. Since 1871 Inchgower Distillery had been established nearby and Rathven handled all its traffic, together with agricultural produce and livestock.

Infrastructure

The station had a single stone built platform on the "up" side to the east, a signal box on the platform at the

end and had sizeable and neat wooden station building, which, unlike many of the

(GNoSR) stations on the nearby Moray Coast line, had a canopy for passenger comfort whilst awaiting trains. A few \additional sidings were present to allow shunting to take place away from the main line, two loading banks and some railway cottages were present at the site, including two porter's cottagesBanffshire Sheet II.SW Probable Publication date: ca. 1949. Date revised: 1938
/ref> all designed by Murdoch Paterson who also designed the station itself.RCAHMS site record
/ref>Scottish Architects
/ref>

The site today

The nearby road overbridge has been demolished and houses occupy much of the station's site.

References

Footnotes

Sources

* * * *
Flickr A photograph of Rathven station
{{s-end Disused railway stations in Moray Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1884 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1915 Former Highland Railway stations