St. Combs railway station was a station on the

Fraserburgh and St Combs Light Railway The Fraserburgh and St Combs Light Railway was a short railway branch line built in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, to serve fishing harbours. It was built by the Great North of Scotland Railway (GNoSR), and it connected with the GNoSR at Fraserburgh. ...

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 ...

. It was opened on 1 July 1903 and stood 5 1⁄8 miles (8.2 km) from

Fraserburgh Fraserburgh (; sco, The Broch or ; gd, A' Bhruaich) is a town in Aberdeenshire (unitary), Aberdeenshire, Scotland with a population recorded in the United Kingdom Census 2011, 2011 Census at 13,100. It lies at the far northeast corner of Aber ...

History

The standard gauge line from

to St Combs opened in 1903 and was the last line built by the

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

before 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 th ...

. The line was closed in 1965 by the

Scottish Region of British Railways The Scottish Region (ScR) was one of the six regions created on British Railways (BR) and consisted of ex-London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) and ex-London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) lines in Scotland. It existed from the creation o ...

as part of the Beeching Cuts. The St Combs line was partly unfenced and it was therefore classified as a light railway with locomotives carrying cow catchers. The 1948 timetable shows that all trains stopped at the station.

Infrastructure

This single platformed terminus station stood on the seaward side of the line with a railway cottage nearby overlooking High Street. A name board and an old goods van body were located on the low platform together with a rectangular corrugated iron built ticket office, waiting room and toilets, the main building however had been demolished at some point prior to closure, probably after goods services and staffing were removed in November 1960,Great North of Scotland Blogspot
/ref> leaving the goods van body in use as a shelter. A

camping coach Camping coaches were holiday accommodation offered by many railway companies in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland from the 1930s. The coaches were old passenger vehicles no longer suitable for use in trains, which were converted to ...

was positioned here by the

Scottish Region The Scottish Region (ScR) was one of the six regions created on British Railways (BR) and consisted of ex- London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) and ex- London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) lines in Scotland. It existed from the creatio ...

from 1956 to 1959. The platform was built of wood with a gravel surface, similar in construction to the other stations on the route such as Kirkton Bridge Halt and Philorth Bridge Halt. The station had a passing loop for locomotives to run round the carriages and one siding running to a stone built loading dock and associated huts. The passing loop was lifted some years before the line closed. No signal box or signal posts are shown on the OS maps.

Services

The line in 1910 had seven return workings on weekdays and an additional late night Saturday train from Fraserburgh that departed at 9.30pm and returned at 10pm. No Sunday services were provided on the railway. The 1964 - 1965 timetable had 11 return workings per day between Fraserburgh and St Combs with an additional service on Saturdays.Unseen Steam
/ref> The full journey to St Combs took around twenty minutes, connections for

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

were available at the Fraserburgh railway station terminus. Only one class of travel was provided. St Combs was not a request stop.Timetable World - Table 152. Fraserburgh and St Combs.
/ref> The line closed to goods and was unstaffed from 7 November 1960.

The site today

Almost nothing now remains of the railway infrastructure and the station site that is now occupied by a housing estate, however the stationmaster's house survives and some sections of the trackbed are in use as farm tracks on the outskirts of the village.

References

Sources

* * Maxtone, Graham and Cooper, Mike (2018). ''Then and Now on the Great North. V.1.'' GNoSR Association. . *

External links

Ghost Stations - Disused Railway Stations in Aberdeenshire, Scotland
{{DEFAULTSORT:St Combs Railway Station Disused railway stations in Aberdeenshire Beeching closures in Scotland Former Great North of Scotland Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1903 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1965 1903 establishments in Scotland 1965 disestablishments in Scotland