Tochieneal railway station was a

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

that served the small industrial village of Tochieneal, close to Cullen in

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

. The railway station was opened by the

Great North of Scotland Railway 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) on its Moray Firth coast line in 1884. The station closed to regular passenger traffic on 1 October 1951, more than a decade before the total closure of the line itself in 1968. In 1923 the GNoSR became part of the

London and North Eastern Railway The London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) was the second largest (after LMS) of the " Big Four" railway companies created by the Railways Act 1921 in Britain. It operated from 1 January 1923 until nationalisation on 1 January 1948. At th ...

and at nationalisation in 1948 became part of

British Railways British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four British rai ...

. The line itself was later recommended for closure by

Dr Beeching Richard Beeching, Baron Beeching (21 April 1913 – 23 March 1985), commonly known as Dr Beeching, was a physicist and engineer who for a short but very notable time was chairman of British Railways. He became a household name in Britain in the ...

's report "The Reshaping of British Railways" and closed on 6 May 1968.

History

Background

In 1881 the

put a bill to parliament to extend its

Portsoy Portsoy ( gd, Port Saoidh) is a town in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Historically, Portsoy was in Banffshire. The original name may come from ''Port Saoithe'', meaning "saithe harbour". Portsoy is located on the Moray Firth coast of northeast Scotlan ...

line along the

Moray Firth The Moray Firth (; Scottish Gaelic: ''An Cuan Moireach'', ''Linne Mhoireibh'' or ''Caolas Mhoireibh'') is a roughly triangular inlet (or firth) of the North Sea, north and east of Inverness, which is in the Highland council area of north of Scotl ...

as far as

Buckie 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 ...

. In 1882 the Great North of Scotland applied for permission to build a line from

following the coast to

and then running on to Elgin.

Great North of Scotland Railway

The GNoSR station opened as 'Tochieneal' on 1 April 1884 with the central section of the coast line, served by through Aberdeen to Elgin trains. In 1923 the Great North of Scotland Railway was absorbed by the

. This was nationalised in 1948, and services provided by

until the station closed in 1951. The line itself was recommended for closure by

's in his report "The Reshaping of British Railways" and closed on 6 May 1968.

Services

The GNoSR station was served by through trains running between Aberdeen and Elgin. There were no Sunday services.

The station infrastructure

Tochieneal station had two platforms, a passing loop, originally two signal boxes, a water tower and a road bridge overlooked the site.The 1902 OS map shows station buildings on both platforms and a foot bridge. A station agent's or stationmaster's cottage sat near to the site. Several sidings were present with a loading dock and a goods shed.Banffshire, Sheet 003.09. Publication date: 1904. Revised: ca. 1902
/ref> The station was host to a

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

camping coach 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 ...

from 1935 to 1939 and possibly one for some of 1934. The line was predominantly single track apart from a double track section between

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 ...

. Track lifting took place shortly after closure in 1968.

Station remnants

In 2009 the loading dock survived intact.

References

Footnotes

Sources

* * * * * * * {{cite book, last=Vallance, first=H. A. , title= Great North of Scotland Railway, series=The History of the Railways of the Scottish Highlands Vol. 3., date=27 June 1991, publisher=David St John Thomas, isbn=978-0-946537-60-0

External links

RAILSCOT on Moray Coast Railway
Former Great North of Scotland Railway stations Disused railway stations in Moray Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1884 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1951