Wartle railway station was a railway station that served local farms and the nearby hamlet of Meikle Wartle,

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 in 1857 by the

Banff, Macduff and Turriff Junction Railway The Banff, Macduff and Turriff Junction Railway was a railway company that connected the Aberdeenshire town of Turriff with the main line of the Great North of Scotland Railway (GNoSR) at Inveramsay. It had earlier been intended to reach Macduf ...

, later part of 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 ...

, then the

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and finally

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 ...

, on the long branchline from

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 ...

to Macduff. The station closed to regular passenger services in 1951 and to goods traffic in 1964.

History

The station was the first of the intermediate stations on the branch and lay from the junction of the line at

. It was on the original 1857 section of the line, the line being extended to Macduff on 4 June 1860.McLeish, p.30 A post office stood nearby close to the level crossing.Aberdeenshire XXXVI.14 (Chapel Of Garioch; Daviot; Rayne) Publication date:1901. Revised:1899.
/ref> It lay at above sea level.

Infrastructure

Wartle did not have a signal box, but photographs show that signals were present in later days. The single platform stood on the north-east side of the track and the line was single track. The station and station house were brick built in a 'U' shape with the front centre area covered at the front by a canopy. To the north-west of the station lay a level crossing. To the south-west was a goods yard with a goods shed approached from the south-east. Several building stood in and close to the goods yard. A loading dock lay parallel to one of the sidings.

Remains

The station may survive as a private house however the buildings may have been demolished or greatly altered.

Services

Fisherwives from 1863 paid only a single fare and half to any station on the line from Macduff, except for Wartle. From 1926 Sunday excursion trains from Aberdeen were advertised and from 1938 they appeared in the timetables. One on 11 June 1927 ran on a Saturday and the return fare, Third Class, to Macduff was 3s. 0d. In 1932 passenger trains stopped at all the stations with five a day in each direction. Although regular passengers services ceased in 1951 a SLS/RCTS Joint Scottish Tour visited the branch and ran as far as Turriff on 13 June 1960 and another excursion ran in 1965. By 1948 four return trips a day were made as the coal supply situation had improved. Another severe coal shortage occurred in 1951 and the passenger service ceased despite protests, with services withdrawn after 30 September 1951.McLeish, p.63

References

Notes

Sources

* * * McLeish, Duncan (2014). ''Rails to Banff, Macduff and Oldmeldrum.'' Pub. GNoSRA. .

External links

RAILSCOT on Banff, Macduff and Turriff Junction Railway
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wartle Railway Station Disused railway stations in Aberdeenshire Former Great North of Scotland Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1857 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1951 1857 establishments in Scotland