, symbol_location = gb , symbol = rail , image = 158701 Wick.jpg , caption = 158701 standing at Wick , borough =

Wick Wick most often refers to: * Capillary action ("wicking") ** Candle wick, the cord used in a candle or oil lamp ** Solder wick, a copper-braided wire used to desolder electronic contacts Wick or WICK may also refer to: Places and placename ...

Highland Highlands or uplands are areas of high elevation such as a mountainous region, elevated mountainous plateau or high hills. Generally speaking, upland (or uplands) refers to ranges of hills, typically from up to while highland (or highlands) is ...

, country = Scotland , coordinates = , grid_name =

Grid reference A projected coordinate system, also known as a projected coordinate reference system, a planar coordinate system, or grid reference system, is a type of spatial reference system that represents locations on the Earth using cartesian coordin ...

, grid_position = , manager = ScotRail , platforms = 1 , code = WCK , original =

Sutherland and Caithness Railway The Sutherland and Caithness Railway was a Scottish railway company that built a line from Helmsdale, the terminus of the Duke of Sutherland's Railway to Wick and Thurso in Caithness, giving the northern towns access to Inverness. It was driven ...

, pregroup =

Highland Railway The Highland Railway (HR) was one of the smaller British railways before the Railways Act 1921, operating north of Perth railway station in Scotland and serving the farthest north of Britain. Based in Inverness, the company was formed by merger ...

, postgroup = LMS , opened = Butt (1995), page 250 , closed = , mpassengers = , footnotes = Passenger statistics from the

Office of Rail and Road The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) is a non-ministerial government department responsible for the economic and safety regulation of Britain's railways, and the economic monitoring of National Highways. ORR regulates Network Rail by setting its ...

, embedded = Wick railway station is 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 prep ...

located in

, in the

council area {{Unreferenced, date=May 2019, bot=noref (GreenC bot) A council area is one of the areas defined in Schedule 1 of the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994 and is under the control of one of the local authorities in Scotland created by that Act. ...

in the far north of

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

. It serves the town of Wick and other surrounding areas in the historic

county of Caithness Caithness ( gd, Gallaibh ; sco, Caitnes; non, Katanes) is a historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area of Scotland. Caithness has a land boundary with the historic county of Sutherland to the west and is otherwise bounded b ...

, including Staxigoe, Papigoe and

Haster Haster is a small remote rural hamlet and district in Wick, in the Highland area of Scotland. It is located just west of the Bridge of Haster, which carries the A882 road linking the burghs of Wick and Thurso over the Achairn Burn to the main A ...

. The station is the terminus of the

Far North Line The Far North Line is a rural railway line entirely within the Highland area of Scotland, extending from Inverness to Thurso and Wick. As the name suggests, it is the northernmost railway in the United Kingdom. The line is entirely single-trac ...

, from . It is managed by ScotRail, who operate all trains serving the station.

History

The station was designed by

Murdoch Paterson Murdoch Paterson (September 1826 – 9 August 1898) was an engineer and architect based in Inverness, Scotland, who was chief engineer of the Highland Railway The Highland Railway (HR) was one of the smaller British railways before the R ...

and built by the

, opening the line in 1874. A wrought-iron

turntable A phonograph, in its later forms also called a gramophone (as a trademark since 1887, as a generic name in the UK since 1910) or since the 1940s called a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogu ...

, in diameter, was installed at the station by the Railway Steel and Plant Company of Manchester, along with an engine shed capable of housing four engines and a special loading bank for the loading of herring for the southern markets. On 1 July 1903, the Wick and Lybster Light Railway was opened, and Wick became a

junction station ''Junction station'' usually refers to a railway station situated on or close to a junction where lines to several destinations diverge. The usual minimum is three incoming lines. At a station with platforms running from left to right, the minimum ...

. The last trains to Lybster ran in 1944, although the line was not officially closed until 1951. Until 2000, trains from would split in half at , with one portion going to Wick and the other to . This practice ended when s were introduced on the line since then all services run in full between Inverness and Wick ''via'' Thurso, in both directions, adding up to 30 minutes to journey times to and from Wick.eNRT December 2021 Edition, Table 219 (Network Rail) Queen Elizabeth II and

Prince Philip Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (born Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, later Philip Mountbatten; 10 June 1921 – 9 April 2021) was the husband of Queen Elizabeth II. As such, he served as the consort of the British monarch from E ...

visited the station in 2002, as part of a tour for Elizabeth's Golden Jubilee.

Accidents and incidents

On 30 June 1909, Peter Doull, a coal trimmer, was killed by a train in the coal siding. On 3 May 1941, a goods train pulling into the station collided with an empty carriage at the platform. The buffers failed to stop the carriage, which carried forward and piled up onto the platform, where one end crashed into the Menzies bookstall. The platform buffers were found buried beneath the wreckage of the bookstall.

Location

The station lies adjacent to Caithness General Hospital and Wick

police station A police station (sometimes called a "station house" or just "house") is a building which serves to accommodate police officers and other members of staff. These buildings often contain offices and accommodation for personnel and vehicles, ...

; it is also the nearest station to

Wick Airport Wick John O' Groats Airport is located north of the town of Wick, at the north-eastern extremity of the mainland of Scotland. It is owned and maintained by Highlands and Islands Airports Limited. The airport provides commercial air travel co ...

(about to the north) and to the village of John o' Groats (approximately to the north) at the northeastern tip of mainland Britain.

Facilities

The station has a single platform, which is long enough to accommodate a ten-carriage train. The station is fully wheelchair-accessible, but it is not monitored by CCTV. The station has a ticket office, staffed between 10:10 and 17:15 every day except Sundays. There are no self-service ticket machines or smartcard top-up facilities, although there are smartcard validators. Other facilities include: a free car park with 12 parking spaces, a sheltered bike stand with 10 spaces, a payphone that accepts both cash and card, waiting rooms with designated seating areas, toilets (only open during staffing hours) and a post box. There is no bus stop located directly outside the station.

Passenger volume

The statistics cover twelve month periods that start in April.

Services

On weekdays and Saturdays Wick station receives four trains per day in each direction, to and from (via , , , , and ). On Sundays this drops to just one train per day each way.

Cultural References

On 19 August 2017,

Geoff Marshall Geoff Marshall is an English video producer, performer, and author from London who runs a YouTube channel which is predominantly transport-themed. Born in London, he spent a short period living in the United States between 2006 and 2009, and no ...

and Vicki Pipe, presenters of the documentary series ''

All the Stations ''All the Stations'' is a documentary series published on YouTube, which sees Geoff Marshall and Vicki Pipe visit all 2,563 stations on Great Britain's National Rail rail network, and all 198 stations in Ireland, on the railway networks of Iarn ...

'', completed their 14-week journey at Wick, having started at Penzance on 7 May 2017. That marked the end of their successful project to visit all 2,563

railway stations A train station, railway station, railroad station or depot is a railway facility where trains stop to load or unload passengers, freight or both. It generally consists of at least one platform, one track and a station building providing such ...

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It i ...

References

Bibliography

* * * * *
ScotRail North Highlands Timetable

External links

Annotated video of Wick railway station
{{Railway stations served by Abellio Scotrail Railway stations in Caithness Railway stations served by ScotRail Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1874 Former Highland Railway stations Wick, Caithness Category B listed buildings in Highland (council area) Listed railway stations in Scotland