The Formartine and Buchan Railway was a railway company operating in the north-east of Scotland. It was built to link the important fishing ports of

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 ...

and

Peterhead Peterhead (; gd, Ceann Phàdraig, sco, Peterheid ) is a town in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It is Aberdeenshire's biggest settlement (the city of Aberdeen itself not being a part of the district), with a population of 18,537 at the 2011 Census. ...

with

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 ...

. It had a junction with the main line 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 ...

(GNoS) at . Due to shortage of finance, the line was opened in stages as money became available. The section from Dyce to

Mintlaw Mintlaw ''(literally meaning a smooth, flat place)'' is a large village in Aberdeenshire, Scotland lying along the A952 road and is geographically a route centre. The 2001 UK census records a population of 2,647 people. As the largest settlem ...

opened in 1861, and from there to Peterhead in 1862. The Fraserburgh line opened in 1865. The Company was never profitable, and it was heavily supported financially by the GNoSR; it was formally absorbed by that company in 1866. The area served was a good agricultural district, and farm produce supplemented the buoyant fish traffic, which included fishing boats' crews travelling home; there was some leisure business, especially connected with a golf course and hotel sponsored by the GNoSR at

Cruden Bay Cruden Bay is a small village in Scotland, on the north coast of the Bay of Cruden in Aberdeenshire, north of Aberdeen. Just west of New Slains Castle, Slains Castle, Cruden Bay is said to have been the site of a Battle of Cruden Bay, battle in ...

. Ordinary use of the line declined after 1950, although the line fared better than some others because of the poor road network at the time. Nevertheless the passenger service was withdrawn in 1965. Notwithstanding the development of the offshore oil industry, freight train operation was discontinued to Peterhead in 1970 and to Fraserburgh in 1979. There is now no railway activity on the line.

Promotion and authorisation

A branch line to Peterhead and Fraserburgh was contemplated in 1846 but not proceeded with because of the financial collapse following the

Railway Mania Railway Mania was an instance of a stock market bubble in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in the 1840s. It followed a common pattern: as the price of railway shares increased, speculators invested more money, which further incre ...

. The region was one of the most fertile and prosperous parts of Aberdeenshire, and the important fishing ports of Peterhead and Fraserburgh lay in the area.Sir Malcolm Barclay-Harvey, ''A History of the Great Northern of Scotland Railway'', 1949, pages 43 and 44John Thomas and David Turnock, ''A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain: Volume 15, North of Scotland'', David and Charles, Newton Abbot, 1989, ISBN 0 946537 03 8, pages 183 and 184H A Vallance, ''The Great North of Scotland Railway'', David and Charles, Dawlish, 1965, pages 61 to 63 The attempt to promote a railway connection was revived in 1854, and rival schemes were promoted in Parliament. After a series of struggles, the Formartine and Buchan Railway, supported by the Great North of Scotland Railway (GNoSR) was authorised on 23 July 1858.

Formartine Formartine ( gd, Fearann Mhàrtainn meaning "Martin's land") is a committee area in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. This district extends north from the River Don to the River Ythan. It has a population of 36,478 (2001 Census). The committee area wa ...

is an ancient name for the area north of Dyce. It was to run from the main Aberdeen to

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 ...

line at Dyce to Fraserburgh and Peterhead, forking at

, with a branch to

Ellon Ellon may refer to: *Ellon, Aberdeenshire Ellon ( gd, Eilean) is a town in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, approximately north of Aberdeen, lying on the River Ythan, which has one of the few undeveloped river estuaries on the eastern coast of Scotla ...

. Authorised capital was to be £300,000; the Parliamentary process had cost the GNoSR £25,000Donald J Grant, ''Directory of the Railway Companies of Great Britain'', Matador, Kibworth Beauchamp, 2017, ISBN 978 1785893 537, pages 207 and 208Barclay-Harvey, pages 45 to 48E F Carter, ''An Historical Geography of the Railways of the British Isles'', Cassell, London, 1959, page 293 The GNoSR had promised a subscription of £50,000 towards the Formartine and Buchan company; Ross comments that the company "was pouring loans and subscriptions into companies which were incapable of repaying or yielding the necessary return, and in whose accounts, prepared by the NoSR itself the debts were kept concealed".David Ross, ''The Great North of Scotland Railway: A New History'', Stenlake Publishing, Catrine, 2015, ISBN 978 1 84033 701 3, page 42 During the Parliamentary process,

Lord Saltoun Lord Saltoun, of Abernethy, is a title in the Peerage of Scotland. It was created in 1445 for Sir Lawrence Abernethy. The title remained in the Abernethy family until the death in 1669 of his descendant the tenth Lady Saltoun. She was succeeded ...

succeeded in inserting a condition in the authorising Act, requiring a station to be constructed and operated where the line was to cross the avenue leading from Cairnbulg Road to the mansion house. The station at Philorth was stipulated to be for the sole use of his lordship, his heirs and successors, who would have the right to have all passenger and goods trains stopped on request. The Act had indicated a branch line to serve Ellon, but it was decided that the through line could more conveniently be deviated to serve that place, obviating a separate branch, and an amending Act was obtained on 19 April 1859.

Construction and opening

Subscription to the share issue was very slow in coming; although the Company hoped to open its line to Peterhead in the autumn of 1860, severe weather delayed the work. The bridge over the River Ythan collapsed while under construction on 3 February 1861, and the Company decided to complete the line as far as a temporary terminus at Old Deer first. That section of the route was opened on 18 July 1861.Ross, page 56 Investment finance slowly became available, and the line through to Peterhead was opened on 3 July 1862. The GNoSR had contributed £50,000 to the construction cost of the line. The passenger terminus was some way out of the town to the north-west, and was described as being "practically in the country".Ross, page 64 An extension three-quarters of a mile long, was opened on 9 August 1865, to enable goods trains to reach Peterhead harbour. The extension swept round the north of the town, reaching the north and south harbours from the north; the work cost £5,000, excluding land purchase.Ross, page 78 Lack of subscription funds had prevented progress on the construction of the Fraserburgh branch, and in fact the company had considered abandoning it. However it decided to alter the route, branching from the Peterhead line at Brucklay (later named Maud) passing through

Strichen Strichen is a village in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It sits on the A981, connecting it to New Deer to the southwest and Fraserburgh to the north-northeast, and the B9093, connecting it to New Pitsligo about due west. The village got its name f ...

, and keeping to the east side of

Mormond Hill Mormond Hill (Scottish Gaelic A' Mhormhonadh, meaning the great hill or moor; known as ''Mormounth'' in Old Scots) is a large hill in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, not far from Fraserburgh. Its peak is .For some time three or four services each way ran between Aberdeen and Peterhead and Fraserburgh. Stops were made at all stations, and the journey time varied from to hours; Peterhead and Fraserburgh portions of the trains at joined and separated at Maud. The volume of traffic was such that the main line was doubled between Kittybrewster and Dyce, this being commissioned in July 1861.

Amalgamation

In 1865 the GNoSR operated a network of lines, but more than 75% were owned by small subsidiary companies; this arrangement was increasingly considered unsatisfactory. In the 1866 session of Parliament a consolidation Act was passed, on 30 July 1866, bringing these companies into the GNoSR. As of 30 November 1865 the Formartine and Buchan directors reported gross revenue of £25,915, expenses of £13,960, and interest charges of £7,009. The residual profit of £5,216 allowed an ordinary dividend of % after the 5% preference dividend. The Formartine and Buchan Railway shares had been guaranteed financially by the GNoSR, and the special GNoSR shares they now received as a result of the financial restructuring carried a corresponding guarantee.Vallance, page 65Ross, page 83

Peterhead Harbour of Refuge Railway

In 1884 work began on a large

breakwater Breakwater may refer to: * Breakwater (structure), a structure for protecting a beach or harbour Places * Breakwater, Victoria, a suburb of Geelong, Victoria, Australia * Breakwater Island Breakwater Island () is a small island in the Palme ...

project at Peterhead, designed to protect

Peterhead Bay Peterhead Bay is a large remote industrial tidal 120° facing coastal embayment, located next to the planned community, commercial fishing and ship building town of Peterhead in the Presbytery of Deer, Buchan, Aberdeenshire and is in the most ...

. Stone for the breakwater was brought from Stirling Hill, about miles south of the breakwater's location, and a railway known as the Peterhead Harbour of Refuge Railway was constructed to convey the stone; it opened in 1887 or 1888, and was not commercially connected with the GNoSR.

Peterhead prison HMP Peterhead was a prison in Peterhead in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, operating from 1888 to 2013. Since June 2016, the former grounds operate as the Peterhead Prison Museum. History Peterhead Convict Prison was built around 1888. It was designed ...

opened in 1888 and from the following year convict labour was used in the quarry. The railway was properly constructed using signal boxes and the absolute block system. Prisoners were conveyed to the quarry in special passenger trains. Four

Hunslet Hunslet () is an inner-city area in south Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It is southeast of the Leeds city centre, city centre and has an industrial past. It is situated in the Hunslet and Riverside (ward), Hunslet and Riverside ward of Lee ...

0-6-0T locomotives were employed on the line. A second line was built on the north side of the bay in connection with the North Breakwater about 1910. The Quarry line to the South Breakwater continued in existence until the 1950s.

Dominance of fish traffic

In the mid-1870s there was a remarkable rise of the herring catch off eastern Scotland. The number of herring boats operating from GNoSR ports increased accordingly, with 736 at Fraserburgh and 621 at Peterhead. As well as the actual fish traffic, there were a considerable number of passenger journeys of the crews travelling home.Ross, page 101 Fish traffic to London was especially profitable, and when the 1879 fishery reports showed that Fraserburgh and Peterhead were exporting large amounts of fish to Baltic ports, the GNoSR made arrangements to charter a steamer at Aberdeen and quote the fish-sellers a through rate by rail from the Buchan ports to Aberdeen and thence to

Stettin Szczecin (, , german: Stettin ; sv, Stettin ; Latin language, Latin: ''Sedinum'' or ''Stetinum'') is the capital city, capital and largest city of the West Pomeranian Voivodeship in northwestern Poland. Located near the Baltic Sea and the Po ...

(as it was then called), undercutting the smaller vessels.Ross, pages 103 and 122 Traffic on this line was very seasonal; the herring season on the north coast was from June to August, but the season in East Anglia was later, and the crews migrated every year accordingly.''St Combs Branch Line'' by "W.R.S.", in ''The Story and Tales of the Buchan Line'', compiled by Alan H Sangster, Oxford Publishing Co, Poole, 1983, , pages 70 to 73 Before the decline of

whaling Whaling is the process of hunting of whales for their usable products such as meat and blubber, which can be turned into a type of oil that became increasingly important in the Industrial Revolution. It was practiced as an organized industry ...

in the 1880s whale and seal oil was sent from Peterhead to Dundee for use in the

jute Jute is a long, soft, shiny bast fiber that can be spun into coarse, strong threads. It is produced from flowering plants in the genus ''Corchorus'', which is in the mallow family Malvaceae. The primary source of the fiber is ''Corchorus olit ...

industry.Regional History, page 188 The London fish traffic was also prominent, particularly during the war years when it was necessary to minimise coastal The cattle market in Maud was exceptionally busy and generated much traffic in the transport of cattle to southern markets. Acworth, writing in 1890, described the traffic of the line:

Fraserburgh probably does not see a dozen tourists in a twelvemonth. Fraserburgh subsists mainly on herrings; Peterhead has two additional strings to its bow, whales and convicts. The convicts are occupied in constructing a harbour of refuge, a mile or so south of the town, a job that, from what I saw of the obstinacy of Peterhead granite, is likely to last them for some time to come. As for the whales, according to all precedent, they ought to come to Peterhead ships to be killed. But of late years they have shown an increasing disinclination to do so. In the last five years the value of the produce of the whale-fishing, taking Peterhead and Dundee together, has declined steadily and continuously from £88,000 in 1884 to £12,000 in 1888.W M Acworth, ''The Railways of Scotland: Their Present Position'', John Murray, London, 1890, page 123

Acworth described how the fish traffic was actually worked:

The fishing fleet gets in, say to Peterhead and Fraserburgh, at nine o'clock in the morning. The fish are sorted out on the quay, sold by auction, packed and sent up to the station. They are loaded instantly upon trucks, and by one o'clock an engine starts from each place with perhaps 20 tons of fish. A dozen miles off at Maud Junction, the two trains of, say, 15 trucks are united, and thence they are run away straight for the markets of the south: a special train for 600 miles at express speed throughout. It will probably be a week before the empty trucks get home again. To show the solicitude with which the fish traffic is watched over, let me narrate a personal experience. I left Peterhead for London one day last spring by the 2.45 p.m. train. A few miles outside Aberdeen we were stopped, and learnt that the fish special, which had started in front of us, had broken down. Matters were, how ever, soon put right· the fish train and the passenger tram were amalgamated and we ended in reaching Aberdeen only about 20 minutes late. Meeting there the superintendent of the line, who was on the look-out for our arrival, I expressed regret that the London express would be delayed. "Oh never mind the express," was his reply, "what I want to do is get the fish special away to Perth in front of you."Acworth, page 131

Brucklay collision, 1889

On 25 July 1889, a train was approaching Brucklay; it was called on into the station by a pointsman waving a white flag, but the points were set for sidings and the train ran into the siding, colliding with stationary vehicles. A cartage driver in the goods yard was killed and seven passengers in the train and the guard were injured. The points were not interlocked with the signalling, and the distant signal was improperly at clear. Colonel Rich of the

Board of Trade The Board of Trade is a British government body concerned with commerce and industry, currently within the Department for International Trade. Its full title is The Lords of the Committee of the Privy Council appointed for the consideration of ...

found that the immediate cause was that the young and inexperienced pointsman called the train on with his flag, but Rich said that "All the circumstances connected with this collision point to gross neglect on the part of the Company.
1st. There is a single line which is worked without a train staff or train tablet.
2nd. There are facing-points on the passenger line which are not interlocked with the signals, although this is absolutely necessary to provide for safe running, and the system of interlocking has been in use for 30 years.
3rd. A young and inexperienced man was employed to work the points.
I recommend that all these deficiencies should be altered without further delay."Col F E Rich, ''Accident Returns: Extract for the Accident at Brucklay on 25th July 1889'', Board of Trade, 1889

Branches

Boddam branch line

In 1897 the GNoSR opened a branch line to the small fishing port of BoddamBoddam, where there was also a quarry. A significant part of the purpose of the branch line was to serve a new luxury resort hotel the GnoSR was building, the Cruden Bay Hotel. It was associated with a new golf course; the branch joined the Buchan lines at

. There was a protest from certain members of the community when the railway company started offering cheap Sunday fares to golfers who were attracted to the new course which had opened at Cruden Bay. It was felt that these golfers were desecrating the sabbath. The hotel never achieved its commercial objective, and the traditional branch line business also failed to develop as hoped. The passenger service on the line was discontinued in 1932, and the hotel was requisitioned by the military early in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, and never reopened. Goods traffic continued for a brief period, but the branch closed completely on 31 December 1948.Regional History, page 188Regional History, page 316H A Vallance, ''Northwards from Aberdeen'', Railway Magazine, January 1956M J Mitchell, ''The Cruden Bay Hotel and its Tramway'', in ''The Story and Tales of the Buchan Line'', compiled by Alan H Sangster, Oxford Publishing Co, Poole, 1983, , pages 34 to 40

St Combs branch line

On 1 July 1903 a short branch from Fraserburgh to St Combs was opened.Regional History, pages 186 and 187 Its purpose was to serve the small ports of

Inverallochy The villages of Inverallochy (Scottish Gaelic: ''Inbhir Aileachaidh'') and Cairnbulg (from the Gaelic ''càrn builg'' meaning 'gap cairn') lie some east of Fraserburgh, in North East Scotland. It formerly consisted of the three fishing villages ...

and St Combs, but more particularly the luxury resort hotel and golf course planned by the GNoSR at Cruden Bay. The hotel and the entire branch line was a financial failure, and the passenger service on the line was discontinued from 31 October 1932. The hotel continued in use until 1940 when it was requisitioned by the military; after

it never re-opened, and was demolished. The good service on the line was terminated on 31 October 1948.Regional History, page 316

The twentieth century to 1947

In 1914 extensions to the harbour facilities at Peterhead resulted in the shortening of the harbour branch, which by that time had become little used. It was cut back to a terminus at Roanheads, on the edge of the docks. There was a boom in the herring fishing industry in the 1930s requiring enlargements at the port, and there were further removals. The track was lifted right up to the passenger station after nationalisation.Regional History, page 210 During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

Peterhead Harbour was used for bunkering mine sweepers and other vessels. For this purpose the Buchan line conveyed over 88,000 tons of coal to the port. In addition, the Admiralty had established an

Airship An airship or dirigible balloon is a type of aerostat or lighter-than-air aircraft that can navigate through the air under its own power. Aerostats gain their lift from a lifting gas that is less dense than the surrounding air. In early ...

Station,

RNAS Longside RNAS ''Longside'' is a former Royal Naval Air Service airship station located south of Longside, Aberdeenshire and north of Hatton, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It was constructed in 1915 and was operational from 1916 until 1920 when the extensiv ...

, at Lenabo about miles from Longside Station; the on-site complement was about 500. The GNoSR built a line to it to help in its construction and supply, in 1916.Barclay-Harvey; Ross says "late in the war" and quotes mid-1918, but this seems to be a mistake. The branch line carried a total of 31,913 tons of war material, chiefly coal, for the gas works on the site. The RNAS was created specifically for spotting

U-boat U-boats were naval submarines operated by Germany, particularly in the First and Second World Wars. Although at times they were efficient fleet weapons against enemy naval warships, they were most effectively used in an economic warfare role ...

s, as auxiliaries to the fleet at Peterhead. The branch was used for passenger as well as goods traffic. Passenger traffic comprised drafts of naval ratings who were sometimes accommodated in through carriages off south trains at Aberdeen or changed into the 'Lenabo Special' (usually a single coach), which often had attached vans and trucks containing supplies. After the war the branch line was closed in 1920 and lifted in 1923.Regional History, page 187 and 188Barclay-Harvey, page 217Ross, page 188I Wilkinson, ''That Was Lenabo, That Was'', in Alan H Sangster (compiler), ''The Story and Tales of the Buchan Line'', Oxford Publishing Co, Poole, 1983, , pages 59 to 61 In 1923 the GNoSR was incorporated into 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 ...

(LNER) under the

Railways Act 1921 The Railways Act 1921 (c. 55), also known as the Grouping Act, was an Act of Parliament enacted by the British government and intended to stem the losses being made by many of the country's 120 railway companies, by "grouping" them into four la ...

British Railways, and closure

In 1948 the LNER was taken into national ownership, as part of British Railways. At first relatively little changed, except for the introduction of diesel multiple unit passenger trains in June 1959.Vallance, page 171 However the transfer of traffic to the roads, which had been evident before the war, accelerated now, as widespread road improvement schemes were implemented in the early 1960s. Financial losses grew considerably. Eventually this situation was considered unsustainable, and passenger services were withdrawn between Maud and Peterhead on 3 May 1965, followed by the closure of freight services on that line on 7 Sep 1970. The Dyce to Fraserburgh section closed to passengers on 4 October 1965, and to freight on 6 October 1979.Regional History, page 315 As on other branches much of the staple traffic was diverted to the roads but the final closure of the Buchan line in 1979 took place against a background of considerable traffic in fertiliser, and pipes for offshore gas pipelines. Such traffic was subsequently taken by road from Inverurie.Regional History, page 188 The track was subsequently lifted and much of the route now forms the

Formartine and Buchan Way The Formartine and Buchan Way is a long-distance trail in Scotland, extending from Dyce north to Peterhead and Fraserburgh in the Buchan and Formartine districts of Aberdeenshire in Scotland. It follows the track of a former railway line, the ...

, a long-distance footpath and cycle path.''Formartine and Buchan Way'', on CycleGrampian.co.uk website at http://www.cyclegrampian.co.uk/trail/formartineway.html A group called Campaign for North East Rail was launched in April 2021, and is campaigning for the reopening of parts of the Buchan line, although with substantial sections of completely new route. However the proposed scheme has been left out of the Scottish Government's latest Strategic Transport Projects Review (STPR2).''Anger as Peterhead and Fraserburgh rail link is left out of Government Transport Review'', in Buchan Observer, 21 January 2022

Locations

Dyce to Peterhead

* Dyce; station on GNoSR main line; opened 20 September 1854; closed 6 May 1968; * Park Hill; opened 18 July 1861; renamed Parkhill 3 April 1950; closed 3 April 1950; * New Machar; opened 18 July 1861; renamed Newmachar 1904; closed 4 October 1965; * Udny; opened 18 July 1861; closed 4 October 1965; * Newburgh Road; opened 18 July 1861; renamed Logierieve 1862; closed 4 October 1965; * Esslemont; opened 18 July 1861; closed 15 September 1952; * Ellon; opened 18 July 1861; closed 4 October 1965; junction for Boddam branch; * Arnage; opened 18 July 1861; closed 4 October 1965; * Auchnagatt; opened 18 July 1861; closed 4 October 1965; * Brucklay; opened 18 July 1861; renamed New Maud Junction 24 April 1865; renamed Maud Junction 1866; renamed Maud 21 September 1925; closed 4 October 1965; junction for Fraserburgh line; * Abbey of Deer; special platform for pilgrimages, opened 17 July 1932; probable last use 2 July 1939; * Old Deer & Mintlaw; opened 18 July 1861; renamed Mintlaw 1 December 1867; closed 3 May 1965; * Longside; opened 3 July 1862; closed 3 May 1965; * New Seat; opened 3 July 1862; renamed Newseat 1884; closed 3 May 1965; * Inverugie; opened 3 July 1862; closed 3 May 1965; * Peterhead; opened 3 July 1862; closed 3 May 1965; * ''Peterhead docks''.

Maud to Fraserburgh

* Brucklay (Maud); above; * Strichen; opened 24 April 1865; closed 4 October 1965; * Mormond; opened 24 April 1865; closed 4 October 1965; * Lonmay; opened 24 April 1865; closed 4 October 1965; * Rathen; opened 24 April 1865; closed 4 October 1965; * Philorth; opened privately for Saltoun House 24 April 1865; public 26 July 1926; closed 4 October 1965; * Philorth Bridge; opened 1 July 1903; closed 3 May 1965; * Fraserburgh; opened 24 April 1865; closed 4 October 1965; connection to

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. ...

.M E Quick, ''Railway Passenger Stations in England, Wales and Scotland: A Chronology'', version 5.03, September 2021, Railway and Canal Historical Society, electronic downloadCol M H Cobb, ''The Railways of Great Britain -- A Historical Atlas'', Ian Allan Publishing Limited, Shepperton, 2003, ISBN 07110 3003 0

Notes

References

{{Historical Scottish railway companies Pre-grouping British railway companies Great North of Scotland Railway Closed railway lines in Scotland Early Scottish railway companies Beeching closures in Scotland Railway lines opened in 1861 Railway companies disestablished in 1866 1861 establishments in Scotland 1866 disestablishments in Scotland British companies established in 1858 Railway companies established in 1858 British companies disestablished in 1866