Buckie Railway Station (Highland Railway)
History
Work had begun on the Keith to Portessie line of the Highland Railway on 7 November 1882. The station was opened by the Highland Railway in 1884 to serve the sizeable town of Buckie but had a short life with services being suspended during World War I on 9 August 1915 In 1917 the track between Aultmore (towards Keith) and Portessie was requisitioned by the Admiralty and the rails south of Buckie removed as far as Aultmore, although it was the intention to reinstate the track and restart services when the war ended. The north and south sections of line were re-opened by 1919 but the central section of the line was still without track in 1923, when the Highland Railway was absorbed by the London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS). After this amalgamation the track between Buckie and Aultmore was relaid, however services were not restarted and the track removed again in around 1937.
The line to Aultmore became the terminus of a goods spur from Keith and continued in use until 1966 and the separated stub from Buckie to Portessie survived until 1944 in isolation from the rest of the, by then, London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) system.
The construction of the GNoSR Moray coast route had "effectively doomed the Highland route. Westbound journeys were shorter via the GNSR, and although the route to Aberdeen was longer, the Moray Coast Railway had services that were faster, more frequent and more convenient, with through trains running from Elgin, along the coast and to Aberdeen. As a rather straggly branch line, the Highland route struggled to compete, and the population between Buckie and Keith was too sparse to provide much additional traffic."
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Infrastructure
The station was accessed via East Cathcart Street and stood near the old Cluny Rope and Sail Works and the United Free Church. In the late 1930s it had a single platform, and a sizeable station building which was probably similar in design to the nearby Rathven railway station building. The station agent had a cottage here, a goods shed was on one siding and two other sidings were present in the goods yard. In 1902 the station additionally had a signal box on the Rathven end of the platform and a weighing machine was located in the goods yard.
The station was designed by Murdoch Paterson who also designed the station itself.
The site today
In 2011 the goods shed and the station agent's house still stood.
See also
- Bideford, Westward Ho! and Appledore Railway - another World War I requisitioned line that never re-opened.
References
Footnotes
- ^ Butt 1995, p. 47.
- ^ RCAHMS Site Record
- ^ Banffshire Sheet II.SW. Publication date: 1905. Date revised: 1902.
- ^ Long Lost Railways Accessed : 2015-01-23
- ^ Butt 1995, p. 83.
- ^ Historic Environment Scotland & LB50114.
- ^ Vallance & Clinker 1971, p. 39.
- ^ Vallance & Clinker 1971, pp. 174–175.
- ^ Geograph
- ^ Flickr
- ^ Banffshire Sheet II.SW Probable Publication date: ca. 1949. Date revised: 1938
- ^ RCAHMS site record
- ^ Scottish Architects
Sources
- Butt, R. V. J. (1995). The Directory of Railway Stations: details every public and private passenger station, halt, platform and stopping place, past and present (1st ed.). Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN 1-85260-508-1.
- Historic Environment Scotland. "Drybridge, Old Highland Railway Bridge (Category C Listed Building) (LB50114)". Retrieved 1 April 2019.
- Vallance, H.A.; Clinker, C.R. (1971). The Highland Railway. Pan Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-330-02720-5.
- Wilkinson, Brian (1988). The Heilan Line. The Portessie Branch of the Highland Railway. Dornoch Press. ISBN 0-9513358-2-0.
- Flickr A photograph of Rathven station
| Preceding station | Historical railways | Following station | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rathven | Highland Railway Buckie and Portessie Branch |
Portessie | ||