Alford Valley Railway

Introduction

This line is closed. The railway ran from Alford to Kintore [1st] where it connected with the Great North of Scotland Railway's main line. Today the nearest station is at Inverurie, although a new Kintore station is set to open. The line served several large quarries near Kemnay and Tillyfourie.






Dates

  /  /1856Alford Valley Railway
Act receives Royal assent.
21/03/1859Alford Valley Railway
Line opened
30/07/1866Alford Valley RailwayGreat North of Scotland Railway
Alford Valley Railway absorbed by Great North of Scotland Railway.
  /  /1903Great North of Scotland Railway Alford Valley Railway Inverury and Old Meldrum Junction Railway Morayshire Railway St Combs Light Railway (Great North of Scotland Railway)
Railcars used on the Alford, Old Meldrum, Lossiemouth and St Combs lines. Bodies for these experimental railcars were built at the Inverurie Works, the steam engines were by Andrew Barclay, Sons & Co and the boilers by Cochran's Boiler Works.
02/01/1950Alford Valley Railway
Alford to Kintore [1st] closed to passengers.
02/01/1966Alford Valley Railway
Alford to Paradise Siding closed to freight.
07/11/1966Alford Valley Railway
Paradise Siding to Kintore [1st] closed to freight.
  /  /2019Alford Valley Railway
The Alford Valley Railway Company, from the Grampian Transport Museum to Alford, is made a trust.

Portions of line and locations

This line is divided into a number of portions.


Kintore to Alford

This single track passenger and goods line ran from Kintore to Alford.

This was a three platform station. There were two platforms on the main line and a bay platform at the north end, on the west side, for the Alford branch. There was a goods yard also at the north end on the west side, approached from the north. There was a turntable for the branch locomotive.
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See also
Great North of Scotland Railway
View east of the former Kintore station from the loading bank in 1997. The former goods station has been obliterated and is now The Carriages. As a ...
Ewan Crawford 03/02/1997
View west from the west end of the former Kintore station looking towards the junction for Alford. There was a bay platform to the left by the goods ...
Ewan Crawford 03/02/1997
Kintore former Down platform looking a little overgrown in October 2012. Hopefully it may re-open when this part of the Aberdeen to Inverness line is ...
John McIntyre 19/10/2012
47.633 leads 6 coaches on an Inverness to Aberdeen working in May 1987. This was my last holiday on Deeside before my parents moved South. see image ...
Ken Strachan /05/1987
4 of 6 images. more


This siding was to the north of Kintore [1st] station on the Alford Valley Railway. It was located on the north side of the line and served from the east. ...

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From this siding, on the south side of the line and served from the Kintore direction, a tramway ran south west to Tom's Forest Quarry.
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This quarry, also known as Kemnay Quarry or quarries, is north east of Kemnay itself. A siding on the south side of the railway had several connections into the quarry where there was an extensive network of lines and tramways.
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This was a single platform station. The station building was in timber.
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See also
Kemnay Timber Extraction Railway


This was a single platform station on the single track Alford branch. The platform was on the north side of the line with a goods yard to the east, also on the north side, served from the east. A sawmill was built in the yard after opening.
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This was a two platform station with a passing loop on a single track line. The main station building was on the westbound platform.
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This embankment shot was taken in April 2015 facing east. This section can now be seen from the main road as the forestry commission recently removed ...
Wyndham Williams /04/2015
This is the view east of Tillyfourie station looking east and again is walk able for a small section and used by residents. The house is Tillyfourie ...
Wyndham Williams 15/12/2015
View from the goods loading bank at Tillyfourie looking to the station, and Kintore, in 1997. ...
Ewan Crawford 03/02/1997
This photograph shows the deepest section of Tillyfourie cutting. It is an east facing shot with Alford to my back and the Tillyfourie station some ...
Wyndham Williams 14/02/2016
4 of 4 images.




This was a single platform station on the south of the line and to the east of the terminus, Alford.
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This Whitehouse view is taken looking west towards Alford. This section is somewhat passable up until the Bandlay Junction. The photograph was taken ...
Wyndham Williams 15/12/2015
1 of 1 images.




This was a single platform terminus on a standard gauge railway. Today the site is a station on a narrow gauge railway.
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See also
Grampian Transport Museum
Looking east at Alford in October 2012 from the vicinity of the turntable pit. Standard gauge replaced by narrow gauge but the station remains as does ...
John McIntyre 16/10/2012
0-4-0 DM loco 'The Bra Lass' preparing to descend gingerly down the steep slope towards the terminus at Alford in the mid 1980s. Another steam-outline ...
Charlie Niven //
View towards Kintore at the rebuilt Alford station. The locomotive shed was ahead and the carriage shed still stands behind the camera, now in use as ...
Ewan Crawford 03/02/1997
The three tops of Bennachie provide the backdrop to this scene. A narrow-gauge steam-outline loco hauling a single passenger carriage approaches the ...
Charlie Niven //
4 of 9 images. more