Cairnie Junction

Location type

Station

Name and dates

Cairnie Junction (1898-1968)

Opened on the Great North of Scotland Railway.
Opened on the Moray Coast Railway (Great North of Scotland Railway).

Description

This was an exchange station. The main line remains open here but is now a single track with little hint of the former station. A platelayers hut remains, this was south of the station on the west side of the line. The track is the former westbound line, the eastbound being lifted. The kink of the line round the station has been straightened.

Trains could combine or divide here. A train from Aberdeen could divide into 'Coast' (via Buckie [GNSR]) and 'Glen' (via Dufftown) portions which ran independently to Elgin [East]. Certainly this was the division of these two GNoSR routes to Elgin East.

The station did not open with the junction, this had opened in 1886 along with the curve to Grange North Junction when the Moray Coast route opened throughout. It was 1898 before the exchange station opened.

The station opened when the railway from Rothiemay to Keith was doubled in 1898.

The station consisted of an island platform with a tall signal box (opened with the station in 1898) at the west end and station building with canopies on all sides in the centre of the platform. The view from the box looked over the building. The box had a stone base and timber upper, similar to boxes elsewhere such as those at Kittybrewster. This box replaced an earlier box - Grange South Junction - which stood at the junction between 1886 and the station's opening.

This was the junction between the Great North of Scotland Railway's main line between Aberdeen and Keith, the line via the Moray Coast (Cullen and Buckie [GNSR]) to Elgin East, and its branch to Banff. The main line was double and the branch was double as far as Grange North Junction, the junction between these was just north of the station.

Down either side of the island platform was a platform line, loop line and siding.

The station, signal box and junction closed with the closure of the Moray Coast Railway (Great North of Scotland Railway) in 1968.

The railway was reduced to a single track between Keith and Huntly in 1970.

Tags

Station junction

Aliases

Grange South Junction

External links

Canmore site record
NLS Collection OS map of 1892-1914
NLS Collection OS map of 1944-67
NLS Map
NLS Map


Chronology Dates

01/05/1886Banff, Portsoy and Strathisla Railway Moray Coast Railway (Great North of Scotland Railway)
Cairnie Junction to Grange North Junction curve opened.
19/07/1887Banff, Portsoy and Strathisla Railway Moray Coast Railway (Great North of Scotland Railway)
Cairnie Junction to Grange North Junction curve authorised retrospectively.
  /  /1898Great North of Scotland Railway
Cairnie Junction station opened to save dividing trains for portions for the Banff, Portsoy and Strathisla Railway at Huntly.
17/01/1898Banff, Portsoy and Strathisla Railway Moray Coast Railway (Great North of Scotland Railway)
Cairnie Junction to Grange North Junction doubled.
06/05/1968Banff, Portsoy and Strathisla Railway Moray Coast Railway (Great North of Scotland Railway) Morayshire Railway
Elgin East to Buckie [GNSR] to Cairnie Junction closed to passengers.
06/05/1968Banff, Portsoy and Strathisla Railway Moray Coast Railway (Great North of Scotland Railway)
Buckie [GNSR] to Cairnie Junction closed to all traffic. Grange North Junction to Cairnie Junction remained double until the end.

Books

150 Years of the Great North: Tales of the Little But Good
A History of the Great North of Scotland Railway

Banff, Moray and Nairn's Lost Railways

Banff, Moray and Nairn's Lost Railways

Great North Memories: Aberdeen No. 2: Scenes of the North East's Own Railway

Great North Memories: LNER Era, 1923-47

Great North of Scotland Railway (History of the Railways of the Scottish Highlands, vol. 3)

Great North of Scotland Railway Album

Great North of Scotland Railway Album

Great North of Scotland Railway Carriages

Great North of Scotland Railway Locomotives

History of the Railways of the Scottish Highlands: Great North of Scotland Railway v. 3
LNER Wagons: Volume 3: Scottish Area: Ex North British and Ex-Great North of Scotland Railway Wagons
Modelling the Great North of Scotland Railway
Moray Coast RailwaysMoray Coast Railways
Scotland’s Lost Branch Lines: Where Beeching Got It Wrong

Signalling and Signal Boxes along the North British Railway, Great North of Scotland Railway and the CLC Routes

Speyside Railways: Exploring the Remains of the Great North of Scotland Railways and Its Environs

The Great North of Scotland Railway - A New History

The Travellers Joy: The Story of the Morayshire Railway

The Travellers Joy: The Story of the Morayshire Railway