Location type

Names and dates

Note: text in square brackets is added for clarity and was not part of the location's name.

Description

This closed station still exists, the substantial building now in use as business premises. To the south of the building the railway still runs, providing access to the terminus's goods yard.

This was originally the terminus of the Morayshire Railway. When built it was on the southern edge of the town which is why the road access and turning area face north.

New signal boxes opened in 1888 - Elgin West Signal Box [GNSR] and Elgin East Junction.

In a great reconstruction of 1902 the station expanded to have four platforms, with an overall roof covering the circulating area and canopies over the three bays and through platform. Platform 1 was the through line from Elgin [HR] and platforms 2, 3 and 4 were those on its north side. Platform 1 and 2 was a broader island, 3 and 4 was narrower and built in timber. There was cross bracing between the canopy over 1 and 2 (wider and supported on double pillars) and that over 3 and 4 (narrower supported on a line of single pillars).

The alignment east from the station made it very clear that the lines running out of the bays were the main line, the connection to the Highland Railway being the branch.

It became the Great North of Scotland Railway station, just east of the Highland Railway's station. A link was put in between the stations, the station acting as both terminus and through station afterwards. The station was the terminus for trains to Lossiemouth, Buckie [GNSR] (the coast line to Cairnie Junction, Dufftown (the Speyside route to Keith) and Aberdeen.

The station was rebuilt in the Scottish Baronial style in 1898 replacing, as HA Vallance had it, 'a miserable collection of wooden sheds'. The building is two stories high with an attic. There is a superb booking hall on the ground floor leading through to the former circulating area. Canopies and a glazed area over the terminal platforms were added. The through platform was extremely long - continuing west from the station to join the Aberdeen platform of the Highland Railway station.

After 1948 Elgin East and Elgin West operated as a single six platform station - the platforms at Elgin West being numbers 5 (eastbound) and 6 (westbound).

There was a large goods yard to the south of the station, located in the 'V' of the junction. At the east end of the site was a locomotive shed.

After closure the station remained intact, although bay platform lines were lifted and the platforms were screened from the lines in the 1980s. The goods yard remained in operation.

A signal box, Elgin Centre, which controlled the connection between the two stations, remains standing to the south of the station in the 'V' of the junction, somewhat past its best. It is 'C' listed.

ScotRail is establishing (winter 2017, not yet constructed winter 2018, or winter 2019) a train depot in the former goods yard.

The site has been subject to flooding. Notable floods occurred in the summer of 1915, July 1997 and November 2002.

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