Keith Junction

Location type

Junction

Name and dates

Keith Junction (1858-)

Where: Moray
Opened on the Great North of Scotland Railway.
Opened on the Keith and Dufftown Railway.
Opened on the Inverness and Aberdeen Junction Railway.

Description

This refers to the actual junction. For the station see Keith. This junction was formed in 1858 between the Great North of Scotland Railway and the Inverness and Aberdeen Junction Railway further added to with the opening of the Keith and Dufftown Railway in 1862.

Originally the HR line kinked quite hard north away from the east end of the station from a point immediately west of the junction between the original GNSR mainline (the bay platforms) and the Keith and Dufftown Railway. The curve for the latter line was somewhat easier.

The line east to Rothiemay was doubled in 1898. With this several new boxes opened. Keith North (at the west end of the Dufftown platform), South (at the junction) and Newmill Signal Box (to the east of the station and junction at a level crossing). The level crossing was taken out in 1898 when the line was doubled, the road lifted up onto a girder bridge crossing the line.

Keith Junction was re-built in 1905 and and allowed slightly faster running between the Great North of Scotland Railway and Highland Railway. Whereas the GNSR's line had favoured the bay platforms it was now aligned for the Dufftown route.

Keith North and Newmill signal Box were closed, during this 1905 alteration, all to be replaced by today's Keith Junction signal box. A small engine shed to the north of the original junction was removed during the re-alignment.

In the late 1960s it was rebuilt again to entirely remove the kink on the Inverness route, assisted by a general track rationalisation. The signal box is aligned for the older route of the line, which explains its slight angle to the track.

In 1970, when the line to Aberdeen was singled to Huntly, the bay platform lines were removed and a loop created at the junction.

Tags

Junction




Chronology Dates

06/05/1968Keith and Dufftown RailwayMorayshire RailwayStrathspey Railway
Elgin East to Craigellachie to Keith Junction closed to passengers.
  /05/1995Keith and Dufftown Railway
Closure from Keith Junction to Strathisla Mills Platform.

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

Forres and Area Past and Present

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

Landranger (27) Nairn & Forres, River Findhorn (OS Landranger Map)
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 Railways
Old Forres

OS Explorer Map (423) Elgin, Forres and Lossiemouth (OS Explorer Active Map)

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

Time Does Transfix: Recollections of a Forres Railwayman