Toggle navigation
News
Latest
Queries
Articles
Slideshows
On this day
Locations
Companies
Contributors
Maps
Slideshows
On this day
Locations
Companies
Maps
More
Queries
Articles
Slideshows
On this day
Locations
Companies
Contributors
Maps
Royal Deeside branch - after closure
I walked the whole line in 1976, and hung around for a while hoping things would get better. About 30 years later, tracks reappeared near Crathes.
Ken Strachan
![Glassel station had clearly been extended. Notice the two Morris Minor pickups - pure class! This section wasn't walked very often - I surprised a fox and a rabbit just around the corner - separately!<br><br>[Ken Strachan //]](/images/13000/13698.jpg "Glassel")
![The rarely photographed Holburn Street station, from the East of the bridge over Holburn Street itself. All of this has now been demolished.<br><br>[Ken Strachan //]](/images/13000/13701.jpg "Holburn Street")
![Ferryhill Junction, with a 26. I believe my friend Michael Hooper took this one.<br><br>[Ken Strachan //]](/images/13000/13702.jpg "Ferryhill Junction")
![The River Dee at Cambus.<br><br>[Ken Strachan //1976]](/images/13000/13687.jpg "Cambus o^ May")
![Lumphanan station was rarely photographed. No trace now remains of the station, nor of the adjacent hump-backed, single carriageway road bridge.<br><br>[Ken Strachan //1976]](/images/13000/13694.jpg "Lumphanan")
![The awnings on the up platform at Aboyne looked pretty good until they were demolished!<br><br>[Ken Strachan //1976]](/images/25000/25678.jpg "Aboyne")
![Note the distant points in this view after dark on 10/3/76. There is now double track here.<br><br>[Ken Strachan /03/1976]](/images/13000/13700.jpg "Schoolhill")
![Some Deeside trains ran through to Schoolhill, where schoolboys at Robert Gordon's College arrived by day; and theatre goers by night. The platforms can be seen in this 1976 view. I recall one of the buildings on the left carrying a sandwich board on a 4th floor balcony saying LEARN TO DANCE HERE. Not on the balcony, I trust. the interesting collection of cars on the left includes a Vauxhall Ventora. I bought one 8 years later, but never took it to Scotland.<br><br>[Ken Strachan 10/03/1976]](/images/13000/13703.jpg "Schoolhill")
![Dess was a pottery run by a very nice young lady who lived with her husband in the stationmasters house. They drank in the small (6 foot square) bar at the Potarch Hotel West of Banchory. The potter sat in the window seat, knitting contentedly with darts whizzing past perilously close to her nose!<br><br>[Ken Strachan /05/1976]](/images/13000/13693.jpg "Dess")
![The filled in platforms at Park - now a caravan park. There was a level crossing over the road in the foreground.<br><br>[Ken Strachan /05/1976]](/images/13000/13699.jpg "Park")
![Around 41 years before Alan Cormack See image [[58988]], I preceded him along the Deeside Railway, finding the view towards Aberdeen quite different. On the back of the print, I made the petulant remark, 'how to wreck a railway'. As Al Jolson might have said, 'you ain't seen nothing yet'.<br><br>[Ken Strachan /05/1976]](/images/59000/59137.jpg "Aboyne")
![The parapet and shadow (North side) of the viaduct between Torphins and Lumphanan. This structure was demolished with explosives in the 1980's. see image [[13695]]<br><br>[Ken Strachan /06/1976]](/images/13000/13686.jpg "Beltie Burn Viaduct")
![A more conventional view of the viaduct near Torphins see image [[13686]]. View looks towards Lumphanan.<br><br>[Ken Strachan /06/1976]](/images/13000/13695.jpg "Beltie Burn Viaduct")
![The long closed Pitfodels station in 1976 - the year I walked the whole Deeside line. see image [[36969]]<br><br>[Ken Strachan /06/1976]](/images/37000/37597.jpg "Pitfodels")
![Dinnet station was also rarely photographed. It was used as a garage by this time. The Hillman Hunter GT on the left would have been about 4 years old when photographed.<br><br>[Ken Strachan /07/1976]](/images/13000/13691.jpg "Dinnet")
![On the East side of Banchory, Cordiner's woodyard had a siding and loading dock. Their name is just about visible on their advertising hoarding, ten years after closure.<br><br>[Ken Strachan /07/1976]](/images/25000/25681.jpg "Silverstripe Saw Mill")
![Cambus before renovation (circa 1984) - notice the pillars for the station sign. View looks towards Ballater. see image [[34858]] for a later view of this station restored - in colour, even.<br><br>[Ken Strachan /08/1976]](/images/13000/13688.jpg "Cambus o^ May")
![A moment in time... Aboyne station had not yet been restored as shops in 1977, but the awning was still there - and our beloved Vanden Plas Princess had not yet rusted to bits.<br><br>[Ken Strachan //1977]](/images/25000/25679.jpg "Aboyne")
![Ballater station in 1979-81 (going by my fathers Triumph - notice the Morris Oxford, which was ancient even then!)<br><br>[Ken Strachan //1980]](/images/13000/13690.jpg "Ballater")
