The Moray Coast Railway was a heavy rail route in

Morayshire The County of Moray, ( ) or Morayshire, called Elginshire until 1919, is a historic county in Scotland. The county town was Elgin. The historic county ceased to be used for local government purposes in 1975. Since 1996 most of the historic ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

. It was opened in three phases by the

Great North of Scotland Railway The Great North of Scotland Railway (GNSR) was one of the two smallest of the five major Scottish railway companies prior to the 1923 Grouping, operating in the north-east of the country. Formed in 1845, it carried its first passengers the fro ...

(GNoSR) between 1884 and 1886. The line ran from the

Banff, Portsoy and Strathisla Railway The Banff, Portsoy and Strathisla Railway was a Scottish railway company that connected the Aberdeenshire ports of Banff, Aberdeenshire, Banff and Portsoy with the main line of the Great North of Scotland Railway (GNoSR) main line at Grange, a ...

Portsoy Portsoy () is a small town in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Historically, Portsoy was in Banffshire until 1975. The original name may come from ''Port Saoithe'', meaning "saithe harbour". Portsoy is located on the Moray Firth coast of northeast Scotl ...

to the

Morayshire Railway The Morayshire Railway was the first railway to be built north of Aberdeen, Scotland. It received royal assent in 1846 but construction was delayed until 1851 because of the adverse economic conditions existing in the United Kingdom. The railwa ...

Elgin Elgin may refer to: Places Canada * Elgin County, Ontario * Elgin Settlement, a 19th-century community for freed slaves located in present-day North Buxton and South Buxton, Ontario * Elgin, a village in Rideau Lakes, Ontario * Elgin, Manit ...

. Trains were operated by the Great North of Scotland Railway until 1923, when the route was taken over by the

London and North Eastern Railway The London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) was the second largest (after London, Midland and Scottish Railway, LMS) of the "Big Four (British railway companies), Big Four" railway companies created by the Railways Act 1921 in Britain. It ope ...

(LNER). The operated the route from 1923 until 1948 when Britain's railways were nationalised to form

British Rail British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. Originally a trading brand of the Railway Executive of the British Transport Comm ...

ways, who operated the route until its closure in 1968.

Opening

The Great North of Scotland Railway put a bill to Parliament in 1881 to extend its Grange to Portsoy line along the Moray coast as far as Buckie. In 1882 the applied for permission to build a line from

via

Buckie Buckie () is a burgh town (defined as such in List of burghs in Scotland, 1888) on the Moray Firth coast of Scotland. Counties of Scotland, Historically in Banffshire, Buckie was the largest town in the county until the administrative area was ...

; this was approved as the ( 45 & 46 Vict. c. cxxvi). The first section was opened between

and Tochieneal in 1884 with one intermediate station at Glassaugh. The following year the section between

Garmouth Garmouth () is a village in Moray, north east Scotland. It is situated close to the mouth of the River Spey and the coast of the Moray Firth at nearby Kingston (originally called the Port of Garmouth, it was renamed after a number of shipbuild ...

and the

was opened, with intermediate stations at Urquhart and Calcots. Finally in 1886, the line was completed between

and Tochieneal, with intermediate stations at Spey Bay, Portgordon, Buckpool,

, Portessie,

Findochty Findochty (pronounced , , ) is a village in Moray, Scotland, on the shores of the Moray Firth; historically it was part of Banffshire. The Gaelic name of the village was recorded by Diack using his own transcription method as ''fanna-guchti'', ...

Portknockie Portknockie (, the hilly port) is a coastal village on the Moray Firth within Moray, Scotland. The village's name is written as Portknockies in the Old Parish Registers. This would suggest that the port's name referred to not one, but two rock ...

and Cullen. The Countess of Seafield did not allow a direct route to be built through Cullen House grounds so three large viaducts were built over the town.

Operation

The line mainly served the farming and fishing communitiesStansfield, ''Banff, Moray and Nairn's Lost Railways'', p. 14 along the Moray coast, but also carried whisky traffic. When the

took over the route in 1923 a Sunday service was introduced, at the time a rarity in Northern

. When

ways took over operations in 1948, a

through coach In rail terminology, a through coach is a passenger car (coach) that is re-marshalled during the course of its journey. It begins the journey attached to one train, and arrives at its destination attached to another train. Through coaches save t ...

between Glasgow Buchanan Street and

was introduced on summer Saturdays. This lasted until 1962. Full passenger and freight service continued along the route until 1964, when freight services between

and

were withdrawn. The line was highlighted for closure in the 1963 Reshaping of British Railways and the line closed to all traffic in 1968.

Closure

The first part of the line to close was Tochieneal railway station, closing to passengers on 1 October 1951. Glassaugh railway station followed suit on 21 September 1953 and closed to passenger traffic. On 7 March 1960 Buckpool station closed to passengers, but closed to all traffic four years later as freight services between

and

were withdrawn. The route itself was highlighted for closure in the 1963 Reshaping of British Railways report. Remaining stations on the route closed to all traffic on 6 May 1968 and track was subsequently lifted.

The route today

The line from near

to Cullen now forms part of the Moray Coast Trail, a long-distance walking route running from

Forres Forres (; ) is a town and former royal burgh in the north of Scotland on the County of Moray, Moray coast, approximately northeast of Inverness and west of Elgin, Moray, Elgin. Forres has been a winner of the Scotland in Bloom award on several ...

to Cullen. The route has been developed on in all of the settlements it passed through, but remains mostly untouched outside of them. Some infrastructure remains, such as the Cullen viaducts, the Spey viaduct, a footbridge in Buckpool and the station buildings at Portsoy railway station and Spey Bay railway station. Multiple bridges also survive along the line.

References

External links

RAILSCOT on Moray Coast Railway
{{Historical Scottish railway companies Railway lines closed in 1968 Pre-grouping British railway companies Transport in Moray Buildings and structures in Moray Railway lines opened in 1884 Great North of Scotland Railway Railway lines in Scotland Standard gauge railways in Scotland 1884 establishments in Scotland