Cairnbulg railway station

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Cairnbulg
Railway ticket from Cairnbulg station.JPG
A season ticket for Cairnbulg to St Combs
General information
LocationScotland
Grid reference NK040650
Platforms1
Other information
StatusDisused
History
Pre-grouping Great North of Scotland Railway
Post-grouping London and North Eastern Railway
Key dates
1 July 1903Opened as Inverallochy [1]
1 September 1903Renamed Cairnbulg [2]
3 May 1965Closed [2]

Cairnbulg railway station was a station on the Fraserburgh and St Combs Light Railway, Aberdeenshire. [3] It was opened in 1903 as Inverallochy [1] and was renamed Cairnbulg on 1 September 1903. [2]

Contents

History

Inverallochy Inverallochy.jpg
Inverallochy

The line from Fraserburgh to St Combs opened in 1903 and was the last line built by the Great North of Scotland Railway before it became part of the London and North Eastern Railway. The line was closed in 1965 by the Scottish Region of British Railways as part of the Beeching Cuts. [4] The St Combs line was partly unfenced and it was therefore classified as a light railway with locomotives carrying cow catchers. [5]

Inverallochy (Inbhir Aileachaidh in Gaelic) and Cairnbulg villages have no clear physical separation. [6] The 1948 timetable shows that all trains stopped at the station. [7] Due to the lack of crossing gates several serious accidents occurred over the years. [5]

RAF Fraserburgh, Cairnbulg Airfield, or Inverallochy Airfield was located near the station from 1941 to 1945 during WWII and was associated with Longside Airfield. Aberdeen Gliding Club used the airfield until some point in the late 1950s. [8] These uses would have provided extra passenger traffic for the station.

Infrastructure

The single-platformed station stood on the seaward side [9] of the line, with an ungated level crossing over the B9107 on the line to St Combs and a railway cottage nearby. There were a name board and a shelter that may have been an old goods van on the low platform, and originally there was a rectangular stone built ticket office with some form of signalling. [10] The station stood 3 5/8 miles (5.8 km) from Fraserburgh railway station.

It was built of wood with a gravel surface, similar in construction to Kirkton Bridge Halt and Philorth Bridge Halt. The station had a passing loop and two sidings: one running into the platform apparently as a bay, and another running to a loading dock. [11] The passing loop was lifted some years before the line closed.

Services

The line in 1910 had seven return workings on weekdays and an additional late night Saturday train from Fraserburgh that departed at 9.30pm and returned at 10pm. No Sunday services were provided on the railway. The 1964 - 1965 timetable had 11 return workings per day between Fraserburgh and St Combs with an additional service on Saturdays. [12] The full journey to St Combs took around twenty minutes and connections for Aberdeen were available at the Fraserburgh railway station terminus.

Cairnbulg was not a request stop. [7] The line closed to goods and was unstaffed from 7 November 1960. [13]

The site today

The trackbed is visible in places, the loading dock can be seen and the railway cottage remains as a private house.

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References

  1. 1 2 Butt 1995, p. 127.
  2. 1 2 3 Butt 1995, p. 51.
  3. ↑ British Railways Atlas.1947. p.38
  4. ↑ Butt 1995, p. 185.
  5. 1 2 Maxtone, Graham (2018). Then and Now on the Great North. V.1. GNoSR Association. p. 93.
  6. ↑ NK06, Surveyed: 1938 - 1955, Published: 1957
  7. 1 2 "Timetable World - Table 152. Fraserburgh and St Combs". Archived from the original on 26 February 2012. Retrieved 11 January 2019.
  8. ↑ Secret Scotland - RAF Fraserburgh
  9. ↑ NK06SW - A, Surveyed / Revised: Pre-1930 to 1958, Published: 1959
  10. ↑ Cairnbulg Railway Station Photo. Fraserburgh - St. Combs. GNSR.
  11. ↑ Aberdeenshire III.7 (Rathen) Publication date: 1926 Revised: 1925 Levelled: 1901
  12. ↑ Unseen Steam
  13. ↑ Great North of Scotland Blogspot

Sources

57°40′31″N1°55′59″W / 57.6754°N 1.9331°W / 57.6754; -1.9331

Preceding station Historical railways Following station
Philorth Bridge Halt
Line and Station closed		  Great North of Scotland Railway
Fraserburgh and St Combs Light Railway
  St Combs
Line and Station closed
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