Train Landscape

Train Landscape by Eric Ravilious (Aberdeen Art Gallery)

Grey Granite has been reading Jackie Kay's autobiography, Red Dust Road and was struck by the phrase 'Our books define our lives'. Pondering this she adds the thought 'and so do our pictures'. As a student living in England she had a post card of this wonderfully evocative picture on her wall. Apart from the hedges and the fence it could so easily be Strichen White Horse, on Grey Granite's personal red dust road to Buchan.

Philorth Halt

The much altered station buildings and single platform at Philorth Halt

Philorth Halt, 1.5 miles from Fraserburgh Station, was, until 1926, the private station of Lord Saltoun who also had his own private mail bag. Only those who had written permission to use the station from Lord Saltoun could do so.

A special circular issued by the Great North of Scotland Railway to the Station Agent at Philorth and all Guards and Drivers on the Formartine and Buchan section on 1st November 1895 states that;

'On receiving intimation from Lord Saltoun or Sir Alexander Anderson of their desire to alight from or join any of the Mixed Trains passing Philorth Station such train must be stopped, for that purpose, in accordance with the instructions given in the Working Timetable as follows:-

"When there are no Passengers or Goods to be taken up the Agent at Philorth, on the Train whistling, is to bring the Distant Signal to All Right"

"When the Train is required to stop, the Distant Signal is to be brought to action'.

This broken mileage post is between  Fraserburgh Golf Club and Philorth Halt

The pink tinged flowers of Lesser Bindweed, Conolvulus arvensis (above) growing on the line close to the gate to The Dunes, golf driving range between Philorth Halt and Fraserburgh.

David Welch's Flora of North Aberdeenshire describes this plant as being very rare and records only one instance growing at Insch railway yard in 1988. This probably demonstrates the importance of the railway in increasing biodiversity.

Far more common is Hedge bindweed, Calstegia sepium, (below)whose large white flowers are in the hedge at and on the banks close to  Philorth Halt.

Balck Tailed Godwit at Wet Fold, Philorth

The heavy rain of last Wednesday has caused flooding of  the field between Cairnbulg Castle and the Line (known on the OS map as Wet Fold). Yesterday Grey Granite spent some time watching the large numbers of waders and gulls which had congregated in the resultant lochan. There were many curlews and oystercatchers in the water and a mixed flock of gulls, mainly roosting in the field, almost all facing into the wind. Alongside the curlews were about 8 slightly smaller waders which appeared to have rather long legs and striking rusty red breasts and white underbellies. Grey Granite was later able to identify these as black tailed godwits, probably non breeding passage migrants journeying South. The RSPB Strathbeg Blog records the arrival of this species at the reserve over the last few days, this would appear to confirm Grey Granite's sighting.

The photograph below is from the RSPB website.

http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/b/blacktailedgodwit/index.aspx

Fraserburgh Station

Grey Granite remembers Fraserburgh station very well from her childhood. The booking hall remains in her mind as being very impressive with dark wood and curving hand rails in front of the ticket booths. All that now remains of the station is the original engine shed, pictured from the Leisure Centre car park.  A wartime plan of the station shows an air raid shelter along the side of the shed. This shed, bizarrely a sort of outpost of Kittybrewster yard,  was eventually used to stable three engines overnight, one (with cow catcher) for the St Combs line and two for the Buchan line to Aberdeen. The engines were part of the Kittybrewster allocation and were supervised at Fraserbugh by 'Drivers in Charge' who received a small responsibility payment and reported to the Shedmaster at Kittybrewster. Other staff at Fraserburgh Station included a guard and two porter guards for the St Combs train. Fraserburgh Station, originally a single platform and the engine shed, opened for passengers, amidst great intended pomp and ceremony on 24th April 1865. Alas, the first train to enter the station arrived 10 minutes early and part of the planned reception had to be cancelled. The original station buildings  were, apart from the engine shed, completely rebuilt when the branch line to St Combs was constructed in 1903. This light railway used the east platform and ran parallel to the main (Maud ) line for he first half mile of the 3.5 mile route to St Combs. The extended station had 3 platforms, rebuilt in granite and there was an extensive awning. The station was open for passengers for a century, the last passenger train ran in  October 1965. (Was it on October 2nd or 4th? Grey Granite finds differening information and must check this out) A freight service was continued until the final closure on 8th October 1979.

Strichen to Maud Part 2

Grey Granite and Rufus joined the line from the bridge over a minor road leading to Viewbank and headed towards Brucklay. They were pleased to find that since their last expedition the steps from the road to the line have been cleared. The other side of the bridge is covered in ivy in which pigeons are nesting.The section of line between here and the A981 passes through shallow cuttings, some of the flora suggests that it is frequently rather damp. At one point water crowfoot grows in a puddle in the middle of the line, there are patches of juncus, meadow sweet, marsh thistles, a form of water cress, stitchwort, self heal and kidney vetch. On the sides of the cuttings there are willows, rosebay willow herb and raspberries, a few of which were ripening. Yellow rattle is very frequent.

Beyond the A 981 the line is largely raised above the surrounding countryside, pleasant undulating farmland. Here Grey Granite found the next mile post close to  a bridge over a stream near Carnichal Farm This particular bridge is interesting in that it is numbered 811 on the parapet, the only metal bridge with numbering seen so far. There are a very dense patches of mouse ear hawkweed, Heracium pilosella (Recognisable by the grayish slightly furry leaves and long stolons which end in leafy rosettes)  and violets close to the bridge.

Plate layers hut near Carnichal.

Maud railway museum

Grey Granite paid a fascinating visit to Maud railway museum this afternoon. Maud was the junction at which trains to Peterhead and Fraserburgh split, there was also a cattle mart.

There is an excellent display of memorabilia. Notable were  the pouch which was necessary for trains to travel on the single line track, a sign, unique to Buchan Railways which was attached to the last wagon on goods trains to inform the loaders that another train was following. This was used on account of the erratic nature of fish catches, some days when the catch was good another train was put in to service to carry the fish. Grey Granite learned, from talking to the guide, that the wooden huts she and Rufus find alongside the track were officially 'plate layers huts' used by gangs of maintenance workers. Grey Granite was also interested to discover that, in the 1960's when the line closed, disused carriages were sold off at the price of £1-5sh (£1.25) per linear foot, the average cost of  goods carriage being  £22-15sh (£22.75). Carriages were used on farms for  a multiplicity of purposes, most commonly hen keeping. Grey Granite remembers a passenger carriage on her Uncle's croft at Latch of Cook which was used for hens and as an outside loo. Also of note were orders of service for memorial services for railway workers who died as a result of the enemy's 'foul actions' during the Great War.

On the way home M suddenly remembered that when St Fergus Power Station was being built large pieces of construction equipment arrived in Fraserburgh by sea and were transported by road to St Fergus. Some loads were too large to fit under the bridge at Lonmay so the solution was to jack up the entire bridge, including track to allow the loads to pass underneath.

Railway Bridge, with WW2 pill box on the right,  close to Maud Station

Knockmonean Cairn (Rathen)

This rather unexciting mound in a silage park close to the line South of Rathen station is a long cairn. (NK01816216)  Grey Granite noticed what appear to be kerb stones when walking North along the line to the station. Once the grass in the field has been cut, she and Rufus will explore the cairn more closely. Rufus notes that the cairn seems to be popular with rabbits. There appear to be many burrows in the sandy soil at the base of the cairn and when the grass was shorter several rabbits could be seen in the field. He will check this out when Grey Granite is examining the cairn.

Philorth to Rathen with digression

Grey Granite and Rufus decided to walk from Philorth to Rathen, largely in order to photograph the giant hogweed (Heracleum mantegazzianum) which grows at Invernorth.

There are several enormous giant hogweed plants growing at the roadside opposite Invernorth House, other specimens have been cut down. The remaining plants are currently at least 3 metres high, a native of the Caucasus and South East Asia, hogweed was introduced to Britain in 1893 as  a garden plant but has become naturalised in many areas. The sap is photosensitive in sunlight and can cause persistent skin blisters. The large flowers can produce up to 50,000  seeds a year, these may remain viable for 8 -15 years in the ground. It can form dense colonies which prevent native species growing. Under the Wildlife and Countryside Act of 1981 it is an offence plant or to allow giant hogweed to grow.

The line was fragrant this morning, close to Rathen Station there is a large patch of honeysuckle

(Lonerica periclymenum) tangled in a broom bush and scrambling into the neighbouring field. All along the section dog roses are in flower.

The section of line close to the Water of Philorth has ditches on either side which at present are filled with sweet scented meadow sweet (Filipendula ulmaria), pictured below growing with foxgloves, Mormond Hill in the background.

There were mallards swimming in the Water of Philorth this morning, a heron flew up from the ditch and  a large mixed flock of corvids pecked about on the line, flying up to the telegraph wires in a slightly unsettling Hitchcockesque manner as we passed.