Look out for the Pop up Railway Museum.

Look out for the Aberdeenshire Library Service Pop Up Museum Display highlighting the GNSR in the North East of Scotland. Currently this is on display in Fraserburgh Library but will be circulated to other libraries in Aberdeenshire. 

The pop up museum is housed in a cabinet and contains a selection of interesting artifacts, including lamps and tickets, relating to the railways in the North East including the Formatine Buchan Railway 

A token or tablet pouch.

During the late 19th century for each section of the single track line safety was ensured by the adoption of a token clearance system. There was only one token (a metal disc)  for each section of the line and drivers needed to be in possession of the token before their train could proceed  along that section. The pouch with the large metal handle was designed to make the transfer of the token from the signalman to the driver or fireman of the train easier. As the pouch was handed over a telegraph signal was sent up the line to give the train clearance for the next  section. Grey Granite remembers watching this transfer take place at stations such as Maud.

The enamel look out badge was worn on an arm band by look out men whose job it was to warn gangs of linesmen of oncoming trains. They were also worn by pilot men who warned drivers of signal failure by means of a red flag.

Prison Transport at Maud

The engine  turntable at Maud Junction currently houses a large object carefully shrouded  in tarpaulin. Closer investigation proved this to be an extraordinary railway carriage.

This carriage, it transpires was acquired by the railway museum for restoration and is one of four carriages especially built to transport prisoners on the British State Railway.  This short (2.5 miles) standard gauge line  opened in 1889 and formed part of the project to build Peterhead Harbour of Refuge. Peterhead was chosen as the site for  the harbour because of its strategic position for North Sea fishing and proximity to a supply of suitable construction material, the granite quarry at Stirling Hill.  Peterhead Prison was built to house the convicts used to provide the labour needed to carry out the heavy construction work and granite quarrying involved. The Admiralty Yard,  built next to the prison, contained workshops and  storage facilities for the materials needed in the construction work. In 1889  a standard gauge railway was built between Admiralty Yard, the south breakwater and Stirling Hill Quarry. Shackled prisoners, accompanied by warders carrying cutlasses,  travelled  in 4 specially built carriages between Admiralty Yard and Stirling Hill Quarry where, under armed guard, they extracted granite for the harbour..
The carriage which survives at Maud was rescued from a farmyard at Crimond and consists only of the wooden box with small barred windows which formed the coach body. It is thought to have been built in 1915 and now requires extensive restoration. The carriage which survives at Maud was rescued from a farmyard at Crimond and consists only of the wooden box with small barred windows which formed the coach body. It is thought to have been built in 1915 and now requires extensive restoration. 

Photograph from http://www.cs.vintagecarriagestrust.org/se/CarriageInfo.asp?Ref=4938 showing the carriage as it appeared in 2001

Maud to Atherb: Solomon's Seal, an elegant beauty

This Maud to Brucklay stretch was the  final section of the Formartine Buchan Way to open and  is gradually being recolonised by  a variety of plants, having been cleared of the dense willow herb and saplings which grew across the solum.  On the warm day on which we walked it we were constantly accompanied by song from invisible larks.

The older section of the Line leads from the station to the crossing of the B1906. Here the  vegetation is well established, predominantly hawthorn, sycamore and elms forming a lax, bushy hedge, beneath this cow parsley currently forms a dense white froth 

Welsh Poppy (Meconopsis Cambrica) Growing among the cow parsley and rosebay willow herb shoots  which dominate the vegetation on the first, older section of the walk north from Maud.

The farm of Honeyneuk is set on  a hillside overlooking Maud. The older part of the farm building is largely hidden by the very new extension on the right. Journalist Jack Webster's father, who was for many years auctioneer at Maud mart,  farmed the 200 acres of Honeyneuk from 1952 until his death in 1977. The notorious gale of 31st  January1953 lifted the Honeyneuk steading roof  and carried it across the fields to be lost in Brucklay Woods.

In the mid 19th century a girls' school was set up in the vicinity of Honeyneuk by Miss Paterson daughter of the then farmer there. At first Miss Paterson held classes in the front room of her house but these were so successful  that  Mr Mitchell, the Pitfour Estate factor, left money for building a Girls' school in his will. This was opened in 1842 then eventually amalgamated with the boys school at Bank and moving to Maud School when it opened 29th April 1896. 

Looking over the South Ugie Water from the bridge, the banks, like much of the Line at this point, is thickly covered in aniseed smelling Sweet Cicely,  The imposing tower of St Kane's Church, New Deer can just be seen above the brow of the hill.  

St Kane left Deer Abbey, which had been founded around 580 AD, and moved about 6 miles east to a district then known as Auchreddie. (From the Gaelic for the place of the bog myrtle. and still commemorated in street names)  Here he established a chapel round which grew a community which eventually became known as New Deer. The present church, dedicated to St Kane was built in 1839-1841 close to  what is thought to be the site of his original chapel. The imposing tower,  a very conspicuous local landmark, was added to the building in  1865.

Bright speedwells flourish in  the dry conditions in the ballast along this  recently cleared section. 
Until  2011 when  following extensive clearance of vegetation and judicious tree felling, this section was opened,  the railway was densely overgrown with willow herb. Some trees remain and hawthorn hedging has been planted along sections of embankment. Unusually broom occurs more frequently than gorse beside the main path.

Culsh Monument is visible from several vantage points along the  Line. The 80 foot high monument stands outside the village of New Deer and was built in 1876 as a memorial to a benevolent local laird, Sir William Dingwall Fordyce of Brucklay, the first MP for Aberdeenshire. Dingwall Fordyce was also largely influential in ensuring that the Buchan Railway was extended north beyond Ellon and for the building of Brucklay Station close to his seat, Brucklay Castle.

Bertie Forbes, multimillionaire founder of the financial journal, Forbes Magazine, was born at Whitehill close to New Deer, where his father was a tailor, and is  buried at Culsh, his son having had his body re interred here 35 years after his death and original burial in New York.

Looking north along the Line towards Brucklay.

North of the crossing with the South Ugie Water the Line runs through the lands of Atherb. The name Atherb is derived from Ath; a ford and Erb; a roe deer and is first recorded in 1206 as being granted by Fergus, Earl of Buchan to John son of Uthred. The deciduous trees on the left of the picture are part of the Brucklay Castle Estate

Deciduous trees  line the approach to Brucklay Bridge at North Atherb. The dense vegetation under the trees includes nettles, ferns and an extensive  patch of  Tuberous Comfrey. The shade under the beech trees provided  a very welcome respite from the strong sunshine on the morning of our walk. 

There is also a magnificent, stately  patch of  Solomon's Seal. Although a indigenous species this patch is almost certainly an outcast or escapee from the line side garden.

 Tuberous Comfrey (Symphytum tuberosum)

Not to be confused with the beautiful, arching stems and elegant, green tinged bells of much less common Solomon's Seal