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