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.