Rathen Station

Rathen Station.
 The station building has been converted into a house but retains the original window shapes and round the doorway a slight change in the granite indicates where the central glass fronted waiting room has been  blocked up. The road bridge over the line close to the station was dismantled soon after closure. 

A railway barrow remains slowly decaying on the platform.

All that remains of a linesmen's hut just  north end of the platform

Prior to the opening of  the St Combs Light Railway in 1903 creel carrying fishwives from Inverallochy, Cairnbulg and St Combs walked to Rathen Station to catch the train to inland country districts where they went from door to door bartering their fish for farm produce such as eggs, butter and cheese. It was not unusual for between 60 and 70 of them to catch the train the first up train of the day. Their creels were carried free in the guard's van and by  travelling  for a special concessionary fare they were able to extend the range they visited, some going as far as Dyce where they caught another train to stations on the mainline. A Rathen guard described them as being, 'Fully loaded baith wyes'.

The woman were seldom  without their 'wyvin', knitting as they walked the country roads. 

The approach to Rathen Station from the Gowanhill Road. The road crossed the road by means of a long dismantled bridge and the station entrance was a short distance  to the east of the present crossing. The track leads down to the back of the station buildings. Note the cast iron  gate posts,still painted in regulation cream..

Traditional houses in Mid Street, Inverallochy

Looking back over the Line towards Fraserburgh from the Gowanhill road close to Rathen  Station on  a crisp January morning. Note the flooding in the fields on the right, known as Mill Haugh and Wet Fold.

The Formartine Buchan way runs diagonally across the picture disappearing beyond the Fraserburgh Golf Club building. The telegraph poles which were an essential feature of the railway remain along the side of the permanent way.During slack evenings periods the station staff at Rathen and Mormond Halt played draughts over the telegraph.

The trees on the left are the Philorth Woods, the extensive steading of Philorth Home Farm is in front of the wood. The grey roof of Miltown of Cairnbulg  can be seen close to the far side of the Line in front of the Home Farm. On the Fraserburgh skyline the pale rectangular roof top of Fraserburgh Academy is in the centre of the picture, moving to the right the church spires belong to the West Parish Church, St Peter's Episcopalian Church (a squat spire on  a tower) and the South Parish Church.

Linesmen's Huts

For maintenance purposes the permanent way was divided into sections between 1 and 4 miles long, each the responsibility of an Inspector of Way who had to check the condition of his section daily. Sections were subdivided into lengths, each the responsibility of a foreman who had a squad of two to four linesmen (also known as waymen) working under his supervision. The duties of the foreman linesman were to walk his length of track daily monitoring the condition of the track, bridges, culverts, fences etc and feeding back information to the Inspector. The waymen worked ten hour days in summer, nine in winter and spent their time working systematically along their allotted length of track carrying out maintenance and repairs. The huts in which waymen stored their tools  remain as  attractive features of the line. Earlier huts had wooden walls with a brick chimney stack in one gable and a corrugated iron roof. Later examples are built of reinforced concrete. Apart from one or two examples close to stations which are now doing duty as garden sheds, the huts  are quietly decaying, succumbing to the weather and vandalism. 

Hut between Strichen and Brucklay

The brick fireplace complete with iron grate and  a few rotten floor boards are all that remains of a wooden hut near Rathen Station

Wooden hut near Carnichal

Concrete hut near Greenbrae