Railway time along the Line

Logierieve Station building still displays a conspicuous clock

As railways developed across the country and ran according to timetables punctuality and accurate time keeping became essential. Until the need to catch a train arose every community had set its clocks without any regard for what time it was anywhere else. There was no real need to standardise time until trains ran to strict timetables and it was not until 1880 that, after much opposition, Greenwich Mean Time, at first sometimes actually known as ‘Railway Time’, was adopted as the official legal and standard time throughout Great Britain. An immediate result was an upturn in the clock making trade and a rash of easily seen public clocks being added to the outside of churches and public buildings.

Not quite a GNSR engine above the clock on Strichen Station

Such was the importance to the railway system of accurate time keeping, that clocks were a highly visible and important feature of all the stations. Every station had at least three clocks in addition to those in signal boxes. Two clocks, one displayed on the platform, usually mounted high on the wall of the main building, and one inside the building were visible to the travelling public. (Maud had two platform clocks)  There would be at least one clock in the station staff offices. The clocks, supplied by a variety of manufacturers,  were almost always of clear design with a face diameter of about 18 inches. Some stations had special niches in the wall where the clock was mounted, several station buildings which have been converted to houses, including Strichen, Logierieve and Rathen continue to display a clock, presumably in the original position. 

During the 1880s the accuracy of station clocks was ensured by an employee of the clock manufacturer who travelled by train from station to station each week checking and winding the clocks. Such was the importance of the clockman that waiting times of trains at stations could be extended whilst he carried out his duties.The travelling clockman was made redundant by the introduction of the electric telegraph which enabled clocks to be synchronised daily at 10.00 a.m G.M.T. using the telegraph system.  A working time table of 1891 stated that this and the winding of the clock at 8.a.m. on Monday was the responsibility of the station agent.