St. Combs
Cairnbulg to St Combs season ticket
General information
LocationSt. Combs, Aberdeenshire
Scotland
Grid referenceNK040650
Platforms1
Other information
StatusDisused
History
Pre-groupingGreat North of Scotland Railway
Post-groupingLondon and North Eastern Railway
Key dates
1 July 1903Opened[1]
7 November 1960Goods traffic ceased[2]
3 May 1965Closed[1]

St. Combs railway station was a station on the Fraserburgh and St Combs Light Railway, Aberdeenshire.[3] It was opened on 1 July 1903[1] and stood 5 1⁄8 miles (8.2 km) from Fraserburgh.

History

The standard gauge line from Fraserburgh to St Combs opened in 1903 and was the last line built by the Great North of Scotland Railway before it became part of the London and North Eastern Railway. The line was closed in 1965 by the Scottish Region of British Railways as part of the Beeching Cuts.[1] The St Combs line was partly unfenced and it was therefore classified as a light railway with locomotives carrying cow catchers.[4] The 1948 timetable shows that all trains stopped at the station.[5]

Infrastructure

View towards the site of the old station from High Street

This single platformed terminus station stood on the seaward side[6] of the line with a railway cottage nearby overlooking High Street. A name board and an old goods van body were located on the low platform together with a rectangular corrugated iron built ticket office, waiting room and toilets, the main building however had been demolished at some point prior to closure, probably after goods services and staffing were removed in November 1960,[2] leaving the goods van body in use as a shelter.[7] A camping coach was positioned here by the Scottish Region from 1956 to 1959.[8]

The platform was built of wood with a gravel surface, similar in construction to the other stations on the route such as Kirkton Bridge Halt and Philorth Bridge Halt. The station had a passing loop for locomotives to run round the carriages and one siding running to a stone built loading dock and associated huts. The passing loop was lifted some years before the line closed. No signal box or signal posts are shown on the OS maps.

Services

The line in 1910 had seven return workings on weekdays and an additional late night Saturday train from Fraserburgh that departed at 9.30pm and returned at 10pm. No Sunday services were provided on the railway. The 1964 - 1965 timetable had 11 return workings per day between Fraserburgh and St Combs with an additional service on Saturdays.[9] The full journey to St Combs took around twenty minutes, connections for Aberdeen were available at the Fraserburgh railway station terminus. Only one class of travel was provided.

St Combs was not a request stop.[5] The line closed to goods and was unstaffed from 7 November 1960.[2]

The site today

Almost nothing now remains of the railway infrastructure and the station site that is now occupied by a housing estate, however the stationmaster's house survives[4] and some sections of the trackbed are in use as farm tracks on the outskirts of the village.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Butt 1995, p. 203.
  2. 1 2 3 Great North of Scotland Blogspot
  3. ↑ British Railways Atlas.1947. p.38
  4. 1 2 Maxtone, Graham (2018). Then and Now on the Great North. V.1. GNoSR Association. p. 93.
  5. 1 2 Timetable World - Table 152. Fraserburgh and St Combs.
  6. ↑ OS Map - NK06, Surveyed: 1938 - 1955, Published: 1957
  7. ↑ Archive Images
  8. ↑ McRae 1998, p. 28.
  9. ↑ Unseen Steam

Sources

57°39′27″N 1°54′44″W / 57.6576°N 1.9121°W / 57.6576; -1.9121

Preceding station Historical railways Following station
Cairnbulg
Line and Station closed		   Great North of Scotland Railway
Fraserburgh and St Combs Light Railway
   Terminus
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