page_title: Boddam Branch
section_title: The line today
hierarchical_section_title: Boddam Branch / The line today
caption_attribution_description: English: Bridge over old Boddam to Ellon rail line. A dog-leg section of the old main Aberdeen to Peterhead road (then A952, now A90) abandoned after re-alignment in the 1970s.
context_page_description: The Boddam Branch Line was a 15-mile branch line constructed by the Great North of Scotland Railway from Ellon railway station to Boddam in Aberdeenshire in 1897. The line was single track, with passing loops at stations.
context_section_description: Unlike the Formartine and Buchan Railway, the route of the line was not preserved as it closed far earlier. That said, few parts of the line are built on and many farms have not gone to the trouble of leveling the ground on the route. Most of the route is still visible, with several embankments, cuttings and road overbridges still in situ along the route (however many have been backfilled to allow farm access).
  Most of the bridges which carried the railway have been taken down, including the substantial Cruden Bay viaduct, although three pillars of it remain standing. One large bridge remains, spanning the Water of Cruden at Bridgend. Numerous culverts are remaining, possibly five or more are over small burns between Pitlurg and Hatton, one is over the Water of Cruden at Nethermill, one is over the smaller burn at Cruden Bay, and another, which can be walked through, is at Bullers o' Buchan. A number of well built bridge buttresses are still standing for the railway and for overbridges. The photo has one of many similar looking overbridges.
  The remaining evidence of station sites is slim, some having been built on. The station hotel at Hatton remains while a goods shed there was demolished in 2012.  All stationmasters' houses exist today.
  Walking the full length of the line is impossible, as some sections have been removed entirely (particularly where the line crossed the A90 and A975), several extant sections are fenced prohibiting access and other sections are thick with bushes.  Sections that can be done include Hatton to Bogbrae and a section around the Burn of Forvie.
  There are no plans to reinstate the line.
caption: Bridge over the trackbed near Pitlurg station.
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