page_title: Great North of Scotland Railway
section_title: Deeside Railway
hierarchical_section_title: Great North of Scotland Railway / History / Expansion, 1854–1866 / Deeside Railway
caption_attribution_description: English: Ballater Station, for Balmoral Castle, Near to Ballater, Aberdeenshire, Great Britain. View eastward, from by buffer-stops. Terminus of important &#39;Royal&#39; railway from Aberdeen, used regularly by the Royal Family but nevertheless closed 28/2/66 (Goods 4/7/66).
context_page_description: The Great North of Scotland Railway was one of the two smallest of the five major Scottish railway companies prior to the 1923 Grouping, operating in the north-east of the country. Formed in 1845, it carried its first passengers the 39 miles from Kittybrewster, in Aberdeen, to Huntly on 20 September 1854. By 1867 it owned 226 ¹⁄₄ route miles of line and operated over a further 61 miles.
  The early expansion was followed by a period of forced economy, but in the 1880s the railway was refurbished, express services began to run and by the end of that decade there was a suburban service in Aberdeen. The railway operated its main line between Aberdeen and Keith and two routes west to Elgin, connections could be made at both Keith and Elgin for Highland Railway services to Inverness. There were other junctions with the Highland Railway at Boat of Garten and Portessie, and at Aberdeen connections for journeys south over the Caledonian and North British Railways. Its eventual area encompassed the three Scottish counties of Aberdeenshire, Banffshire and Moray, with short lengths of line in Inverness-shire and Kincardineshire.
context_section_description: A railway to serve Deeside was authorised on 16 July 1846, but it was decided to wait for the Aberdeen Railway to open first. The company survived after the railway mania as the Aberdeen Railway bought a large number of shares. Interest in the line was restored after Prince Albert purchased Balmoral Castle, to which the Royal Family made their first visit in 1848, and the Aberdeen Railway was able to sell its shares. Investors were still hard to find, but a 16 ³⁄₄-mile (27.0 km) line as far as Banchory was ceremonially opened on 7 September 1853; public services began the following day with three trains a day that took about an hour. First class accommodation was available for ​1 ¹⁄₂d a mile, reduced to 1d a mile for third class. Initially services were operated by the Aberdeen Railway to its terminus at Ferryhill, and the Deeside Railway used a horse to shunt wagons at Banchory. In 1854 the Deeside introduced its own rolling stock and ran through to the Aberdeen's Guild Street station which opened the same year.
  A new company, the Aboyne Extension, was formed to reach Aboyne. Instead of building two bridges across the Dee, as had been proposed in 1846, the railway instead took a cheaper but 2-mile (3.2 km) longer route through Lumphanan, and services were extended over the new line on 2 December 1859. The Aboyne & Braemar Railway was formed to build a line from Aboyne the 28 miles (45 km) to Braemar. The line was to follow the Dee before crossing it 2 miles (3.2 km) from Braemar, but the plans were modified to terminate the line at Bridge of Gairn with the passenger terminus 1 ¹⁄₂ miles (2.4 km) short at Ballater. This 12 ¹⁄₂-mile (20.1 km) route opened to Ballater on 17 October 1866, and the line to Bridge of Gairn remained unfinished. By 1855 there five services a day over the 43 ¹⁄₄-mile (69.6 km) long line, taking between 1 hour 50 minutes and ​2 ¹⁄₂ hours.
  The Royal Family used the line from 1853 to travel to Balmoral Castle; in September 1866 the British Royal Train used Ballater station nearly a month before public services reached the station. At first Queen Victoria visited once a year, this becoming twice a year after Albert died in 1861. The number of visits returned to one a year after Edward VII became king in 1901. From 8 October 1865 a daily 'Messenger Train' ran when the Royal Family was at Balmoral. First class accommodation was available on these trains; accompanying servants were charged third class fares. In the late 1850s and early 1860s the Great North and the Scottish North Eastern Railway (SNER) were in conflict over the joint station in Aberdeen. Frustrated with lack of progress, the SNER proposed a new line that crossed the Deeside Railway. Whilst in discussions with the SNER about a link from this new line to the Deeside, a lease for the Deeside Railway was offered to the Great North, which was rapidly accepted. The Deeside board accepted the lease by a majority vote on 13 May 1862, and it was approved by Parliament on 30 July 1866. The Aboyne & Braemar remained independent, although services were operated by the Great North.
caption: Ballater station, used by the Royal Family when they travelled to Balmoral, in 1966
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