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Cruden Bay (Viaduct & Station Sites)  

(Updated November 2008)

Cruden Bay station was built mainly to serve the GNSR Hotel and Golf Course, hence the electric tramway between the station and hotel. For general use the station was a little far from the center of the village down a steep road. However, there are a number of small hamlets around that would have benefited from the railway. The tramway was the furthest north electric passenger service in the U.K. The station was situated in a valley and along with the tramway the three-arch viaduct added to the pictorial interest. The station area has been returned to nature with little but the cutting at the west end, the three arches of the viaduct remains plus the station house to indicate that a railway station and tram terminal ever stood at this spot. Between the cutting and the main road stood a large brick works that was linked to the railway.

Following in from my walk from Hatton in 2002 and climbing up the embankment from the demolished bridge on the western side of the Nethermill Road, the embankment enters the cutting that opens up into the station site.

The station site is down station road with the valley on the right leading to the viaduct and the cutting.
The Brickworks is marked, close to the demolished bridge on the Peterhead/Fraserburgh road. the tramway
from the station to the Hotel is also indicated. The tram ran over mostly fields but today the whole area is
a housing estate as far back as the north end of Station Road. The AD 1004 battle site is where the area gets
it's name from. Cruden is a corruption of the Gaidhlig for " Slaughter of the Danes". King Canute lost the
battle and went home to think again then decided to leave Scotland alone for a bit and attacked England
instead. The proper name of the original village is Port Errol. Cruden Bay was what the GNSR called their
station and the new dwellings built around the railway and Hotel took that name. 

Cruden Bay Station Site from Google Earth

The following photos are reversed from the shooting order to follow through from the Hatton to Cruden Bay pages

Entering the cutting on the approach to Cruden Bay station. The view is blocked by the garden fence on the left.
The chimney and roof of the station house is seen in the background. Railway fencing remains top right.

A little further into the cutting towards the station, looking back towards Hatton and the gap
where the railway crossed the road

Still looking towards Hatton at the mouth of the station approach. The fence on the right beaks the
clear view through the cutting, where the railway crossed another road and onto Hatton.
 At this point the tracks fanned out behind me into the station and goods yard

Reverse view from the above. Again the fence and dumped equipment spoil the clear view. As described above,
the tracks  fanned out from the single line. The station lines to the left while the goods lines curved to the right.
Railway fencing can be seen top right. The station house gives layout scale

This must have been the northern entrance to the station, from the Nethermill road. The house that partially
blocks the cutting is to the left. Note those iron gates! I would think that they are originals. The two concrete posts
each side of the smaller gate is interesting in that they have been deliberately designed to look ornamental.

Standing virtually center of the station platform trackbed. The Up platform to the left and the Down platform 
to the right of me, with the two tracks running towards the cutting where the goods lines went off to the
left hand side of the field.  With so much demolished it is very difficult to imagine the scene.

From the leading points on coming out of the cutting, two goods lines ran straight ahead, with the shorter track 
going off to the right up to the short loading platform. The longer line ran straight ahead up the the Goods Shed,
which lay close to where the sandy heap is dumped. The single line split into two, one track stopping outside
and the other inside the shed. Just ahead of the goods line points another set of points curved sharp left and
then split into the up & down platform tracks, which were out of the picture on the far left.

 The tramway came in from the far right inside the railway land following Station Road then just before the station
entrance, up by the large trees, turned on a tight curve and eventually stopping at the buffers immediately to the
far left.

From the far western corner just clear of the cutting. A wideangle view of the goods yard. Another iron gate
that suggests that it is an origianal. Possibly the goods yard had been protected by this gate! However,
there had to be a post on the left side of it too, similar to the one on the right, which looks more like a tree
trunk than a gatepost!.

The tramway came down the hill, inside railway poroperty. The red-roofed building, which is a police station
stands on the actual trackbed. The tram line hugged the inside edge of the field all the way to the far left
as far as the main gate then on it's long curve and stopping just behind where I am standing..

Approximately where the Goods platform stood. Looking towards the cutting coming in from Hatton. The
goods shed was to my right of the heap of soil with the two goods lines running up to the mainline points
by the cutting. The tram line and terminal ahead a little and to the right and terminating alongside the Up
platform, which ran the length of the area.

A "Now & Then" photo. The scene is from the western corner of the station layout by the embankment, looking
towards the Station House with the backfilled cutting just beyond the viaduct to the far left.

The empty field makes it  very difficult to imagine what the scene was like in the railway days. The montage below
is almost impossible to believe and proves just  how almost complete the railway demolition has been. It's
almost as if someone was determined that the railway would never return again!

I have reduced the Sept. 2008 photo to almost the same scale as the 1930's photo using the station house as the
main guide. The railway cutting, while back-filled virtually sits in the correct place. N.B. Newer B&W photo scan
replacing the previous one, now showing more of the goods shed.

You can now see where the Goods Shed stood. According to the pab below, there were two tracks, one stopping outside the shed 
and the other going inside to a loading bay. It would appear that one of the tracks had been removed. The nearest goods line also
ran to the end of the yard but had a short spur that terminted at a short loading bay. You can also see how the platforms were built
on a long curve to line-up with the viaduct. I used a 35mm lens setting as this is most likely what the original photograher was
using way back then and I must have been standing close to  where he/she took the photo.

This diagram, from the book "Cruden Bay and it's Tramway" by Keith Jones shows what the complete layout
looked like. No credit was given to the source of this map. I have added some of my own details, such as
station house and text. There is no sign of the double track goods lines in the old photo, which makes me
wonder if there was actually two tracks built or if one had been removed over the years.

Sept 2008. This is the view from the station entrance on Station Road. The railway ran from the cutting on the far
left directly across the picture from left to right, this side of the line of trees in the background.  Again it is difficult
to imagine where the concourse, station platforms & buildings, the Good's Shed and the the tramway all stood.

Below,  I have drawn, well scribbled, a free-draw sketch, using the computer mouse, to give some idea of what was
there and where they stood in this scene.

As I said, a free-draw sketch. The short loading platform was on the far left. The goods shed to the right of that. The
tramway came down from the hotel, on the near left and curved around and stopped at the south end of the 'up' platform.
There was a run-round loop for dealing with the Hotel luggage & laundry van, which stood at a short stub that stopped
just outside the signalbox. The main entrance and concourse ran down the centre, stopping by the main station building
the one that was destroyed by a fire in the 30's. The Stationmaster's house was off to the far right.It's a shame that there
are  no old photographs to go with this 2008 photos.

A reverse view showing Station Road and the main entrance from within the station site

From midway on the station platforms, looking south towards Hatton and the cutting up ahead. The steepness of the
bank on the left of the trackbed puzzled me for a time as it would not have slopped so serioulsy to the station. However,
once you realise how much embankment has been removed between here and the viaduct it would appear that the trackbed
here has also been lowered considerably. Allowing for some soil removal, plus the depth of ballast and the height of the
sleepers, rails and platforms then it should all level up. But that still looks rather steep to me! 

With the remains of the viaduct in the background and standing on what would have ben the north end of the down platform. When this photo was taken in 2002 I didn't realise it at the time that I was actually on the station site. I
believed that the station was beyond the viaduct, which of course was actually the site of the brick works.

The station embankment. The bridge crossed over the Nethermill road, towards the viaduct, behind me

A side view from the north side with the railway embankment on the right, showing how the road bridge and
embankment to the viaduct have been removed

Sept. 2008. From the south side of the track with the embankment from the station, where it has been removed,
along with the road bridge and the embankment leading to the viaduct, which is off to the right. The house, just
out of sight to the far left is  the new house built on the site of the old stationmaster's garden. It shows a
well-groomed garden

The view from the top of the same embankment shows the line towards the viaduct and proves that, along with
the bridge, just how much embankment has been removed. It included the road bridge of which nothing remains.

Cruden Bay Viaduct. From Google Earth.

The three arches with the cutting behind, which has been back-filled. The embankment from the station (behind)
has also been removed. I would not have been able to stand here or view this scene during the railway period

I had wondered for the reason for filling  in the cutting but with so much flooding around  the site of the brick
works and deep water in the quarry, it's a dangerous place to wander around. This view gives a good example
of the deep cutting beyond the viaduct and how much has been back-filled

The new housing estate at Braehead creeps to the edge of the railway cutting.

 The pillars are in very good condition considering the 60 years since trains last used them.

A telephoto view captures the highlight of the in-fill. A signal also stood at the mouth of the cutting, on the left.
I don't know if this was the advance  starter for Cruden bay or possibly a distant for the Brick Work sidings.
Perhaps the sidings was worked  from a ground frameand signals were not involved!  I believe there was a
road/path over the cutting originally, which would have mean't there being a bridge?

The station house is in excellent condition, albeit the GNSR colour has been changed

This was the entrance to the Station Master's House, which was separated from the station area to give him
and his family some privacy. The main entrance to the station was a little further up to the left from here

The rear of Station House from the Nethermill road. The drop to, and the Station Master's garden still
remains. However, the steps are gone. A modern house and drive way has been built on the right

The tramway had it's own right of way up through the fields to the main road where it crossed and entered the
Hotel grounds. A railway boundary post proves that the tracks ran between there and the new concrete base.
From what I understand the boundry post is due to the run between here and the hotel being on council land,
with the GNSR having permission to use it but to maintain the tramway and the main road area where the
track crossed and entered the hotel grounds.

The railway boundary post. A few of these posts still remain along the trackbed. They were specially desinged (Most
railway companies had their own design) and placed so that there was no conflict if/when someone may have
trespassed on railway land  or may even attempted to build on it or even steal from it, which isn't unknown.

The Police Station has been built over the tram trackbed as it climbed up to the main road. The boundry 
post is by the wall, far right

The tramline crossed the road around this point and the Hotel stood just behind the new houses, to the
 right a little way. As far as I know nothing remains of the Hotel, However, the Golf Course is still in operation
and is one of the finest in Scotland. 

This view, from the remains of the viaduct give a good idea of the layout of the station and the missing
road bridge and link to the viaduct

Three pillars of the viaduct still stand. The viaduct joined an embankment that crossed the valley and the road. The
cutting can just be made out to the left of the house seen on the exctreme left, where the station lay. Again,
this photo shows the amount of earthwork that has been removed.

Another view showing the line of sight from the viaduct to the station and cutting. The station lay to the left of
the darker  line of growth running towards us, with the goods yard and tram terminal to the left of that. The
stationmaster's house is seen on the extreme left. The large house in the middle distance is blocking the view
through the cutting. The goods yard track was in the green field behind the station house. The electric tramway
came down behind the station master's house and curved towards the the left of the Up platform. The Nethermill
 road bridge was probably where you see the lighter green patch by the road. The trackbed from the viaduct was
on a short curve to match up with the northern end of the station platforms.

The viaduct pillars as seen from the main road. The road alongside the new houses at the top of the hill (Braehead)
is called  'Station Road' which is completely misleading if you are looking for the old station site, which is to
the far left of the viaduct across the valley. Since taking this photo back in 2002, the view above can no
longer be seen as housing being built here blanks the view

Cruden Bay Station & Tram pictures

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