The now disused Divie Viaduct on the old Forres, Grantown and Aviemore branch line. SCO 8914.
The line was still well used throughout the first part of the twentieth century, and it was only as the railways in general began to decline that the line suffered. In 1963 the section of line between Aviemore and Forres was included in the document published by the British Railways Board - "The Reshaping of British Railways" written by the chairman Dr Richard Beeching. The closure was opposed with the reasoning being that closing the line would bring hardship to people in the more remote areas it served, This however was rejected and improvements where to be made to local bus services when the line closed. On 18th October 1965 the line closed to passengers between Aviemore and Forres and all of the intermediate stations closed. Forres station remained open for trains between Aberdeen and Inverness, and Aviemore station remained open for trains between Perth and Inverness. Despite frequent investment the impressive station at Grantown on Spey West which had received an expensive modern signal box in 1952 closed as well leaving Grantown with no railway connections, as the Speyside station at Grantown on Spey East had closed a week earlier. However, unlike a lot of railways, this was not entirely the end of the story. In 1978 the Strathspey railway company reopened the five miles of line between Aviemore and Boat of Garten as a preserved line. However, British Railways where rather antagonistic to this situation and refused permission for the new company to run trains into Aviemore station. A new station, Aviemore Speyside was constructed to get around this, and it remained in use until 1998 when Aviemore station was rebuilt and Railtrack granted access to the Strathspey company to use the station. In 2002 Broomhill station reopened and saw its first train in nearly forty years. The line is still going strong and there are plans in place for the line to eventually extend to Grantown on Spey.
Size: 6063px × 4035px
Location: Divie Viaduct, Edinkillie. Dava. Forres. Morayshire. Grampian Region. Scotland.
Photo credit: © David Gowans / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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