The Keith and Dufftown Railway was a railway company in Scotland. Its line ran between Dufftown and Keith on the main line between Inverness and Aberdeen. The company was formed in 1857, but it struggled to attract investors and for some years was unable to proceed with construction.
The larger Great North of Scotland Railway (GNoSR) saw that control of the Dufftown line would give it better access to Elgin and Perth, so the invested in the Dufftown line, enabling it to open in 1862. The Speyside Railway connected to it at Dufftown, and the Morayshire Railway connected to the Speyside Railway at Craigellachie, giving the desired access to Elgin.
The Keith and Dufftown Railway was absorbed by the Great North of Scotland Railway in 1866. The line closed to passenger traffic in 1968 and completely in 1991, but a heritage group took it over and most of the route now operates under the original title of the Keith and Dufftown Railway.
Before the Keith and Dufftown Railway
Keith was a market centre of considerable importance H A Vallance, The Great North of Scotland Railway, David and Charles, Dawlish, 1965, page 48 and it became the meeting point of two railways that had aspired to connect Aberdeen and Inverness. Neither could raise the capital to build the entire route, and eventually the Great North of Scotland Railway (GNoSR) built its line from Aberdeen to Keith, opening in 1856. The Inverness and Aberdeen Junction Railway built its own line to the Keith station from Inverness, opening in 1858. Although this provided a long-awaited railway link between Inverness and Aberdeen, there was a considerable and persistent friction between the two companies. Through passenger trains did not operate for many years: passengers had to change trains at Keith. For the people of Inverness, the way from Inverness to Central Scotland and the south involved a roundabout route, changing trains at Keith and then changing stations at Aberdeen to make an uncertain connection to the North British Railway for the onward transit southwards.H A Vallance et al, The Highland Railway, David & Charles, Newton Abbot, 1938, extended edition 1985, ISBN 0-946537--24-0, pages 19, 22 and 23
In 1845 the (proposed) Banffshire Railway deposited parliamentary plans for a line from Portgordon on the coast to Dufftown, passing through Keith. At first the prospects for this company looked good, but the financial crash following the Railway Mania made it impossible to raise money to build it, and it was dissolved.Keith Fenwick, Railways of Keith and Dufftown, Great North of Scotland Railway Association, 2013, ISBN 978-0902343-25-2, pages 7 and 8
Authorisation, but delayed construction
The motivation for a railway line linking Dufftown was still in place, and in 1856 plans were deposited for the Keith and Dufftown Railway (K&DR). It was to be a line, with a possible extension to mineral workings in Glenrinnes; capital was proposed to be £50,000; the bill allowed for the line to be worked by either the or the Inverness and Aberdeen Junction Railway. The , itself desperately short of money, agreed to subscribe £1,000 to the new company. On that basis the Keith and Dufftown Railway was authorised by an act of Parliament, the (20 & 21 Vict. c. lxxxvii) of 27 July 1857. Most of the route closely followed the River Isla but there were some stiff gradients.Fenwick, page 13Ross, pages 43 and 44E F Carter, An Historical Geography of the Railways of the British Isles, Cassell, London, 1959, page 287Donald J Grant, Directory of the Railway Companies of Great Britain, Matador, Kibworth Beauchamp, 2017, ISBN 978 1785893 537, pages 285 and 286
The Keith and Dufftown directors had already provisionally arranged that Mitchell, Ireland of Montrose would construct the line for a price of £43,125, of which £7,500 would be in shares. The share subscription did not go well; by the time of the first ordinary general meeting in September, subscriptions and guarantees amounted to only £4,970, and the Great North's £1,000. It was not possible to start construction.Vallance, pages 53 and 54
In fact so little was subscribed that, after a long hiatus, the construction contract was cancelled. In October 1858 the directors confirmed that, despite the stalemate, they would continue in the hope that something might turn up, ideally a major cash injection by the . By October 1859 there was at last some movement: the Duke of Richmond guaranteed £7,500 and the Earl of Fife £5,000, provided that the Great North would take on the undertaking. This the agreed to do, provided that half the capital was raised by bona fide local subscriptions. The original construction powers were due to expire on 1 July 1860, and a new bill had been prepared (by the ) to obtain an extension of time and to modify the route, at the cost of even steeper gradients. The bill was enacted as the (23 & 24 Vict. c. lxiii), of 25 May 1860.Ross, page 47Donald J Grant, Directory of the Railway Companies of Great Britain, Matador, Kibworth Beauchamp, 2017, ISBN 978 1785893 537
Competitors' proposals spur action Interests in Inverness were now talking about a new line to Perth from Forres. This was bad news for the , as Inverness people and goods would no longer need to travel via Aberdeen if such a line was built. The official line on that was that "traffic between stations on the Inverness line and the south is apt to be over-rated". But they betrayed their true feelings by preparing a Bill to extend the Dufftown line down the Spey as far as Grantown, which was on the proposed line to Perth. This was to be the Strathspey Railway. Face was saved by emphasising that this was primarily for the timber and mineral traffic that might be generated on that route.Ross, page 52
The was now "taking the Keith and Dufftown Railway in hand, after the years of uncertainty" as Ross puts it. It was agreed to extend the line across the River Fiddich to Balvenie, as the original terminus was "quite unsuitable for Dufftown and district", for an additional £12,723.Statement by the Board, quoted in Ross, page 57
The planned terminus had been on the east side of that river, but the new proposed location was also some considerable distance from the centre of the town. The new location was determined by the fact that the extension was to link with the proposed Strathspey Railway. To enable progress on completing the line, vital to the , a shareholders' meeting of the approved a subscription of £1,000 for the Keith and Dufftown Railway under its original act of Parliament, the Keith and Dufftown Railway Act 1857, and £25,000 under the Keith and Dufftown Railway (Deviation) Act 1860. Ordinary shareholders were still failing to take an interest in the line, and the weak financial status of the company made it impossible for it to get a loan from a financial institution in the ordinary way.Ross, page 63
The Balvenie extension required a crossing of the River Fiddich, and during the work, the uncompleted viaduct collapsed. on 9 July 1861, killing a workman and his daughter, who had brought him his lunch. The cause was found to be the premature removal of the arch centresThe temporary timber supports on which the arch rings are formed; the mortar joints had not cured fully. before the structure had consolidated.Ross, page 56
Opening The contractor was quickly able to complete the viaduct, and Captain Rich was able to approve the line for the Board of Trade on 19 February 1861; it opened on 21 February 1861. There were intermediate stations at Earlsmill, Botriphnie and Drummuir. Botriphnie was renamed Auchindachy in 1862; and Earlsmill was renamed Keith Town in 1897.
The train service consisted of four trains each way every weekday, later reduced to three.Vallance, page 54
Connecting railways The strategic value of the Keith and Dufftown Railway went beyond connecting Dufftown to the main line. Two other railways gave useful onward connectivity that was keenly sought by the .
The Morayshire Railway
The Morayshire Railway had established itself to the north of Elgin, at Lossiemouth, and now in 1858 it was building a branch line from Orton, on the Inverness and Aberdeen Junction Railway to Rothes and Craigellachie. This was completed on 23 December 1858, but the "Craigellachie" station was on the west side of the River Spey, at Dandaleith.
The Morayshire Railway operated between Elgin and its Craigellachie station, but that involved some running over the Inverness and Aberdeen Junction Railway; instead of co-operating for mutual benefit, the latter railway constantly obstructed the Morayshire's operation, and despite being desperately short of money, the MR decided to build its own independent line from Elgin to Rothes, opening it on 1 January 1862. John Ross, The Traveller's Joy: The Story of the Morayshire Railway, self published by John Ross, Elgin, 2001, ISBN 0 902343 114, page 91
That gave access to its "Craigellachie" (Dandaleith) line, which it then extended over the River Spey to Craigellachie proper. This made the Morayshire Railway and the very attractive to the , as that company could now reach Elgin independently of the Inverness and Aberdeen Junction Railway. Moreover it also gave access to a junction with the Speyside Railway, another line that was nominally independent but actually fostered by the GNoSR. The Craigellachie station was in fact named "Speyside Junction", underlining the strategic significance of the connection.
The Speyside Railway
The proposed Forres to Perth line of the Inverness and Perth Junction Railway (I&PJR) was becoming a reality; it opened in 1863. The saw this as a threat that might be turned into an opportunity if it could connect into the line itself. It therefore encouraged the promotion of the Speyside Railway, which was to run from Dufftown through Craigellachie and Grantown to Boat of Garten, approaching Aviemore on the .
All these schemes came together so that in July 1863, the Speyside Railway opened, and connected with the newly opened Morayshire extension at Craigellachie; for a time the station there was known as Speyside Junction. So the , controlling these satellites, had access to Elgin and to the main line south to Perth. However if the objective was to by-pass the obstructive Inverness companies, there was a major problem: the Boat of Garten connection was at the whim of the . (Indeed the southward conveyance of traffic was also subject to that company's pleasure.)
For some time the Speyside Railway – in reality the – came no further south than Abernethy for three years, finally being connected at Boat of Garten on 1 August 1866.Dick Jackson and Keith Fenwick The Speyside Line: a History and Guide to the Railway from Craigellachie to Boat of Garten, Great North of Scotland Railway Association, 2012, ISBN 978 0902 343 24 5, pages 10, 11 and 13John Thomas and David Turnock, A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain: Volume 15, North of Scotland, David and Charles, Newton Abbot, 1989, ISBN 0 946537 03 8, page 317
Absorption by the GNoSR For some time the had been supporting local railways financially, and in many cases working their trains for them. On 30 July 1866, the obtained the Great North of Scotland Railway (Amalgamation) Act 1866 (29 & 30 Vict. c. cclxxxviii) authorising it to amalgamate with several associated railways, including the and the Strathspey Railway; this took place on 1 August 1866.Vallance, page 65Grant, page 240
Grouping, nationalisation and closure