AVIEMORE'S STEAM RAILWAY STATION

Aviemore developed as a small village after the opening of the Inverness & Perth Junction Railway (from 1865 the The Highland Railway) in 1863.

During the next few years a handful of houses , primarily for railway staff, and a post office and general store were built.

The first major period of development in Aviemore did not, however, come until the decade after 1898 when the station became the junction between the new direct route to Inverness via Carrbridge and the old route via Boat of Garten.

The construction of the engine shed and the larger station led to a significant increase in the number of staff. This resulted in the building of houses for railway workers, which still exist today as Railway Terrace. hotels and villas for families on holidays were also erected in the village.

The village took on a new character with the opening of the Aviemore Centre complex of hotels, restaurants, shops and leisure facilities following the growth of winter sports in the Cairngorms.

The Centre and the other tourist developments resulted in over a million visitors coming to Aviemore each year by the early 1970s.

The growth of tourist facilities stalled in the 1980s and 1990s, but the first stage of the Aviemore Partnership's plans to revitalise Aviemore as an all-year-round tourist destination came with the restoration of Aviemore railway station; this then became the new terminus of the Strathspey Railway in 1998.

When Aviemore became an important junction on the Highland Railway line a Locomotive shed was built to maintain Locomotives, carriages and wagons.

Today, Shed 60B is still in use and is where skilled volunteers and employees maintain the railway's fleet of steam locomotives, currently including the rebuild of LMS 5025, the oldest Black 5 in preservation.

Next to this iconic building is the railway's carriage and wagon shed, purpose built to maintain the railway's fleet of carriages and wagons.

To the left of the main railway line is the Roy Hamilton Building, where the railway stores the running set and the dining set as well as various carriages awaiting restoration.

The last building on the left after the Roy Hamilton Building is Spey Lodge (originally a hostel for rail crews and latterly used as a British Railways Staff Association Holiday Hostel) where SRA Volunteers can stay while working on the railway.

Within the maintenance area there is also a locomotive turntable. It is not the original turntable as this was scrapped in the 1960's. A replacement was found at Kyle of Lochalsh and brought to Aviemore in 1981.

Boat of Garten owes its existence to the opening of the railway in 1863 and in particular to the station's role as the junction for the Great North of Scotland Railway's Speyside branch from 1866.

Boat of Garten is well know as the "Osprey Village". The observation hide for ospreys, maintained by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds at Loch Garten, lies three miles from the village.

Similar to Broomhill station, the station at Boat of Garten has been featured in both films and TV including "Dr Findlay's Casebook" and is the last location featured on the Danny MacAskill's YouTube film, "Wee Day Out".

It also handled much timber traffic from the surrounding forests replacing the previous method of floating the logs down the Spey.

The replica main station was built by Volunteers of the Strathspey Steam Railway, on the foundations of the original building in 1997.

The Station was then selected by the producers of the popular TV programme Monarch of the Glen to feature on the programme as "Glenbogle Railway Station"

The railway is staffed mostly with volunteers who are members of the Strathspey Railway Association.

They run the trains, sell the tickets, service the locomotives and coaches, and maintain the tracks, bridges, fences and signals.

Accommodation is provided in Spey Lodge, the LMS train crew's hostel in Aviemore for a modest rate.

The Association also provides financial support towards projects on the Railway and is one of the major shareholders in the Company.

All interested are invited to join the worldwide membership, whether they can play an active role or not.

Benefits of membership include a quarterly magazine and reduced rate tickets for travel on the line.

For details of the Strathspey Railway Association please contact:

The Membership Secretary
Aviemore Station
Dalfaber Road
Aviemore
PH22 1PY

Or apply on-line at www.strathspeyrailwayassociation.co.uk

Work on the overhaul of 5025 began at the beginning of 2012,in Loco Shed 60B Aviemore. This was thanks to grants or promises of support from the Strathspey Railway Company Limited, the Strathspey Railway Trust, the Heritage Lottery Fund the Strathspey Railway Association and the significant amount which had already been raised from our supporters though appeals.

Major progress has been made on the locomotive and tender frames, axleboxes, motion, dragboxes and valve gear at Aviemore and on the major rebuild of the boiler, reprofiling of the tyres of the locomotive and tender wheels and construction of a new tender tank at Riley Engineering of Bury. Work has also included the casting and machining of a pair of new cylinders.

The WEC Watkinson Trust originally hoped to return 5025 to service in 2015, however owing to the amount of work needed, a more realistic aim is for completion is towards the middle / end of 2021. To achieve this further donations to the WEC Watkinson Trust will be welcomed by our treasurer: WAD Macphail CA, ‘Ardneil’, 80 Bruceland Road, Elgin, Moray, IV30 1SP.