Alford Valley Railway (GNoSR)

Alford was a small market town and regional centre in the valley of the River Don, Aberdeenshire.

However in the aftermath of the Railway Mania there was widespread financial panic and it proved impossible to generate subscriptions, and the company was unable to proceed.

Both the proposed lines were to have their terminus at a point near the crossroads which are south of the Bridge of Alford and about a mile from the village itself.

At a shareholders' meeting, the GNoSR board was challenged as to the purpose of this expenditure (and similar subscriptions to other branch lines) and it was stated that "The aim of the company in making these investments as the smallest sums that could be advanced to enable the proprietors and tenants to develop the traffic of a district".

[11] In fact the authorised extent of the line was to the south end of Alford Bridge, which spanned the River Don.

[4] The original authorised route had been as far as Alford Bridge, but the shortage of money brought home awareness that a further mile of railway to serve a hamlet was an unnecessary expense.

In fact construction of this final section was abandoned by the Alford Valley Railway Amendment Act 1862 (25 & 26 Vict.

A service of four passenger trains was provided in each direction, all of which called at the intermediate stations of Kemnay, Monymusk and Whitehouse.

Situated in close proximity to the Kemnay station on the Alford Valley Railway every facility is present to develop the work.

On an average Mr Fyfe gives work to 250 men all the year round, and these with the aid of steam power, which he was the first to introduce in the quarrying of granite, turn out several thousand tons of stone monthly which goes partly to the home and partly to the foreign markets.

[18] Running through purely agricultural terrain to a small town with about 1,200 inhabitants, the line did not thrive financially.

[12] Nevertheless the granite industry around Kemnay provided good business for the railway, in a form of symbiosis, where the moribund quarries were revived by the cheap transport now available to Aberdeen.

[12] In December 1860 the Alford Valley Railway held its fifth annual meeting; a poor harvest was blamed for a disappointing set of accounts.

The GNoSR was working the line not on an agreed percentage of the gross revenue but at prime cost, including £75 a year for the use of Kintore Station.

[28] The continued increase in operating costs, and the decline in local traffic after the end of the second world war, resulted in the closure to passengers of the Alford branch on 2 January 1950.