There was a road bridge connecting Macduff with Banff, crossing the River Deveron, and it was intended that both towns would be served by the railway’s terminus.

The Extension Railway opened in 1860, but its terminus was some distance short of Macduff and of the bridge to Banff.

[2] As the scheme was developed it became obvious that available finance would enable the line to be built only as far as Turriff, a distance of 18 miles, forming a junction with the GNoSR at Inveramsay.

[note 1] It was submitted to the 1855 session of Parliament; the GNoSR agreed to take £40,000 of shares in the new company, and to work it for 50% of gross receipts.

Three trains ran each way daily, not venturing on to the main line beyond Inveramsay, which was opened specifically as the junction interchange station.

Gross income only just exceeded operating expenses and loan interest, and the take-up of shares fell short.

[8] The state of the money market was such that the preference shares were not taken up until 1865, when it was the Great North of Scotland Railway that took them.

The alternative railway route to the area, reaching Banff from Portsoy and the west, would disadvantage the community of Macduff commercially, and that fact gave emphasis to the revival of a connection to Turriff.

[6] The GNoSR was pessimistic about the line: a shareholders’ meeting was told [The Turriff line had] cost around £145,000 to build, and still needing a further £5,000 to complete its works, had since its opening yielded the miserable amount of only £6,769, and could report a free balance after costs and interest, of only £200 5s 8d.

So few of its ordinary shares had been taken up that the Banff Macduff & Turriff Junction company had to apply to Parliament for authority to issue 5% preference stock.

[13] At a meeting of shareholders of the Aberdeen and Turriff Railway on 30 November 1860, the Chairman John Stewart told the shareholders that though the opening of the Banff Harbour line from Grange had diverted much of the traffic away from their own line, the planned extension from Turriff to Macduff "will not only bring back the greater portion of the traffic thus diverted, but will probably add to its amount.

The GNoSR obtained a general amalgamation Act with other provisions on 30 July 1866;[4] these included a further extension from the existing terminus to Macduff itself.

[19][7][6] A fatal accident took place on the line on 27 November 1882, as the 4:20 p.m. mixed train from Macduff to Inveramsay was crossing the Inverythan Road Bridge, between Auchterless and Fyvie.

An examination of the wreckage revealed a manufacturing defect in one of the cast iron girders of the bridge, which suffered brittle fracture and collapsed.

However the 1938 public (Bradshaw) timetable shows an additional Sunday round trip, running from Macduff to Wartle only.

[24][25][26] The early locomotives to work the line were Class 1 2-4-0s designed by D.K.Clark and built by William Fairbairn & Sons of Manchester.

In common with many branch lines in rural districts, road competition for both passengers and goods was severe from the 1930s onward, leading to a steep decline in use of the railway.