When the Inverness and Aberdeen Junction Railway (I&AJR) reached Keith via Elgin, the Morayshire was able to complete the Speyside second phase by connecting the Craigellachie line at Orton.

Disagreements with the I&AJR eventually forced the Morayshire into constructing a new section of track between its stations at Elgin and Rothes; this was completed in 1862.

The Morayshire accomplished its final enlargement by connecting to the new Great North of Scotland Railway (GNoSR) Craigellachie station in 1863.

[9][note 1] Parliamentary approval for this scheme was obtained on 10 July 1846 but financial panic gripped the United Kingdom in 1847 and the entire project was shelved.

[13] Hutchings & Co were awarded the contract and the first sod was cut at Bareflathills just outside Elgin near the River Lossie by the wife of James Grant on Saturday, 30 November 1851.

[12][16] The outcome was that a clash of some sort had taken place and that four of the instigators were arrested and sentenced to various periods of hard labour—a fifth person was to be sent to the Court of Judiciary for trial after assaulting the Sheriff.

[16] It had been decided that the opening date would be Tuesday 10 August 1852 but at the board meeting on 31 July, it was reported that the locomotives had not arrived from Messrs Neilson & Co of Glasgow—one day later the boat containing the engines docked at Lossiemouth.

[20] The Board of Trade Engineer inspected the line on 4 August and travelled in a locomotive a day later and declared himself satisfied with the railway and rolling stock.

[21] On 10 August 1852, a general holiday was declared in Elgin and Lossiemouth and the directors of the company along with other local dignitaries walked at the head of a procession from the town centre, at St Giles Church, to the station where accompanied by celebratory cannon firing, they were given a rousing send-off.

The board of the Elgin and Lossiemouth Harbour Company met the passengers and escorted them to the recently opened Steamboat and Railway Hotel where they were entertained.

[16] They then proceeded to a large marquee erected overlooking the station on top of the quarry cliffs where many people made fine speeches before lunch.

[26] Joseph Taylor and Charles Cranstoun, the company's Engineer and General Manager respectively, designed an ingenious device for coupling and uncoupling carriages and locomotives thereby removing a significant hazard that claimed many lives annually across Britain.

For our part, we hold that by so doing they make themselves accountable, in all right of justice, for every injury or death that hereafter results from the present dangerous and destructive method of carriage-coupling.Within a short time of co-designing the coupling device, Joseph Taylor was killed in an accident near Oakenhead Bridge just outside Lossiemouth on 23 April 1857.

The Morayshire company would, under its agreement with the I&AJR, work its own trains on the Elgin – Orton section but without permission to stop for passengers.

The engines used by the Morayshire Railway were small and prone to breakdown and unsuitable for the steeper gradients on this section of track—their use lasted only six weeks.

[37] With the levels of debt carried by the company, the brothers James and John Grant loaned the Morayshire £4500 to help fund the new track—royal assent was given in 1861 and the work was completed on 1 January 1862.

This viaduct was constructed for the purpose of carrying the Morayshire Railway over the River Spey, at Craigellachie, Banffshire, the engineers being Mr Samuel (M. Inst.

The effect of the dispute with the I&AJR was to make the Morayshire Railway open negotiations with the GNoSR who bought £10,000 of shares to help build the direct line to Rothes.

[42] In October 1860 the I&AJR made what appeared to be a last-ditch effort to keep the GNoSR out of Elgin by proposing to the Morayshire Board an amalgamation of their two companies.

[48] On 30 July 1866, the GNoSR was granted consent to consolidate its series of small Speyside companies and to take the Morayshire Railway under its full ownership when terms and the debt issues had been resolved.

...He was the sole projector of the Morayshire Railway, to which he devoted his whole energies and attention, sometimes contending with difficulties and opposition under which any ordinary person would have succumbed.

The GNoSR, when made aware of the statement immediately set about safeguarding its investment in the Morayshire with negotiations between the two big companies eventually leading to the Highland withdrawing the amalgamation terms.

[53] Gradually over the next few years, thanks mainly to the General Manager, Alexander Watt, the Morayshire introduced cost-cutting measures and revenue-raising schemes.

[54] The GNoSR acknowledged that the Morayshire was now on a sound footing and so in 1880 negotiations between the companies resumed and the enabling act for the amalgamation was given Royal Assent on 11 August 1881.