Publication Account

Date 2007

Event ID 1019593

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Publication Account

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1019593

Boat of Garten Station is now the headquarters of the Strathspey Railway Company, which runs trains on the line from Aviemore to Broomhill, and is dedicated to rebuilding the section to Grantown-on-Spey West Station on the former Highland Railway main line from Aviemore to Forres. The station was originally the junction between the Highland Railway and the Great North of Scotland Railway, and the buildings that are visible today reflect its past history as a junction. The station opened in 1863 as part of the Inverness and Perth Railway providing a link to Forres and Inverness. Until the opening of the new cut-off route via Slochd, this line was the main route from the south to the capital of the Highlands.

The buildings are typical of the Highland Railway Company house style, a mixture of stone and prefabricated elements. The GNSR and later the LNER Strathspey line mostly used the eastern side of the station. Other structures included two signal boxes with signals controlling the north and south approaches, a small engine shed, a footbridge and several platform buildings including the station-master’s house. The railway company did not own the immediately adjacent ‘Boat Hotel’. The survival of the station and all the other surrounding structures is entirely due to the dedicated work of the preservation society. Its line connects with the national system at Aviemore where a working steam engine shed can be found, one of the few to survive in Scotland.

Information from ‘Commissioners’ Field Meeting 2007'.