Once the railway had reached Aberdeen from the south in 1850, the tentacles of what would become the Great North of Scotland Railway system were soon spreading across the North East. The first branch line, from Aberdeen seventeen miles west to Banchory in Deeside, opened in 1853 and was eventually completed by a further 26 miles to the village of Ballater, near Balmoral Castle and Braemar, in 1866. Queen Victoria had been visiting Deeside since 1851, and the new railway became an integral part of royal travels. It is said that Ballater was the destination of more crowned heads and royalty than any other station in Europe.
The easternmost section of the single track Deeside Line hosted part of the famed Aberdeen suburban service – 'the Subbies' – which began operation to Culter in 1894, stimulating population growth around Cults, Culter and Park, with double track progressively extended from Aberdeen through Culter to Park between 1884 and 1899, and new stations opened at Holburn Street and Pitfodels.1 But this fast and intensive service (and the latter two stations) succumbed to road competition as early as 1937 and the Aberdeen–Park section was singled in 1951. [see 'The end of the Aberdeen 'Subbies' in Backtrack Vol.37 No.3]
A unique experiment
The late 1950s briefly saw a resurgence of patronage on Scottish branch lines following the replacement of steam by diesel multiple units (predominantly) and railbuses – while the Deeside Line played host to a unique traction experiment. In 1954 the Electricity Consultative Council for the North of Scotland recommended that experiments should be made with battery railcars on one or more branch lines, in part reflecting the statutory duty of the North of Scotland Hydro Electric Board (NOSHEB) to aid economic development in the Highlands.2 British Railways was initially less than enthusiastic about the project and an early attempt to deploy such a vehicle on the Crieff branch came to nothing. However, the British Transport Commission and NOSHEB reached agreement in 1957 to introduce a battery railcar – converted from a two-car DMU by BR at its Cowlairs Works – the following year on the Deeside Line.
The new unit proved to be the first replacement of steam traction in the North East, arriving in Aberdeen in early 1958, then entering regular service on the Deeside Line on 21st April that year, followed a couple of months later by DMUs, together displacing steam from regular passenger services on the branch.3 Batteries were partially recharged during the day, taking advantage of train layover times of up to 1½ hours at the Aberdeen and Ballater termini. The battery railcar was popular with passengers, due to the absence of vibration and its very low noise levels – and to coincide with its introduction the daily train service was doubled from three trains both ways to six.
The BR 'Report on the progress of diesel schemes in the Scottish Region'4 issued in 1960 does not indicate whether the Deeside Line fell into the category of route (like the nearby Fraserburgh and Peterhead lines) where dieselisation was “designed to reduce costs in areas known to have little to offer in the way of potential traffic”, or if it was expected to stimulate new business as well as cutting costs. In practice, however, the combination of battery railcar and DMU replacing steam yielded a substantial 64.9% increase in
