Gollanfield Junction railway station

Gollanfield Junction
Location
Place	Gollanfield
Area	Highland
Operations
Original company	Inverness and Nairn Railway
Pre-grouping	Highland Railway
Platforms	2
History
7 November 1855	Opened as Fort George
1 July 1899	Renamed Gollanfield Junction
March 1959	Renamed Gollanfield
3 May 1965	Closed
Disused railway stations in the United Kingdom
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Gollanfield Junction was a railway station located at Gollanfield, to the west of Nairn, Scotland, (now in the Highland Council Area). Opened in 1855 by the Inverness and Nairn Railway, it was initially named Fort George after the military base nearby.^[1] The opening of a direct branch to the aforementioned facility (which was actually sited in the village of Ardersier) in July 1899 saw the station renamed as Gollanfield Junction from that date. Passenger services on the branch were withdrawn in 1943 and it closed to all traffic in August 1958.^[2] The following year, the station was renamed a second time, to plain Gollanfield by British Railways.

In 1953, a head-on collision between an eastbound Inverness to Keith passenger train and a westbound freight train just west of the station resulted in the deaths of three train crew (both drivers and the passenger train fireman) and injuries to three passengers & the goods train fireman.^[3] The driver of the freight train was held culpable for the accident for failing to regulate the speed of his train on approach to the station, though the station signalman was also censured for lowering the home signal prematurely and thus misleading the driver into thinking the starting signal ahead would also be clear.

Goods traffic at the station ceased in May 1964 and it was closed to passenger traffic on 3 May 1965 (along with all the other remaining stations between Nairn & Inverness) as a result of the Beeching Axe.^[1]

Most of the buildings were subsequently demolished after closure, but the station house remain standing and is used as a private residence. A single line remains in use by passenger trains between Inverness, Elgin and Aberdeen.^[4]

References

1. "Disused Stations - Gollanfield"Disused Stations Site Record; Retrieved 17 August 2016
2. "Railscot - Fort George Branch Crawford, Ewan, Railbrit.co.uk; Retrieved 17 August 2016
3. "Report on the Collision which occurred on 9th June 1953 near Gollanfield Junction in the Scottish Region, British RailwaysThe Railways Archive; Retrieved 17 August 2016
4. "Gollanfield Junction railway station (site), Highland Thompson, Nigel Geograph.org; Retrieved 17 August 2016

External Links

• "Inverness and Nairn Railway". RAILSCOT. 1997–2012.
• Canmore - Gollanfield Junction Station

Coordinates: 57°33′04″N 4°00′31″W / 57.5510°N 4.0087°W