The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
A JOURNEY TO THE PAST
Maud Railway Museum offers a fascinating peek into the past – and fun rides on a miniature train. Gayle checks it out
Maud – a small, sleepy Aberdeenshire village in which very little happens... or so I thought. Turns out I didn’t have a clue about this fab wee place, which sits in the valley of the South Ugie Water 12 miles west of Peterhead. Not only can you devour some of the best paninis, homebakes and ice cream in Scotland at Platform 5 Cafe, but you can indulge in a fun-filled day out at Maud Railway Museum – riding on the cute miniature “trainie”, checking out the history of the region’s railways, and exploring a beautifully restored carriage used to transport convicts from Peterhead Prison to nearby Stirlinghill quarry.
Housed in the former station buildings at Maud Junction, the museum includes displays of bygone railways, old photos, posters, signs, artefacts and other railway memorabilia from the area’s past, plus there’s a new exhibition about Lenabo airship base.
The railway station opened in 1861 and served as a vital junction on the Buchan rail network between Dyce and Mintlaw, extending to Peterhead in 1862, then splitting into another route to Fraserburgh in 1865.
While large volumes of fish were carried from both ports, around 1,000 cattle and 5,000 sheep sold at Maud auction marts were sent south by train every week. Agriculture was big business and at one point, Maud had
three banks and even a court!
Passenger trains ran across the region until they were axed in 1965 as part of the notorious Beeching cuts.
The final goods train from Fraserburgh – carrying seed potatoes – ran until 1979.
The station buildings lay derelict for a while until Aberdeenshire Council opened them as a museum in 1995.
When I visit on a wet Friday afternoon, I’m in for a treat. My guides are site manager Alistair Robertson and Des Byrne, chairman of Friends of Maud Railway Museum, the charity which runs it on behalf of the council.
Alistair tells me how Maud was built around the railway; prior to the station being created, there was virtually nothing here.
“They wanted to put a railway here around 1860 because there was a lot of fish traffic,” he explains.
“The original station name was Bank after a collection of houses but the laird wanted
it to be named after his estate so it became Brucklay Station. Then in 1865, when the line extended to Fraserburgh, it was changed to New Maud, then Maud.”
Why Maud? Alistair says a nearby farm was called “Almad” and that while “mad” had negative connotations, “mod” meant “meeting place”, and so the name “Maud” was a compromise.
In 1912, the legendary Buffalo Bill graced the station with his presence.
“He’d performed his wild west show in Peterhead and came here and shunted seven train loads of performers and animals on his way to Fraserburgh!” reveals Alistair.
Highlight exhibits, for me at least, include a glass panel from the office door of the original Kittybrewster Wagon Works, an impressive collection of old lamps, train tickets, rule books, ticket clippers, crockery, GNSRbranded napkins, a British Rail shunter’s hook and railway staff uniforms.
There’s also a model railway depicting Maud Station in its heyday and an exhibition about airships, with a focus on nearby Lenabo, built in 1915 and in use between 1916 to 1918.
Exploring the restored Peterhead Prison railway carriage is an absolute must.
The railway between the prison and
the quarry – a distance of two and a half miles – was used by generations of often hardened prisoners under armed guard.
From 1887, when the railway was constructed, they had to excavate granite to help construct massive breakwaters across Peterhead Bay to shelter the town from the North Sea.
The trains they were transported in were specially-built vehicles with small barred windows, ensuring there was no prospect of convicts escaping.
“When we were refurbishing this carriage (the museum was awarded £54,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund to restore the 1915 van), we put in a completely new floor,” Des tells me.
“Between the boards we found a blade which we think some prisoner must have hidden for some nefarious purpose!”
There’s also graffiti scrawled inside the carriage, although it’s hard to decipher.
When the rain eases off, volunteer Simon Hailey invites me to take a ride on the fantastic miniature railway. What fun! It even makes all the authentic railway sounds as the wheels run along the joints and rails.
A trip to the museum is a great way to re-connect with the history and heritage of the north-east and I highly recommend it. And if you make time to enjoy the fine fare at Platform 5 Cafe, you’ll be glad you did.