Inverury and Old Meldrum Junction Railway

Until the turn of the 18th century Oldmeldrum - then written Old Meldrum - was the principal market town between Aberdeen and Banff. However, the importance of Old Meldrum declined with the building of a canal between Aberdeen and Port Elphinstone, on the River Don at Inverurie. Whereas goods had been transported by road via Oldmeldrum and the small port of Newburgh at the mouth of the River Ythan, trade increasingly concentrated on Inverurie and its canal link with Aberdeen. By 1850, Inverurie was almost twice the size of Oldmeldrum: Oldmeldrum's population was 2,343 in 1861. When railways came to the north-east of Scotland in the 1840s, the Great North of Scotland Railway (GNoSR) opened its main line from Aberdeen to Huntly in 1854. It was already plain that small towns not connected to the railway network would suffer a decline, and the people of Oldmeldrum saw that a link to the GNoSR was essential. Ideas put forward at this stage included ambitious plans to extend much further north than Oldmeldrum, but it was realised that the money for a long line was not easily raised. ==Authorisation and opening==

A more modest scheme, the Inverury and Old Meldrum Junction Railway was promoted; its necessary capital was £22,000, and the GNoSR promised a moderate contribution. The authorising Act for the Inverury and Old Meldrum Junction Railway received the Royal Assent on 15 June 1855. The line was to be 5 miles 1194 yards in length, from a junction at Inverurie. The station at that time was some distance south of the present one; the Oldmeldrum branch line ran alongside the main line for nearly a mile before diverging. The engineer was John Willet. There were few engineering complications in constructing the line, the biggest work being a 50-foot girder bridge over the River Ury. The capital for construction seems to have been raised mainly locally, and so construction was completed quickly and cheaply, being ready by June 1856 at a low cost of about £5,000 per mile. Colonel Yolland carried out the necessary inspection for the Board of Trade on 23 June 1856. Everything was satisfactory and a ceremonial opening to passengers took place on Thursday 26 June 1856. There was an intermediate station at Lethenty, opened on 1 November 1856; a platform halt was established at Fingask, where there were wool-carding mills, in 1866. ==Financial performance==

At the company's second ordinary general meeting on 27 October 1856, the directors reported that £16,704 13s 9d of capital had been expended, although only £12,722 10s of the authorised capital of £22,000 had actually been raised in shares. Borrowing powers of £7,000 had not yet been exercised, and "they hoped for further share purchases". There is no explanation of where the missing £3,982 had come from. a stage that had been authorised by Act of 14 June 1858; In 1866 the GNoSR set about incorporating several branch line leases into the parent company; the Oldmeldrum company was one of them. The £650 annual lease rental was converted to £13,810 of new GNoSR Old Meldrum preference stock. Parliament authorised the change on 1 August 1866. This contrasts with an earlier 1870 report, in which running expenses were said to amount to £350 per annum, while station expenses came to about £250. The total income at Oldmeldrum and Lethenty was £4,935. These figures may not be comparable and should be treated with caution. ==Decline==

After 1919, road services became an important competitor for the branch line; at first passenger buses operated, but soon afterwards goods lorries too. Usage of the branch line fell considerably, and in turn this led to a reduction in the train service to two passenger trains each way. Following the Railways Act 1921 the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) absorbed the GNoSR and other companies. In 1930 passenger receipts had totalled £243, which represented a loss in working of £718. It was hardly sustainable to continue such an operation, and the LNER closed the passenger service from 2 November 1931. The basic goods service to Oldmeldrum continued, but it too became unsupportable in the 1960s, and it was closed on 3 January 1966. ==Meldrum Meg==

The branch's passenger train ranked high in the affection of the locals, who bestowed the sobriquet of "Meldrum Meg" on the branch engine, which at first was a Samuel tank it had acquired from the Morayshire railway. The Inverurie poet Dufton Scott had referred to it in one of his readings as "Meldrum Meg". From then on, every engine was known by this name. Its loss was lamented in the following verse: ==Locations==

• Old Meldrum; opened 1 July 1856; renamed Oldmeldrum 1894; closed 2 November 1931; • Fingask; opened 1 June 1866; closed 2 November 1931; • Lethenty; opened 1 October 1856; closed 2 November 1931; • Inverury; Great North of Scotland main line station; renamed Inverurie 1 May 1866; relocated half mile further north 10 February 1902; still open. ==Notes==