| Details |
Site of a now destroyed electric tramway built by the Great North of Scotland Railway which owned and operated the Cruden Bay Hotel (NK03NE0127) which the tramway ran to from the train station. The route is shown on the 2nd Edition OS map. The tramway had sidings at Cruden Bay railway station and a platform to the rear of the up platform. The line then went south along the street to the Cruden Bay Hotel, where there was a siding by the front entrance for the hotel guests and sidings for the laundry and a two-road shed for the trams. The railway operated at 500V dc generated by the hotel, while the line itself was of 3ft 6in gauge. The line was opened in 1899 before passenger services were closed on the 1st November 1932 when the passenger rail services were suspended along the Boddam Branch to Cruden Bay station. Hotel guests were instead offered a motor car service direct to Aberdeen station. The tram itself continued for the delivery of supplies and laundry to and from the railway station which remained open to freight. The hotel was requisitioned in 1940 as a Field Training Centre for the Gordon Highlanders. The tram ceased operation on 31 December 1940. The hotel never re-opened after the war and was sold for demolition in July 1947 (with it and the tramway being finally demolished by 1952). Since then the route of the tramway has been built upon in several places. The two tramcars used were built by the Great North of Scotland Railway at Kittybrewster in Aberdeen. They were painted in a purple lake and cream livery with 'Cruden Bay Hotel' on the rocker panel. After the line closed the tramcars were used as a summer house and shed until 1988 when they were recovered, and the best of both were used to create a single car for preservation at the Grampian Transport Museum (located in Alford).
|
Historic Environment Records (HER)