Railway

	On 27th July 1857 the authorisation was given for the construction of a railway line from Keith to Dufftown.
	On 21st Feb 1862 the line opened with stations at Keith Town (then called Earlsmill after that district of Keith), Auchandachy (then called Botriphnie) and Dufftown.
	In ??? the Towiemore Halt was opened to export 'burnt lime' from the nearby Drummuir Lime Kilns.
	In ??? Drummuir station was added, along with its so-called Curlers Platform at ???.
	In 1866 it amalgamated with the Great North of Scotland Railway
	On 1st June 1863 Drummuir Lime Kilns Siding was opened. By Dec 1884 it had been renamed Botriphnie. It was closed on 10th July 1890 and then reopened in 1894. It was renamed to Towiemore in 1898. A passenger service was available from about 1924 but was not in the public timetable until 1937.
	In 1985 the Keith & Dufftown Railway Association was incorporated under the Companies Act.
	On 21st July 1999 the KDRA was granted permission to operate as a railway.
	On 18th August 2001 the first train ran from Dufftown to Keith on the reopened line.

The single-track railway line from Keith to Dufftown was built in 1862 and was operated by the Great North of Scotland Railway Company and then British rail from then until 1985 when it succumbed to Dr. Beeching's infamous axe. In 19?? it was purchased from British Rail for the princely sum of £11 (£1 per mile) by the Keith & Dufftown Railway Association ?? In 1991 trains ceased to run on the line due to problems with the Glenfiddich viaduct. This was repaired at a cost of some £??? and in July 1994 was declared for for operation.

In Newsletter No 63, September 1994, I noted that the Keith and Dufftown Railway Association had been formed in the Summer of 1992 to preserve the historic 11 miles of single line track which had been built in 1862 but from which trains had ceased to run in 1991. Travers Cosgrove wrote to me in July to say that the Glenfiddich viaduct has been repaired and is now in use and that the Keith and Dufftown railway is running from Dufftown, which is the home of the Glenfiddich distillery, to Drummuir and is planned to reach Keith before next summer. Linking to the national railway network at Keith, 15 miles south west of Elgin, still lies ahead.