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Aberdeen Joint Station: 150 Years of History
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Aberdeen Joint Station: 150 Years of History

Online Exhibitions
Léa Moreau
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Aberdeen Joint Station: 150 Years of History
Online Exhibitions
Aberdeen Joint Station: 150 Years of History
4th November 2017 sees the 150th anniversary of the opening of Aberdeen Station, for most of its existence known locally as the Joint Station. Until 1867 there was a passenger terminus in Guild Street for trains from Edinburgh, Glasgow and the south and also Deeside. Trains from the north terminated at a station at Waterloo Quay and passengers had to walk or take a horse cab between the two stations. Connections were frequently missed. Goods wagons were pulled by horses along the harbour railway tracks. The two railway companies involved, the Scottish North-Eastern and the Great North of Scotland put forward a couple of rival proposals neither of which proved popular with local residents before agreeing to finance and construct "The Denburn Valley Railway" from Kittybrewster to Guild Street involving some major engineering work including the culverting of the Denburn, two major tunnels at Maberley Street and Woolmanhill and a large though, jointly-owned passenger station in Guild Street.

Traffic soon outgrew capacity and in 1915 a replacement station was opened. This forms the core of today's station which has seen modernisation and rationalisation over the years, most recently when Union Square shopping centre was developed.

This exhibition tells by way of photographs and ephemera the full story of the station and its social and economic history. It is a collaboration between the Library and the Great North of Scotland Railway Association (GNSRA).
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Items included in this Online Exhibition
The opening of the line to Ferryhill in 1850
Plan by James Henderson dated 1850
Original Guild Street Station
Early GNSR locomotive and carriage at Waterloo Station in the 1860s