Inverness and Aberdeen Junction Railway

Inverness and Aberdeen Junction Railway is an historic railway in Scotland.

The Inverness an Aberdeen Junction Railway was a railway company that constructed a line between Nairn and Forres in Scotland. It opened in 1857 and 1858. It merged with the Inverness and Perth Junction Railway to form the Highland Railway on 1 February 1865.

Its main line remains in use today as part of the line between Aberdeen and Inverness.

When the line between Elgin and Keith was opened in August 1858, its route ran inland, away from the coast, between Elgin and Nairn, and many small coastal settlements were remote from the new railway.

Local interests in Findhorn, finding themselves rather isolated between Findhorn Bay and the open waters of Burghead Bay, promoted a branch line, and this received authorising powers on 19 April 1859, incorporating the Findhorn Railway with capital of £9,000. The terrain was easy, mostly running on sand, and a three-mile line was designed, making a junction a short distance east of Kinloss station on the I&AJR main line. Joseph Mitchell was the engineer and Charles Brand of Montrose was the contractor.

The line opened on 16 April 1860, and trains were worked by the company itself, although rolling stock may have been hired from the larger company. The wooden station building of Kinloss was relocated so as to be at the point of junction of the Findhorn line, a distance of about 300 yards. The Company had one locomotive, an 0-4-0 saddle tank built by Neilson & Co of Glasgow in 1860.

Once opened, the company immediately found that available traffic did not cover basic operating expenses, and it was soon in serious financial difficulty. The Findhorn Railway appealed to the I&AJR for help, and the larger company took it over, effective from 1 March 1862. (The I&AJR became a constituent of the Highland Railway in 1865.) The I&AJR too found that it was impossible to cover operating expenses, estimated at £800 annually, and it was renegotiated with the Highland Railway in March 1867 and again in 1867. At the latter date the Findhorn Railway's directors were made responsible for the future shortfall, but they withdrew that undertaking in January 1869, and the line closed at the end of January 1869. Occasional goods trains ran until 1880. The Findhorn Company's own locomotive was disposed of to the I&AJR in 1862, becoming that company's no 16A. The Kinloss station was relocated to its earlier position.

Findhorn's activity as a port was severely limited by silting and a sand bar at the entrance to the harbour, which prevented all but the smallest vessels from entering.

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