A north-east railway museum, celebrating the history of a line which controversially closed 50 years ago, will reopen to the public this week.
The Maud Railway Museum is situated at the village’s former station – a key junction on the Formartine and Buchan line – which linked Peterhead and Fraserburgh to the rail network via Ellon and Aberdeen.
Passenger services were closed as part of the notorious Beeching cuts in 1965 and the freight route was axed less than 15 years later.
The closures left the communities as the two Scottish towns which were furthest away from the national network.
The museum is reopening for the tourist season this weekend, and will be open on the second weekend of every month until October. The museum can also be opened up for group visits by arrangement.
Museum volunteer Keith Jones said: “As well as displaying a large number of items, ephemera, and photographs relating to the former Buchan Railway lines which connected Aberdeen and Dyce with Ellon, Fraserburgh and Peterhead, the museum is home to the fully restored railway carriage.
“It was used to carry convicts from Peterhead prison to the quarries at Stirlinghill where granite for building the Peterhead harbour of refuge was quarried.
“Awaiting restoration is a munitions wagon which was used at various naval dockyards in the earlier part of the 20th century.”
The last train ran through Maud in 1979, but the station is now a focal point on the Formartine and Buchan Way walking and cycling route.
The museum accepts donations of photographs and local railway artefacts for display and is seeking to recruit new volunteers.
At a recent meeting of the Friends of Maud Museum, two “stalwart” volunteers announced they were standing down.
Whitehills man, Nigel Sawford, who spearheaded the prison carriage refurb, and Ian Sandison, of Turriff, whose dad served on the line, are both retiring.
