A railway signal box at a north-east station will be demolished despite hopes that it could be retained for the use of the local community.
Network Rail has confirmed it will dismantle the decommissioned box at Newtonhill, due to concerns it could not safely be converted for any other use.
The box was closed earlier this year when improvements were carried out on signalling between Aberdeen and Stonehaven.
The organisation had said it was open to the box being retained and turned into a community facility, as has happened in other parts of the country.
However it has now revealed there is no simple access to the box, and no groups stepped forward to take it over.
It is understood the contents of the box, which includes old gears that operated the signals, could be preserved and donated to a museum.
It comes weeks after it was announced that a study would be launched into bringing a station back to the village after six decades.
North Kincardine councillor, Ian Mollison, said: “It’s disappointing but I can understand why Network Rail has taken its decision, it’s quite close to the live line.
“If we had the prospect of Newtonhill railway station being re-opened fairly shortly I would be appealing very strongly for it to be kept, but we are just taking the first important steps towards that.
“This is a very long process between saying let’s get a study done and actually getting the station back – you only need to look at how long Kintore has taken.”
Earlier this month Network Rail lodged plans to demolish a similar structure on the line at Dyce.
Work being carried out to dual the track means the signal box, built in 1880, will no longer need to be used.
Campaigners had hoped the box could be re-purposed and turned into a cafe or a museum.
Last month, north-east transport body Nestrans asked for £121,000 from the Scottish Government to explore building new stations at Cove, Altens and Newtonhill.
