Jump!

Might be a rubbish photo, but always fun to see one of the wee reds (even better when it was in a sanity break from the home office desk, and on an extra loop that Mel insisted on because Freya and Jasper had decided to come for a walk with us, which is always sweet).

In the extras, a pure indulgence. Stumbled across Tickets Please on Instagram, and he’d got a load of luggage labels from the Great North of Scotland Railway, which operated from 1854 until amalgamation in 1922. Ellon station was on the Formartine and Buchan line, which was added in 1861.

It was on the main route to Peterhead and Fraserburgh, as well as the starting point for a branch to Cruden Bay (leading to complaints of an influx of golfers to the newly created course). Passenger services ended in 1965, as part of the Beeching cuts.

Freight services stumbled on till 1978, a couple of years before my family moved north to the town (very much a village then), into a new house backing onto the old line. So this is going on the wall of my home office as a wee reminder.