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Wick railway station

Coordinates: 58°26′30″N 3°05′51″W / 58.4416°N 3.0975°W / 58.4416; -3.0975
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158701 standing at Wick
General information
LocationWick, Highland
Scotland
Coordinates58°26′30″N 3°05′51″W / 58.4416°N 3.0975°W / 58.4416; -3.0975
Grid referenceND360509
Managed byScotRail Trains
Platforms1
Other information
Station codeWCK
History
Opened28 July 1874; 150 years ago (1874-07-28)[2]
Original companySutherland and Caithness Railway
Pre-groupingHighland Railway
Post-groupingLMS
Passengers
2016/17Decrease 18,438
2017/18Decrease 17,546
2018/19Increase 17,890
2019/20Decrease 16,664
2020/21Decrease 3,442
Listed Building – Category B
Designated28 November 1984 (amended 15 December 1998)
Reference no.LB42321[3]
Notes
Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road

Wick railway station is a railway station located in Wick, in the Highland council area in the far north of Scotland. It serves the town of Wick and other surrounding areas in the historic county of Caithness, including Staxigoe, Papigoe and Haster. The station is the terminus of the Far North Line, 161 miles 36 chains (259.8 kilometres) from Inverness.[4] It is managed by ScotRail Trains, which also operates all trains serving the station.

History

Wick station, August 1980 under British Rail.

The station was designed by Murdoch Paterson and built by the Sutherland and Caithness Railway, opening the line in 1874.[2][5] A wrought-iron turntable, 45 feet (14 m) in diameter, was installed at the station by the Railway Steel and Plant Company of Manchester,[6] along with an engine shed capable of housing four engines and a special loading bank for the loading of herring for the southern markets.

On 1 July 1903, the Wick and Lybster Light Railway was opened, and Wick became a junction station.[7] The last trains to Lybster ran in 1944, although the line was not officially closed until 1951.

On 30 June 1909, Peter Doull, a coal trimmer, was killed by a train in the coal siding.[8]

On 3 May 1941, a goods train pulling into the station collided with an empty carriage at the platform. The buffers failed to stop the carriage, which carried forward and piled up onto the platform, where one end crashed into the Menzies bookstall. The platform buffers were found buried beneath the wreckage of the bookstall.[9]

Until 2000, trains from Inverness would split in half at Georgemas Junction, with one portion going to Wick and the other to Thurso. This practice ended when Class 158s were introduced on the line – since then all services run in full between Inverness and Wick via Thurso, in both directions, adding up to 30 minutes to journey times to and from Wick.[10]

Stationmasters

  • Mr. Macdonald 1874 - 1875 (formerly station master at Helmsdale)
  • Murdoch MacGregor 1875 - 1897[11]
  • Murdoch Mackay 1897 - 1898[12] (formerly station master at Dalwhinnie)
  • John Crowe 1898[13] - 1901
  • Mr. Fraser 1901 - 1903[14] (afterwards station master at Strathpeffer)
  • Donald Cameron 1903 - 1914[15] (afterwards station master at Forres)
  • Alexander Mathieson 1914 - 1926 (afterwards station master at Dingwall)
  • Donald F. Gordon 1926 - 1945[16]
  • A. Fraser until 1949 (afterwards station master at Forres)
  • C. McEachern from 1949[17] (formerly station master at Thurso)
  • J. Thorne
  • Robert Mackenzie until 1965

Location

The station lies adjacent to Caithness General Hospital and Wick police station; it is also the nearest station to Wick Airport (about 1.1 miles (1.8 km) to the north), although no passenger flights currently operate, and to the village of John o' Groats (approximately 17 miles (27 km) to the north) at the northeastern tip of mainland Britain.

Facilities

Wick station building

The station has a single platform, which is long enough to accommodate a ten-carriage train.[18] The station is fully wheelchair-accessible, but it is not monitored by CCTV.[19]

The station has a ticket office, staffed between 10:10 and 17:15 every day except Sundays. There are no self-service ticket machines or smartcard top-up facilities, although there are smartcard validators. Other facilities include: a free car park with 12 parking spaces, a sheltered bike stand with 10 spaces, a payphone that accepts both cash and card, waiting rooms with designated seating areas, toilets (only open during staffing hours) and a post box.[19]

There is no bus stop located directly outside the station.[19]

Passenger volume

Passenger Volume at Wick
  2002-03 2004-05 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 2014-15 2015-16 2016-17 2017-18 2018-19 2019-20 2020-21
Entries and exits 19,566 19,582 19,079 17,321 20,202 21,708 24,454 25,666 24,838 22,788 21,884 21,442 19,766 18,438 17,546 17,890 16,664 3,442

The statistics cover twelve month periods that start in April.

Services

On weekdays and Saturdays Wick station receives four trains per day in each direction, to and from Inverness (via Thurso, Helmsdale, Golspie, Lairg, Tain and Dingwall). On Sundays this drops to just one train per day each way.[10]

Preceding station National Rail National Rail Following station
Georgemas Junction   ScotRail Trains
Far North Line 		  Terminus
  Historical railways  
Bilbster
Line open, station closed 		  Highland Railway
Sutherland and Caithness Railway
   Terminus
Disused railways
Thrumster
Line and station closed 		  Highland Railway
Wick and Lybster Railway
   Terminus

Cultural References

On 19 August 2017, Geoff Marshall and Vicki Pipe, presenters of the documentary series All the Stations, completed their 14-week journey at Wick, having started at Penzance[20] on 7 May 2017. That marked the end of their successful project to visit all 2,563 railway stations in Great Britain.[21]

References

  1. ^ Brailsford 2017, Gaelic/English Station Index.
  2. ^ a b Butt (1995), page 250
  3. ^ "WICK RAILWAY STATION". Historic Scotland. Retrieved 26 February 2019.
  4. ^ Jacobs, Gerald (2001). Railway Track Diagrams, Book 1: Scotland and the Isle of Man. Bradford-on-Avon: Trackmaps. pp. 20E.
  5. ^ "The Sunderland and Caithness Railway". The Scotsman. British Newspaper Archive. 27 July 1874. Retrieved 14 August 2016 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  6. ^ "The Sutherland and Caithness Railway". John o’Groat Journal. Scotland. 9 July 1874. Retrieved 15 July 2017 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  7. ^ "The Wick and Lybster Light Railway. The Opening Ceremony". Aberdeen Journal. British Newspaper Archive. 2 July 1903. Retrieved 15 August 2016 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  8. ^ "Fatal Accident at Wick Railway Station". Aberdeen Journal. British Newspaper Archive. 1 July 1909. Retrieved 15 August 2016 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  9. ^ "Wick Station Crash". Aberdeen Weekly Journal. British Newspaper Archive. 8 May 1941. Retrieved 15 August 2016 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  10. ^ a b eNRT December 2021 Edition, Table 239 (Network Rail) https://www.networkrail.co.uk/running-the-railway/the-timetable/electronic-national-rail-timetable/
  11. ^ "Death of the stationmaster at Wick". Northern Chronicle and General Advertiser for the North of Scotland. Scotland. 12 May 1897. Retrieved 8 November 2021 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  12. ^ "Promotion to Mr. Mackay, Stationmaster, Wick". John o’Groat Journal. Scotland. 21 October 1898. Retrieved 8 November 2021 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  13. ^ "The new stationmaster of Wick". Aberdeen Press and Journal. Scotland. 9 November 1898. Retrieved 8 November 2021 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  14. ^ "Highland Railway Staff Changes". Elgin Courant, and Morayshire Advertiser. Scotland. 3 November 1903. Retrieved 8 November 2021 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  15. ^ "Wick Stationmaster Honoured". Aberdeen Press and Journal. Scotland. 9 December 1914. Retrieved 8 November 2021 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  16. ^ "Wick Tribute to Stationmaster". Aberdeen Weekly Journal. Scotland. 12 April 1945. Retrieved 8 November 2021 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  17. ^ "Appointments for Scots Rail Agents". Aberdeen Press and Journal. Scotland. 6 December 1949. Retrieved 8 November 2021 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  18. ^ Brailsford 2017, map 20E.
  19. ^ a b c "Facilities". ScotRail. ScotRail. Retrieved 25 January 2020.
  20. ^ "Train mad couple complete marathon 14-week journey to visit all of Britain's 2,563 railway stations". The Yorkshire Post. 24 August 2017. Retrieved 30 August 2017.
  21. ^ "Meet Geoff and Vicki: The 'gorpcore' couple visiting every train station in Britain". The Telegraph. 12 August 2017. Retrieved 30 August 2017.

Bibliography

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