Railway Herald Magazine, Volumes 1-2

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Railway companies featured the hotels they built on posters and adverts, luring travellers to explore previously hard to reach parts of the country. An extravagant castle-style building on enormous scale, it was the sister hotel to the ill-fated Palace hotel in Aberdeen, heavily marketed as easily accessible for overnight travellers from London’s King’s Cross. The Queen Mother stayed in both, but the Caley had Roy Rogers, who was photographed walking his horse, Trigger, up the stairs,” recalls Roddy.

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Many station hotels also became familiar places for locals to gather – for a swift drink before heading home, or a meal out. Customers in East Lothian will benefit from ScotRails Dunbar to Edinburgh services calling additionally at Wallyford to access the mobility hub there, as well as East Linton when the new station opens. At one end of Princes Street, the Scottish Baronial style North British Hotel – better known now as The Balmoral – overlooks the bustle of Waverley Station where most modern commuters are oblivious to its hidden service lift just yards from its busy concourse. For many years, The Caledonian was considered rather smart with tremendous glamour, while the North British was more the place for rugby followers to stay. Additional stops are being added to services between Glasgow Queen Street and Aberdeen, and between Edinburgh Waverley and Aberdeen, creating new direct journey opportunities between communities in Angus and Aberdeenshire.The Caledonian had wonderful film stars and famous people who passed through; Sean Connery, Maria Callais, Marlene Dietrich... At the centre of it all was the head waiter – Luigi – who always knew exactly who you were even though he might only have met you once.” Opened in 1907 with accommodation for 550 guests, Glasgow’s Grand Central Hotel adjoining Central Station proclaimed itself to be the ‘largest and most luxurious’ hotel in Scotland.

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Every possible attention to detail was given: the coffee room’s rich décor in American walnut, ebony and mahogany, the 38ft drawing room, reading room with extensive library, two waiting rooms including one especially fitted for “commercial gentlemen”. Perhaps in a grim warning of what might befall Ayr Station Hotel, by 1950, one of Aberdeen’s grandest buildings was no more. Today a Travelodge stands in its place. Along with Gleneagles, with its luxurious rooms and countryside setting, the Edinburgh hotels played a key role in helping to lure tourists to Scotland, he adds.According to Roddy, the experience grand station hotels offered guests – from the luxury they exuded to the simplicity of stepping from train straight into hotel lobby – is hard to beat.

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The Foxfield Railway has teamed up with a number of local organisations to hold a festival to celebrate the passing of a century since the local pre-grouping railway company, the North Staffordshire Railway, was absorbed into the LMS. Read More VOLUNTEER HARASSMENT COMPLAINT DECISION REVERSED Published at 14:38 on Saturday 20th May 2023 The new timetable will see changes between Dundee and Inverurie, delivering improvements to service reliability, particularly at local stations between Dundee and Aberdeen. Travelling to Dunoon’s station hotel for a golf break, or to the Highland spa town of Strathpeffer and its gleaming white station hotel for one of its acclaimed ‘peat baths’, was suddenly on the table. Now, long abandoned, swathed in scaffolding and having just endured yet another fire, fears are growing for its future and whether it, too, may be lost forever. The Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, has confirmed that the long-planned second phase of HS2 from the West Midlands to Manchester has been scrapped.Here at UK Railtours we’re justly proud of our reputation for offering a varied programme, dependable quality and excellent value for money. It was already past its prime when in 1941 a devastating fire spread from its grill room to its upper floors, killing five chambermaids. There was a romance to rail travel,” says Ben Dewfield-Oakley, Conservation Officer at SAVE Britain’s Heritage which has been campaigning to save the Ayr hotel.