The Friends of the Far North Line
Cairdean Na Loine Tuath
the campaign group for rail north of
Inverness - lobbying for improved services for the local user, tourist and freight
operator
Back in February FoFNL received a most interesting request from Steven McCluskey:
I'm hoping that you can help me trace some historical records relating to the station and station house at Bilbster 1874-1960.
I believe that my great-great-grandfather Hugh Samuel Mackenzie on my mother's side was Station Master there. There are records of him living with family around Bilbster & Wick 1878-1895 with one of his children on record as passing away in Bilbster station house in 1894.
He also lived in Dublin/Golspie/Thurso/Elgin prior to Bilbster which all have railway stations and I wonder if he was perhaps an employee of the railways in these towns.
Records including photographs would be fantastic.
My immediate thoughts were to see what I could find myself, but also to ask a friend, Stuart Gray, who does genealogical research. Stuart lived for some years in Thurso, so has good local connections, he's now a volunteer at the Scottish Railway Preservation Society in Bo'ness.
Stuart got to work straight away and produced a surprising amount of information about both Steven's great-great-grandfather Hugh MacKenzie and his great-grandfather Samuel, including a 'timeline' for Hugh MacKenzie. Steven has since added to this timeline.
Hugh had what you could describe as a geographically diverse history. He was born in Elgin; joined the army at 16, seeing action in the Crimea and India; married a local girl in Guernsey; had a son whilst in England; then two daughters in Ireland; then four sons and a daughter in Scotland after being discharged from the army and finding work on the Highland Railway, initially as a porter at Golspie.
Hugh became station master at Hoy in 1876, and moved to Bilbster Station along the line two years later, fairly soon after the station itself (not the station master's house) had been destroyed by fire.
His sixth child, Samuel, Steven's great-grandfather, was born in Bilbster Station house in 1878.
A classic Victorian formal photograph of Hugh's son Samuel, taken in February 1896 when he was 18 years old. Courtesy of Wick Society Johnston Collection.
A later picture of Samuel in railway uniform.
In his time at Hoy Hugh and his wife must have become respected figures locally, as can be seen by this newspaper report of a presentation on 18th January 1878 at the Georgemas Hotel to mark their departure.
Hugh & Ellen MacKenzie, date unknown.
Their son Samuel moved to Cathcart, now in Glasgow, around 1900 where he is recorded on his marriage certificate as being a Railway Signalman, and retired as a Railway Goods guard in Glasgow early 1940s. He died in 1945.
Stuart also got in touch with a Bilbster farmer he knows, who has a keen interest in the local railway. He sent Stuart photos of various memorabilia he had collected from the station including a set of keys and numerous goods labels from the LMS, LNER and Manchester Ship Canal Co.
[above] Station name board
[right] Set of keys
[below] A cache of assorted goods labels
The goods sidings seen in the plan below had been well used.
[For consistency in this article I've settled on "MacKenzie" as the spelling - it varies!]