The Great North of Scotland Railway (GNSR) was promoted to build a line from Aberdeen to Inverness and incorporated in 1846. It operated in Aberdeenshire. The first section built was from Kittybrewster (one and a half miles outside Aberdeen) to Huntly which was opened in 1854. The line was extended into Aberdeen to a terminus at Waterloo Quay in 1855 and from Huntly to Keith in 1856. There it made an end-on junction with the Inverness and Aberdeen Junction Railway (soon to become the Highland Railway). In 1867 it opened a joint station in Aberdeen with the Caledonian Railway thereby removing the difficult transfer of goods and passengers between the two companies' separate terminuses. The GNSR expanded by absorbing smaller companies and building branch lines, eventually extending to just over 333 route miles. It extended as far north as Lossiemouth with two routes to Elgin and branch lines to Peterhead, Fraserburgh, Macduff and Ballater. Ballater was the station that served Balmoral Castle. Although the 'main line' from Aberdeen to Keith was doubled between 1861 and 1900, much of the system was single track. The GNSR was an early user of automatic single line token exchange equipment. Most passenger journeys were local although GNSR did try to encourage tourism by building a hotel at Cruden Bay. Its goods traffic included fish, fat cattle and the products of the distilleries in the Spey Valley. Its locomotive works were at Kittybrewster until the end of the nineteenth century when they were moved to Inverurie. William Pickersgill was locomotive superintendent from 1894 to 1914. The GNSR became part of the London & North Eastern Railway under Grouping in 1923. The only part of the GNSR now open is the 'main line' from Aberdeen to Keith.