The Great North of Scotland Railway can be regarded as "Aberdeenshire's Railway". The company was formed in 1845 , producing it's first route proposals in March 1845. However, Parliament would not initially give authority for the route until 26 June 1846, this being for the complete line between Aberdeen & Inverness. Unfortunately the scheme was hit hard by the financial collapse of the late 1840's, stalling until 1852 when construction began on the section linking Huntly to Kittybrewster. Although the section linking Huntly with Keith would be later completed in 1857, the remainder of the rotue to Inverness was never built by the GNSR (as it became known) - this section being built by the Inverness & Aberdeen Junction Railway comprised of Inverness residents fed up with the stalling of the Aberdeen company!! This company would later join with the Inverness & Perth Junction Railway to become known as the famous Highland Railway, who had many heated arguments with the GNSR over the exchange of through traffic at Keith & Elgin.

The GNSR established many nominally independant companies to build branches from the main line into the rural areas. Most of these companies were actually backed by the GNSR and were eventually amalgamated into the company. Today all of these branches are closed and lifted (with the exception of the Keith & Dufftown Railway). The GNSR met the Highland Railway at Keith through this mainline route and through Elgin via either the Coast Route or the Dufftown/Craigellachie/Rothes route. The GNSR Elgin Station building still survives alongwith the former station building whilst the goods yards is still used by mainline trains. The line between Kittybrewster and Keith was initially double track throughout but is now single track with passing loops at Dyce, Inverurie, Huntly & Keith with a section of double track linking Insch and Kennethmont. An additional loop and station may be (re-)provided at Kintore for proposed high-speed services between Inverurie & Stonehaven. Recently the semaphore distant signals between Aberdeen & Inverness were taken out and replaced with colour light distant signals, the semaphores and associated equipment being donated to the Royal Deeside Railway & the Strathspey Railway. The Home semaphores are still in place at present.