Dundee and Newtyle Railway

The Dundee and Newtyle Railway opened in 1831 and was the first railway in the north of Scotland. It was built to carry goods between Dundee and the fertile area known as Strathmore; this involved crossing the Sidlaw Hills, and was accomplished with three rope worked inclined planes. Newtyle was simply a remote railhead, and the anticipated traffic volumes were not achieved, the inclines incurred heavy operating costs, and the railway never made money. Responding to the criticism of the remote Newtyle station, two further railways were built; these were nominally independent but for practical purposes were branches of the Dundee line. The lines were the Newtyle and Coupar Angus Railway and the Newtyle and Glammiss Railway; they opened in 1837 1838. The extension lines did not transform the finances of the main railway, but when the Scottish Midland Junction Railway wanted to build a main line between Perth and Forfar, it adopted the lines and upgrading them, incorporating them in to the route of the new main line. The Dundee and Newtyle Railway was taken over by the Dundee and Perth Railway and the difficult inclines were by passed by circuitous and more easily graded routes in the period 1860 to 1868. Nonetheless the line declined and closed to passengers in 1955. The Coupar Angus and Glammis (Glamis) lines continued as part of the Forfar main line, but that closed in 1967.

In the first decades of the nineteenth century Dundee had been established as an important manufacturing town and port. The topography of the area presented a challenge in gaining access to the agricultural hinterland. Strathmore forms a broad and fertile plain running from northeast to southwest, following the Dean Water and River Isla flowing to the River Tay. Hilly land is located immediately behind Dundee, and a steep and unproductive range of hills, the Sidlaws, presents a second barrier separating Dundee from Strathmore. The need for connection came from both ends: Dundee needed access to Strathmore for processing its jute and hemp products: flax was imported from the Baltic states on a scale unmatched anywhere in Scotland, and the agriculture of Strathmore needed access to a sea port. The sea port might not necessarily be Dundee, and that fact motivated the Burgh Council of Dundee to consider a transport link. A canal had been proposed in 1817, but a more realistic idea was formed in 1825 when Dundee Burgh Council decided to fund a survey for a railway. Charles Landale was commissioned to undertake the survey. (He was later described as "an apothecary" by General Pasley.

The line was built with fish bellied rails on stone blocks, with the rare track gauge of 4 feet 6.5 inches; the rails were rather light at 600 shares were issued at £50 each, that is £30,000, with authorised borrowings of £10,000. These were quickly taken up. The estimated cost of the line was to be £25,600 including £3,700 for the supply of the three stationary steam engines for the inclines, but excluding the cost of land acquisition. The tunnel in Dundee under the eastern flank of The Law seems to have been added as an afterthought, and difficult tunnelling conditions proved expensive; moreover land acquisition was considerably more expensive than had been allowed for. The Law Tunnel was completed on 21 January 1829, but later in the year the works generally were reported as at a standstill. Landale was dismissed from the service of the company, amid criticisms that he failed to control the contractors properly, and that the estimates had been considerably overspent. The date on the maker's plate of 1833 identifies it as either no. 1, Earl of Airlie or no. 2, Lord Wharncliffe. The introduction of locomotives, and therefore somewhat faster speeds, now showed up the deficiencies in the engineering of the line. Passenger trains averaged 15 mph (24 km/h). The rationalisation imposed following the Beeching report resulted in only one route between central Scotland and Aberdeen being retained: the route through Dundee and Arbroath. The Strathmore route, between Stanley (north of Perth) and Kinnaber Junction (north of Montrose) closed on 3 April 1967 for through freight and 3 September 1967 for passenger traffic. Stub goods services continued to Brechin and Forfar for some years.