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.

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