Scottish Midland Junction Railway

The Caledonian Railway From the second decade of the nineteenth century, a number of short railway lines had been operating in Scotland; in most cases these were connected with mineral extraction, and there was little thought to connecting between them to form a network. The Stockton and Darlington Railway and the Liverpool and Manchester Railway in England showed that longer railway routes could be worthwhile, and thoughts turned to trunk railways in Scotland, and to connection to the emerging English network. In the 1840s business people in Scotland made definite moves which resulted in proposals for trunk lines to connect the central belt of Scotland with England, and in 1845 there was a frenzy of parliamentary bills for Scottish railways. The Caledonian Railway was authorised on 12 April 1845 with capital of £1,500,000. Its main line was to run between Edinburgh, Glasgow and Carlisle. The Caledonian policy was to capture as much territory in Scotland as possible: they foresaw a "Caledonian system" controlled by themselves. At this period it was expected that a district could only support one railway line, so that the first to serve an area would secure a near-monopoly. Even before authorisation the Caledonian made provisional agreements with the promoters of other lines to lease their railways. This was done by agreeing a guaranteed periodical lease payment; it did not require money at the time of making the agreement, but it incurred a financial obligation later. Authorisation In the 1845 session of Parliament, a large number of Scottish trunk lines were proposed. In the period prior to the hearings, discussions about alliances and leases accelerated. The Scottish Central Railway was to build from Perth to Castlecary where it would join the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway and the Caledonian Railway, and it had discussed merging with the Scottish Midland Junction but at the same time it discussed leasing its line to the E&GR or the Caledonian. The Scottish Midland Junction Railway was authorised by the '''''' (8 & 9 Vict. c. clxx) on 31 July 1845, with capital of £300,000, for a line just over 30 miles (48 km) in length from Perth to Forfar. At Perth it was to connect with the Scottish Central Railway (SCR) and at Forfar with the Arbroath and Forfar Railway which gave rail access on to Aberdeen over the Aberdeen Railway. The Scottish Central Railway and the Caledonian Railway were also authorised on 31 July 1845. The Dundee and Newtyle Railway had been built in 1831 to connect the growing Burgh of Dundee with the fertile broad valley of Strathmore; it terminated at Newtyle which was then no more than a farm, intended as a railhead. This proved unpopular and two nominally independent extension railways were built, the , authorised by the ' (5 & 6 Will. 4. c. lxxxiv), and the , authorised by the ' (5 & 6 Will. 4. c. xcii). (Glammis is spelt Glamis nowadays.) These railways opened in 1837, but they hardly added to the traffic of the Dundee line. Leaving Newtyle the two lines turned away from one another and together formed a nearly straight axis that suited the intended route of the ; the Scottish Midland Junction Railway Act 1845 (8 & 9 Vict. c. clxx) empowered the to acquire them and incorporate their lines into the SMJR main line. A possible lease After lengthy discussions, the agreed to lease its line to the Scottish Central Railway by decision of 18 February 1847; the lease charge was to be 6% on the capital of £600,000. The Caledonian had assumed that it was going to lease the Scottish Central Railway, but this was not confirmed. The lease of the seems not to have proceeded, for in 1848 the Caledonian was negotiating to lease the direct, and on 5 May 1848 agreement was finalised; the Caledonian would pay 6% on the capital, now quoted as £500,000. The lease arrangement was modified to be joint with the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway on an agreed traffic sharing system; but it needed to be ratified by Parliament. Opening The two Newtyle lines had been constructed to the track gauge of as a single line using stone block sleepers. This had to be converted to a more robust track construction as a double line; they were closed in 1847 for the purpose. The main line, including the converted sections, was opened on 20 August 1848. Through trains started to run from Glasgow and Edinburgh to Forfar over the line and the . However, in 1849 it was reported that "many of the stations were unfinished and there was virtually no goods traffic". Most trains continued to Forfar, and when the Dundee and Forfar direct line opened, to Dundee. In later years there were typically five passenger trains daily. The had inherited the short branch to Newtyle by its acquisition of the Coupar Angus and Glammiss lines. Other branches were constructed off the main line after the company was amalgamated. ==Absorption==

On 29 July 1856 the Scottish North Eastern Railway (SNER) was formed by the '''''' (19 & 20 Vict. c. cxxxiv) which amalgamated the , the Scottish Central Railway and the Aberdeen Railway, forming a continuous line between Perth and Aberdeen. The itself was absorbed by the Caledonian Railway by the Caledonian and Scottish North Eastern Railways Amalgamation Act 1866 (29 & 30 Vict. c. cccl) on 10 August 1866. ==Subsequent history==

Firmly aligned to the Caledonian Railway, the route formed an important artery feeding Aberdeen traffic to central Scotland and the south. While express passenger trains caught the public eye, there was a substantial goods traffic; cattle were particularly dominant. Large structures on the line were constructed in laminated timber, but in the 1880s these were in poor condition and inadequate for the heavier and faster traffic of those days, and widespread reconstruction in stone and wrought iron was undertaken. As part of a route between London and Aberdeen, the line was rivalled by the North British Railway route on the east coast via Dundee. As publicity became important, the two routes competed for the title of the fastest transit, and in 1888 and again in 1895 spectacularly fast journeys were made; the rivalry was known as the Railway race to the north. The early passenger engines used on the line were 2-4-0s. At the end of the 19th century and, after the line had been upgraded, the Caledonian Railway introduced the very successful 4-4-0 Dunalastair class of locomotives. In the late 1950s the line became a speeding ground for the three-hour Glasgow-to-Aberdeen expresses using Gresley A4 Pacifics displaced by dieselisation of long distance main line expresses. The route carried the last regular steam hauled passenger trains timed at over 60 mph (97 km/h). The Blairgowrie branch closed to passengers on 10 January 1955, and completely on 6 December 1965. The section from Alyth West Junction to Newtyle, the west curve built by the Newtyle and Coupar Angus Railway, was used by Blairgowrie passenger trains and when the Blairgowrie passenger service was discontinued, the curve closed too. The Kirriemuir branch closed to passengers on 4 August 1952 and completely in 1965. There were two routes from central Scotland to Aberdeen, and during the process of rationalisation of the railways in the 1960s, the Dundee route was selected. Closure of the main line was inevitable and took place for passengers on 4 September 1967. The line was retained from Stanley Junction to Forfar for goods trains until 1982. The Perth to Inverness line used the route as far as Stanley Junction, north of Perth. That line remains in use and the section from Perth to Stanley Junction is the only part of the that is still open to traffic. ==Route==

The line ran from Perth to Forfar, with branches to Kirriemuir, Newtyle and Blairgowrie. ==Notes==