Tay Bridge and Associated Lines (North British Railway)

Introduction

This line is open. The line runs from Leuchars in Fife to Dundee. The works include a railway from Leuchars to Wormit, the 2 miles long Tay Bridge across the Firth of Tay, a station in Dundee, a tunnel under the docks in Dundee and short sections of line connecting to the neighbouring lines. A portion of original Tay Bridge [1st] famously fell, with a train, into the river. A new bridge was constructed slightly further west, see Tay Bridge (North British Railway).






Dates

15/07/1870Tay Bridge and Associated Lines (North British Railway)
Tay Bridge [1st], Dundee Tay Bridge [Station] and line from Leuchars to Dundee authorised. Dundee's Dock Street Tunnel authorised. Running power access authorised for the Caledonian Railway between Buckingham Junction and Camperdown Junction.
22/07/1871Tay Bridge and Associated Lines (North British Railway)
Foundation stone of the Tay Bridge [1st] laid.
  /  /1875Tay Bridge and Associated Lines (North British Railway)
Extension of time authorised.
19/01/1877Tay Bridge and Associated Lines (North British Railway)
During construction two spans are blown from Tay Bridge [1st] during severe gales.
  /  /1878Dundee and Perth Railway
Authorisation to expand and rebuild Dundee West station. The Tay Bridge and Associated Lines (North British Railway) opened in 1878 and the Caledonian Railway was facing competition from the North British Railway's new Dundee Tay Bridge [Station].
25/02/1878Tay Bridge and Associated Lines (North British Railway)
Tay Bridge [1st] inspected by Major-General C. S. Hutchinson for the Board of Trade between the 25th and 27th and is passed.
01/06/1878Dundee and Arbroath Railway
Broughty Junction to Broughty Pier closed to passengers with the opening of the Tay Bridge and Associated Lines (North British Railway).
01/06/1878Tay Bridge and Associated Lines (North British Railway)
Public opening of bridge and line between Camperdown Junction, Dundee (Tay Bridge) station and Leuchars. The Tay Bridge [1st] was single track and the other part of the line double. The bridge had signal boxes at either end. The engineer for the line was Thomas Bouch, knighted after Queen Victoria travelled over the bridge.
01/06/1878Edinburgh and Northern Railway
Leuchars Junction [1st] closed on opening of the Tay Bridge and Associated Lines (North British Railway) replaced by Leuchars Junction [2nd] to the south at the junction between the lines.
12/05/1879Newport Railway
Wormit to Tayport via Newport opened. A new short bridge opened from Wormit to meet the Tay Bridge and Associated Lines (North British Railway) at a junction just offshore. A second signal box was at this junction.
28/12/1879Tay Bridge and Associated Lines (North British Railway)
Tay Bridge [1st] Disaster. High Girders section of bridge falls in severe weather conditions. An evening train crossing the bridge falls with the High Girders and all on board are killed.
  /  /1880Tay Bridge and Associated Lines (North British Railway)
4-4-0 locomotive Thomas Wheatley's no 224 retrieved from bottom of River Tay, rebuilt by Dugald Drummond at Cowlairs Works, nicknamed The Diver and put back in service. A letterbox, belonging to Dalhousie station and now at the museum in Bellingham [North Tyne], was made from metal from this engine.
01/02/1880Dundee and Arbroath Railway
Broughty Junction to Broughty Pier re-opened following the Tay Bridge [1st] disaster - Tay Bridge and Associated Lines (North British Railway).
15/10/1881Eyemouth Fishing Fleet lost
Terrible storms sink many fishing vessels from east coast ports, 189 fishermen lost, 129 from Eyemouth. Harmony, Radiant, Press Home, Janet, Lily of the Valley, James and Robert, Sweet Home, Brothers, and other vessels lost. Relief was provided from the Tay Bridge and Associated Lines (North British Railway) disaster fund.
13/07/1887Tay Bridge and Associated Lines (North British Railway)
New double track Tay Bridge opened. (Alternative date 6/1887).
01/05/1889Tay Bridge and Associated Lines (North British Railway)
Dundee Esplanade opened.
01/05/1889Tay Bridge and Associated Lines (North British Railway)
Wormit opened.
02/10/1933Tay Bridge and Associated Lines (North British Railway)
Dundee Esplanade closed.
06/09/1965Tay Bridge and Associated Lines (North British Railway)
St Fort station closed.
  /04/2011Tay Bridge and Associated Lines (North British Railway)
£3M European grant to assist with the redevelopment of the frontage of Dundee station along with bus service integration.

Locations along the line

These locations are along the line.

This is an island platform station which today is the closest to St Andrews. There is a car park on the east side of the station.
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Edinburgh and Northern Railway
St Andrews Railway
Leuchars box looking south to the station in 1996. ...
Ewan Crawford //1996
Local primary school pupils have helped turn their local station into an art gallery, thanks to the ScotRail station adopters at Leuchars.
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ScotRail /11/2019
Leuchars, looking south, seen from 170418 from Dundee to Edinburgh Waverley, on the evening of 22nd July 2017. Once the junction for the Fife Coast ...
David Bosher 22/07/2017
Under construction at Leuchars - a new Caledonian Sleeper lounge. ...
John Yellowlees 24/03/2018
4 of 48 images. more


Here the Newburgh and North Fife Railway met the Edinburgh and Northern Railway with a junction facing Leuchars. The line doubled before joining the main line. The signal box was in the 'V' of the junction, aligned with the main line. The junction, box and curve to St Fort West Junction closed in 1924.
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Newburgh and North Fife Railway




This was a two platform station on the double track approach to the Tay Bridge from Leuchars. The goods yard was on the west side, approached from the north. The signal box was on the east side opposite.
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Newburgh and North Fife Railway
St Fort station in 1964, seen from a departing Edinburgh-Dundee DMU. ...
Brian Haslehust 04/09/1964
Northbound service photographed between Leuchars and St Fort in May 2008. ...
Brian Forbes /05/2008
Passing Linkswood fuel bunkers then under the A92 on right, towards the Tay Bridge.
Edinburgh - Aberdeen 170. ...
Brian Forbes 25/05/2007
The Royal Scotsman travelling north at Linkswood Fuel Bunker. July 2008 ...
Brian Forbes /07/2008
4 of 8 images. more


This sand and gravel quarry was rail served. There was a signal box on the south side of the line with a siding, approached from the west, behind it. To the north was a longer siding running into the quarry. This was approached from the south east.
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Ballast Sidings


This signal box, on the west side of the line, controlled the southern approach to Wormit Goods. The box opened in 1897.
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This junction opened in 1879 when the Newport Railway was opened to meet the 1878 Tay Bridge and Associated Lines (North British Railway) at the south end of the Tay Bridge [1st]. The southern end of the bridge was modified with the addition of a new girder bridge which met the existing bridge offshore. The junction was entirely offshore.
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Newport Railway


This was the viaduct which collapsed in the Tay Bridge Disaster. It was a single track viaduct just under two miles long (3450 yds overall with 85 spans) which crossed the Firth of Tay between Dundee (north bank) and Wormit (south bank). The approaches, built for the bridge, were double track as far as the south signal box and the Riverside Drive girder at the north end.
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The first Tay Bridge viewed from the north before its collapse. Note the signalbox on the NB line to the left. To the right of the box are buildings ...
Ewan Crawford Collection //
A damaged beam from the original Tay Bridge. On display in the National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh. ...
Ewan Crawford //2005
A view of the first Tay Bridge from Wormit with Dundee in the background after the fall of the High Girders. A portion of a contemporary postcard in ...
Ewan Crawford Collection //
3 of 3 images.


This was a two platform station at the north end of the Tay Bridge. The station remains largely intact and the southbound station building is used by engineers for maintenance of the bridge. The platforms are timber. The station extends out over Riverside Drive, which was originally known as the Esplanade. The station dates from the second bridge, the original had no station here.
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Tay Bridge (North British Railway)
47636 'Sir John de Graeme' leaves the Tay Bridge with a northbound train in 1990. Seen from the platform of the former Dundee Esplanade station. ...
Bill Roberton //1990
ScotRail 170413 photographed shortly after leaving Dundee station with an afternoon service to Edinburgh on 20 September 2007. The DMU is running west ...
John Furnevel 20/09/2007
170429 descends from the Tay Bridge, through the remains of Dundee Esplanade Station (closed October 1939), to meet the Perth line at Dundee Central ...
Colin Miller 26/06/2019
The bridge works and road works almost appear to merge on Dundee Esplanade on 20 September 2007, as a northbound train comes off the bridge on the ...
John Furnevel 20/9/2007
4 of 17 images. more


This was the junction between the Dundee and Perth Railway's approach to Dundee West and a short spur from the Tay Bridge and Associated Lines (North British Railway)'s Dundee Central Junction. It was paid for by the North British Railway[ but staffed by, and in the style of, the Caledonian Railway. The connection allowed trains from the Perth direction to enter [[Tay ...

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Dundee and Perth Railway
A signalman hard at work in the long departed Buckingham Junction signal box, to the west of the current Dundee station. (Photograph taken in 1980 ...
John Williamson //1980
The Tay Bridge line gradually descends from Esplanade station to meet the Perth line on the south approach to Dundee. See the road bridge centre ...
Brian Forbes 17/02/2007
2 of 2 images.


This junction is west of Dundee station. It is a four way junction leading to Perth and Edinburgh Waverley (by the Tay Bridge) to the west and sidings and Dundee station to the east.
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170471 passes Dundee Central Junction, with the 10.41 from Glasgow Queen Street, on 18th September 2020. The Tay Bridge lines diverge to the left ...
Bill Roberton 18/09/2020
An Edinburgh to Arbroath 170 approaches Dundee on the Platform 4 line on a fine 27 February 2019. The long-term plan is that these signals (or their ...
David Panton 27/02/2019
Even in the gloamin', rail fans are out in force to watch 'Tornado' as it heads out of Dundee Down Loop (after a watering stop) on the return leg of ...
David Spaven 07/09/2019
While waiting to capture the Edinburgh-bound HST, this appeared from the Perth line. Colas tanks. (Missed the HST hidden behind this train.)
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Colin Miller 26/06/2019
4 of 12 images. more




This shed was located between the Caledonian Railway and North British Railway lines, approached from east, the station direction.
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A4 60009 Union of South Africa heads for the turntable at Dundee after arrival with a railtour in 1973. The diesel depot is in the background.
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Bill Roberton //1973
View from a passing train to Dundee Tay Bridge shed yard in 1982. A pair of rod-less Barclay Class 06 shunters await scapping with BRCW Type 2s ...
Bill Roberton //1982
2 of 2 images.




This station is the main station in Dundee. It is an island platform station, with two bay platforms at the west end, located in a deep dressed stone cutting. The station building, brick built, is of two storeys with the second floor at ground level. On the south side of the cutting five timber bridges cross from street level to top level offices. The station underwent a major facelift in 2017 ...

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A Class 27 Type 2 and a Metro Cammell DMU photographed at Dundee in 1972. ...
Brian Haslehust //1972
There is a haze of exhaust as an HST in InterCity livery pulls out of Dundee for the south on 17 October 1997. ...
David Panton 17/10/1997
There was a bit of wheel slippage from 'Tornado' as she left Dundee and negotiated the damp rails around the tunnel on 21st September 2021. This was ...
G W Robin 21/08/2021
158726, in sunlight and shadow, waiting to depart from a Dundee bay platform with an evening service to Edinburgh Waverley, via the Tay Bridge, on ...
David Bosher 26/09/2018
4 of 131 images. more


This is a 627 yard double track tunnel east of Dundee station and west of the former Camperdown Junction.
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Dundee East on the left of the picture is overgrown again after being cleared. Main line to Aberdeen in the centre and old Victoria dock buildings on ...
Gordon Steel 25/05/2023
​​ScotRail's training HST set approaches Dundee from the north on 7 November 2017. It has just crossed to the Down Line at Camperdown, ...
David Panton 07/11/2017
A southbound HST approaching Dundee station in September 2006 is about to descend the incline into Dock Street Tunnel. ...
Adrian Coward 22/09/2006
Northbound 170 climbs the incline from the Dock Street Tunnel. ...
Adrian Coward 22/09/2006
4 of 4 images.


This junction was east of Dock Street Tunnel, Dundee. It was the junction between the Dundee to Arbroath line and the later lines opened with the Tay Bridge.
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Trades Lane and Carolina Port Railway
Access point to Dundee East, latterly a cement depot, still workable but overgrown. ...
Gordon Steel 25/05/2023
The morning Leeds to Aberdeen service has run for many years and gone through a variety of operators. This LNER one has just passed Camperdown ...
David Panton 10/10/2018
158718 has just cleared Camperdown level crossing, shortly after leaving Dundee station on 27 May 1992 with a service for Aberdeen. ...
John Furnevel 27/05/1992
Camperdown sidings (more or less the old platforms lines of Dundee East) have gone from 'NIRU' to 'OOU' in Track Diagrams but have recently had ...
David Panton 13/11/2019
4 of 19 images. more