Dundee and Newtyle Railway
of 32 Castle Street, Dundee.
Sanctioned in 1826, the Dundee and Newtyle Railway opened in 1832 and was the first railway in the north of Scotland. [1]
The railway was built to transfer goods from Strathmore to the port of Dundee and was chartered with an act of parliament that received royal assent in May 26, 1826 and opened in 1831.
The line was originally 10½ miles long with a 4ft 6in gauge. Construction costs were obtained from a capital of £140,000 in shares and £30,000 in loans. On that line there were three inclined planes. One, the Law incline, started at the Dundee terminus in the Ward-road, and was 42 chains long, on a gradient of 1 in 10, and included a tunnel 330 yards in length. Nearly 5 miles further on was Balbouchly inclined plane, 1690 yards long and rising 1 in 25. The last 1025 yards of the line took it down Hatton inclined plane of 1 in 12.5, at the foot of which was Newtyle Station. When the line was opened in December 1831, the level portions were worked by horses and the inclined planes by stationary engines.[2]
On September 30th, 1833, two locomotives, the Earl of Airlie and the Lord Wharncliffe, both by J. and C. Carmichael, of Dundee, were put into service, and on March 2nd, 1834, a third- Trotter. They were all of what would now be termed the 0-2-4 type, i.e., with a trailing bogie. Archibald Sturrock, after he had served his time with Messrs. Stirling was employed by the firm just named and helped to build the Trotter.[3]N.B There has been some speculations to the history of The Trottor Locomotive.
In 1846, the railway was leased in perpetuity to the Dundee and Perth Railway Company.
The route included three rope worked inclined planes which consisted of stationary steam engines to pull the trains uphill. There was also a tunnel required to take the line through Dundee Law.
The Dundee station was originally situated on Ward road but was later extended to the harbour in 1842 and was also extended to Lochee. The original station at Newtyle still exists although the location of the original Dundee station is now occupied by a BT call centre.
1908 The line is leased to the Caledonian Railway Company.[4]