The North British, Arbroath and Montrose Railway was a company established by the ( 34 & 35 Vict. c. cxxiii) to construct and operate a railway line from north of

Arbroath Arbroath () or Aberbrothock ( ) is a former royal burgh and the largest town in the Subdivisions of Scotland, council area of Angus, Scotland, Angus, Scotland, with a population of 23,902. It lies on the North Sea coast, some east-northeast of ...

via Montrose to Kinnaber Junction, south of

Aberdeen Aberdeen ( ; ; ) is a port city in North East Scotland, and is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, third most populous Cities of Scotland, Scottish city. Historically, Aberdeen was within the historic county of Aberdeensh ...

.

The company was originally a subsidiary of the

North British Railway The North British Railway was one of the two biggest of the five major Scottish railway companies prior to the 1923 Grouping. It was established in 1844, with the intention of linking with English railways at Berwick. The line opened in 1846, ...

but was absorbed into its parent in 1880. Construction of the line was delayed and, as a result of tests following the Tay Bridge disaster, one viaduct had to be dismantled and rebuilt. Rivalry between the companies on the east and west coast routes from London to Aberdeen, known as the "

Race to the North The Race to the North was the name given by the press to occasions in two summers of the late 19th century when British passenger trains belonging to different companies would literally race each other from London to Edinburgh over the two princ ...

", culminated in 1895 – the crucial point was at Kinnaber Junction, where the two routes converged into a single railway.

Railway line

Effectively a continuation of the North British line over the

Tay Bridge The Tay Bridge carries rail traffic across the Firth of Tay in Scotland between Dundee and the suburb of Wormit in Fife. Its span is . It is the second bridge to occupy the site. Plans for a bridge over the Tay to replace the train ferry servi ...

, the single-track railway directly connected the older

Arbroath and Forfar Railway The Arbroath and Forfar Railway (A&FR) was a railway that connected Forfar with the port town of Arbroath, in Scotland. It opened in 1838–1839 and it was successful in making an operating profit, but it was always desperately short of capi ...

with the

Aberdeen Railway The Aberdeen Railway was a Scottish railway company which built a line from Aberdeen to Forfar and Arbroath, partly by leasing and upgrading an existing railway. The line opened in stages between 1847 and 1850, with branches to Brechin and M ...

to the north. North British had running rights over the

Caledonian Railway The Caledonian Railway (CR) was one of the two biggest of the five major Scottish railway companies prior to the 1923 Grouping. It was formed in 1845 with the objective of forming a link between English railways and Glasgow. It progressively ex ...

. There was a short branch line to Montrose South Harbour and a junction with the Montrose and Bervie Railway. The railway opened in 1881, but for goods traffic only. It did not open for passenger traffic until 1 May 1883. The main station was at Montrose, opened in 1883 and quite separate from the Caledonian Railway terminus nearby. A station was opened at Lunan Bay, which also served the nearby settlement of Lunan. The opening of the station made access to the area easier than by road. A nearby picturesque feature which was bridged by the railway is the deep ravine at Buckie Den. The Hillside to Kinnaber Junction was built as double track, but the line was largely single track, which required tablets to be exchanged at five places – St Vigean's, Inverkeilor, Lunan Bay, Montrose and Hillside. Each exchange required slowing the train to about . The exchange at St. Vigean's was removed when the North British Railway doubled the line from there to Inverkeilor in 1897, but it was replaced when a loop was constructed at Usan in 1906, and an exchange introduced there. Even so, travel time from Edinburgh to Aberdeen – over the Forth and Tay bridges – was reduced by one hour compared with the previous journey via

Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

Viaducts near Montrose

Two viaducts south of Montrose were designed by Sir

Thomas Bouch Sir Thomas Bouch (; 22 February 1822 – 30 October 1880) was a British railway engineer. He was born in Thursby, near Carlisle, Cumbria, Carlisle, Cumberland, and lived in Edinburgh. As manager of the Edinburgh and Northern Railway he introduc ...

, the architect of the original Tay Bridge but, due to delays in building the Tay Bridge and the line by

Dundee Dundee (; ; or , ) is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, fourth-largest city in Scotland. The mid-year population estimate for the locality was . It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firt ...

, they were not built until 1879. Construction was by

Gilkes Wilson and Company Gilkes Wilson and Company was a British locomotive manufacturer at Teesside Engine Works in Middlesbrough which opened in 1843. Initially repairing locomotives, the company built its first engines in 1847. History Gilkes and Wilson was formed as ...

, supervised by Bouch's son, William. The more northerly bridge, the South Esk Viaduct, was of iron

lattice girder A lattice girder is a truss girder where the load is carried by a web of latticed metal. Overview The lattice girder was used prior to the development of larger rolled steel plates. It has been supplanted in modern construction with welded ...

construction.In America, a "lattice girder bridge" is generally called a "

lattice truss bridge A lattice truss bridge is a form of truss bridge that uses many small, closely spaced diagonal elements forming a latticework, lattice. The design was patented in 1820 by architect Ithiel Town. Originally a means of erecting a substantial bridge ...

". Following the Tay Bridge disaster of 1879, the viaduct was inspected and, although the plans showed a straight structure, it was found to have a distinct curve. As well, many of the

pier A pier is a raised structure that rises above a body of water and usually juts out from its shore, typically supported by piling, piles or column, pillars, and provides above-water access to offshore areas. Frequent pier uses include fishing, b ...

s were not perpendicular. Tests in 1880, over a period of 36 hours, using both dead and rolling loads, led to the structure becoming seriously distorted, and eight of the piers were declared unsafe. Before the line could be opened to traffic in 1881, the bridge had to be dismantled and rebuilt by Sir William Arrol, to a design by

W. R. Galbraith William Robert Galbraith (7 July 1829 – 5 October 1914)Marshall, 2003 was a civil engineer in the United Kingdom during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He was employed by the London and South Western Railway as a consulting engineer ...

. The replacement was also of wrought iron lattice girder construction, based on designs dating back to the 1830s. Such designs were widely used by Victorian engineers, until rendered obsolete by the introduction of other American

truss A truss is an assembly of ''members'' such as Beam (structure), beams, connected by ''nodes'', that creates a rigid structure. In engineering, a truss is a structure that "consists of two-force members only, where the members are organized so ...

designs in the 1880s. South Esk Viaduct at Montrose was probably the last major bridge in the United Kingdom to be built with that type of bracing. The more southerly brick viaduct, the Ferryden Viaduct, was retained.

Kinnaber Junction and the "Race to the North"

In the late 19th century, there was considerable competition between the companies on the West Coast lines and those on the East Coast, to provide the fastest overnight journey from London ( Euston or King's Cross) to

. In 1894, with both trains departing at 20:00, the earlier scheduled arrival time was 08:50, which became 05:40 in 1895.The 1895 arrival time is, of course, inconveniently early The so-called "Race to the North", run over the two rival routes, reached a peak in August 1895. The first train to Kinnaber Junction signalbox, south of Aberdeen, would always win because, from there on, the two routes ran along the same railway. The signalman in the Kinnaber Junction signalbox was warned of the approach of trains on each route by a telegraphic bell signal from the signalbox to the south. He could only accept one train at a time so, if a train then approached on the other route, it would find that the signals were against it. Both trains would approach Kinnaber at very similar times, sometimes being in sight of each other across the

Montrose Basin Montrose Basin is a nearly circular tidal basin which makes up part of the estuary of the River South Esk and which sits just inland of the town of Montrose, Angus, Montrose in Angus, Scotland, Angus on the east coast of Scotland. The basin is p ...

– indeed it has been said that on one occasion the two bells rang together.

Present railway line

The line is still in use as part of the

East Coast Main Line The East Coast Main Line (ECML) is a electrified railway between its northern terminus at and southern terminus at . The key towns and cities of , , , , and are on the line. The line is a key transport artery on the eastern side of Grea ...

, with trains on the

Edinburgh to Aberdeen Line Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

and

Glasgow to Aberdeen Line Glasgow is the most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in west central Scotland. It is the third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom and the 27th-most-populous city in Europe, and comprises 23 wards w ...

running over it, because the two routes now meet at Dundee. The line is the only railway to Aberdeen from the south. It has not been electrified but it is now all double track, except for the section over the two Montrose viaducts, from Usan to Montrose Station, which is the only single-track section of the East Coast Main Line. The line was duplicated in two stages, and three parts. The section from St. Vigean's Junction to Inverkeillor was doubled by the North British Railway on 20 June 1897, but it was left to the LNER to complete the sections from Inverkeillor to Usan Box, and from Montrose North to Hillside, with the work being done between 1928 and 1932.

Notes

References

{{Historical Scottish railway companies , state=collapsed North British Railway Railway lines in Scotland Early Scottish railway companies Standard gauge railways in Scotland Pre-grouping British railway companies Railway lines opened in 1881 Railway companies established in 1871 Railway companies disestablished in 1880 1881 establishments in the United Kingdom