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 capital. It used the track gauge of .
When the Aberdeen Railway was authorised in 1845, it leased the Arbroath and Forfar line to form part of its main line connecting Forfar and Aberdeen; it opened in 1848. The Aberdeen Railway was to be a standard gauge line and the had to alter its track gauge. The line formed part of the main line from Stirling to Aberdeen, and when the North British Railway started running to Aberdeen in 1881, their trains too ran over a very short section of the .
Nearly all of the line was closed in 1967 when the former North British Railway route was selected as the only route to Aberdeen, and the short section immediately north of Arbroath is the only section of the still in use.
History
Conception and authorisation In the early years of the nineteenth century there was an explosion in the volume of textile production in Forfarshire as industrialisation was introduced. The transport of raw materials and lime for agricultural purposes to inland towns, and of the finished products to market, were hampered by poor transport facilities. In 1817 the magistrates of Arbroath considered the construction of a canal to Forfar, but the proposal was not adopted.David Turnock, The Historical Geography of Scotland Since 1707, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1982, As the need for improved transport links became more pressing, the idea of a railway was proposed. In 1826 Stevenson and Blackadder surveyed a railway route; they planned an inclined plane to descend into Arbroath; the final approach to the harbour was to have been through the streets. This scheme too did not proceed, but it was revived in 1824, by which time a waggonway was a viable alternative; Robert Stevenson supervised the survey. The route would have involved a rope-worked inclined plane to descend to Arbroath Harbour; it too was not progressed.
In 1835 a number of prominent citizens of Arbroath commissioned a review of possible routes for a railway, examining the waggonway proposal; technology had now proceeded to the point where a railway was the natural transport medium. The Edinburgh firm of railway engineers Grainger and Miller had been commissioned to carry out the review, and they proposed a route rather different to Stevenson's. The Dundee and Newtyle Railway had opened in 1832 and involved street running in Dundee itself, but this was now seen as undesirable, and the final access to Arbroath Harbour was changed to be on dedicated land. The estimated cost of construction was £36,871, and the scheme was launched to the public at a meeting of 7 August 1835; £40,000 was subscribed within a month. A local man, William Lindsay Carnegie, was the dynamic force in promoting the railway scheme.C J A Robertson, The Origins of the Scottish Railway System, 1722 - 1844, John Donald Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh, 1983, Niall Ferguson, The Arbroath & Forfar Railway, the Dundee Direct Line and the Kirriemuir Branch, Oakwood Press, Usk, 2000,
Grainger and Miller were instructed to carry out a detailed survey of the route so as to present a parliamentary bill. Hostility was encountered from the owner of Guthrie Castle, and from the turnpike trustees, and considerable revision to the initial route was made. As the planning progressed, there was also a large increase in the price of materials, particularly iron for rails and chairs, and Grainger and Miller increased their estimate of cost to £70,000.
Grainger and Miller selected the track gauge of 5 ft 6 in (1,676 mm) as it seemed to them a suitable gauge; it was also proposed for the neighbouring Dundee and Arbroath Railway (for which they were the engineers). They had already used 4 ft 6 in on the coal lines of Lanarkshire, and were planning 4 ft 8.5 in for the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway, so clearly the idea of a railway network was not yet known to them.David Ross, The Caledonian: Scotland's Imperial Railway: A History, Stenlake Publishing Limited, Catrine, 2014, Whishaw later reported that the engineer, Mr Grainger,
considers the English gauge [of 4ft 8½in] too narrow, and the Great Western gauge [of 7ft 0¼in] too wide; he has, therefore, taken something like a mean, which would enable him to allow sufficient space for the proper construction of the locomotive engines, and also afford more useful space in the carriages.Francis Whishaw, The Railways of Great Britain and Ireland Practically Described and Illustrated, 1842, reprint 1969, David & Charles (Publishers) Limited, Newton Abbot,
The parliamentary bill was submitted to the 1836 session. Fierce opposition was experienced, chiefly from the turnpike trustees. Nonetheless the act was duly authorised on 19 May as the (6 & 7 Will. 4. c. xxxiv) for a line from the harbour at Arbroath to Forfar. In the same session the Dundee and Arbroath Railway (D&AR) was authorised; it too was to run to the harbour at Arbroath.Leslie James, A Chronology of the Construction of Britain's Railways, 1778–1855, Ian Allan, Shepperton, 1983,
The desirability of the two lines connecting was obvious, and it was agreed that this would be at Almericloss (adjoining Catherine Street). Old Almerie Close was a gentleman's residence off Guthrie Port immediately east of the Brothock Water, and New Almerie Close was a gentleman's residence near the junction of the present-day Bridge Street and Weavers Court.There are several variations of the spelling in use. This was very close to the main line of the Arbroath and Forfar line, and the significance of Almericloss is simply that a connection between the two lines there was contemplated.Christopher Awdry, Encyclopaedia of British Railway Companies, Patrick Stephens Limited, Wellingborough, 1990, E F Carter, An Historical Geography of the Railways of the British Isles, Cassell, London, 1959John Wood, Plan of the Town of Arbroath from an Actual Survey, T Brown, Edinburgh, 1822
However at this stage the Dundee and Arbroath line was to follow closely the sea front into Arbroath from the west, and reaching Almericloss was impracticable. The surveyed an alternative entry to Arbroath, described as the high level line, but the extra cost of this deterred actual implementation of the route, and although the authorising acts of Parliament for both companies referred to branches to Almericloss, there was no definite agreement to build them.
Construction and opening
Grainger and Miller designed the railway as a single line with passing places every 600 yards (550 metres) or so;It is not clear whether this arrangement was actually implemented; by the time the railway was built the more conventional system of more widely spaced passing places and timetabled train movements seems to have prevailed. this was their custom at the time, based on horse-drawn waggonways with no fixed timetable. The track was to consist of rails on stone blocks, and the track gauge was to be 5 ft 6in (1,384 mm).
At this stage the directors realised there was no body of experience regarding locomotives, and Grainger was commissioned to tour the manufacturers and users of locomotives to determine the appropriate specification.
Cash flow soon became a serious problem; the Company found that many subscribers failed to respond to callsSubscribers only had to pay a small deposit at first; as work progressed, the Company would "call" for incremental payments in stages, but in the worsening financial climate, many initial subscribers defaulted. and the company had to take a loan of £15,000 from the British Linen Bank. Contractors too had a problem; small concerns found it difficult to pay workers currently even though they would be paid later.
The owner of Guthrie Castle made considerable objections to the railway, claiming that it would diminish his amenity. After much negotiation he was allocated £1,400 by the to build a railway bridge over his entrance gateway in an ornate style. It was "convincingly disguised as a castellated entry to the castle's main drive, [consisting] of a perpendicular Gothic archway flanked by octagonal towers with castellated tops and lancet windows."Gordon Biddle and O S Nock, The Railway Heritage of Britain, Michael Joseph Limited, London, 1983,
The expenditure on land acquisition, construction and rolling stock all exceeded the estimates, and as the construction neared completion, successive increases were tabled, ending at £103,904. Two quarries were gearing up in anticipation of the advantage of rail connection: at Letham and Leysmill, within about 5 miles (8 km) of Forfar. In October 1838 some mineral traffic from the quarries to Forfar was carried. From Saturday 24 November 1838 passenger traffic between Forfar and Leysmill was started, using horse traction as the locomotives were not ready.W A C Smith and Paul Anderson, An Illustrated History of Tayside's Railways, Dundee and Perth, Irwell Press, Clophill, 1997, On 3 December 1838 the first locomotive was ready and the line was fully opened from Forfar to Arbroath.Ferguson, page 30; Carter and Awdry say 3 January 1839; Thomas and Turnock say Arbroath to Guthrie 4 December 1838 and Guthrie to Forfar 1 March 1839.John Thomas and David Turnock, A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain: Volume 15, North of Scotland, David and Charles, Newton Abbot, 1989,
Early operations There were two passenger trains each way at first.Apparently seven days a week. With only one locomotive, Victoria, primitive in its technology at this early date, reliability was soon an issue. Between 4 and 13 December Victoria was out of service and horse haulage had to be resorted to. In January, Victoria was derailed at Arbroath, again necessitating horse traction. On 15 March 1839 a second locomotive, Caledonia, was delivered. The passenger service was increased to three daily trains. Goods and mineral traffic was picking up to the extent that additional wagons, and materials to make additional sidings, had to be procured. Trips to and from the Leysmill quarry were additional to the other train services, and the shortage of wagons meant that empty wagons returned there were reloaded at once; the locomotive often returned to Arbroath to get water while the loading took place.
On 14 May 1839 the third locomotive was delivered; it was named Britannia. All the locomotives were of the 2-2-2 wheel arrangement. Traffic continued to increase steadily and at the annual general meeting in June 1839 weekly passenger journeys of more than 1,500 and weekly goods carryings of over 800 tons were reported, leading to a profit for the half-year of £3,614. However the positive revenue position was underlain by heavy indebtedness, £35,000 being owed to banks.
In mid-August the passenger train service was further enhanced to four trains each way daily.
To resolve the shortage of capital, which was preventing very obviously needed improvements, an act, the (3 & 4 Vict. c. xiv) authorising an increase in share capital was passed on 3 April 1840; it authorised an additional £55,000 of capital.
Writing in 1842 following a site visit in 1841, Francis Whishaw reported that
We were much surprised, when examining this line in September last, to see a party of reapers travelling by the third-class railway-carriages in preference to walking to their work; and we found on enquiry that this was by no means an isolated case, but of everyday occurrence. In fact, with the low fares adopted on this line, it is more economical for the poor man to ride than to walk.