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 An ex-Caledonian Railway 0-6-0 'Jumbo' waiting to depart from Brechin in 1952 |
The present Caledonian Railway (Caledonian Railway (Brechin) Ltd), uses four miles of a branch line formerly operated by the original railway of the same name, founded in 1848. The original Caledonian Railway was one of the major rail operators in Scotland, cooperating with the London and North Western Railway in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to create new, high-speed links between the English capital and the key centres of population on the western side of Britain and over a large part of Scotland.
Trains operated by the Caledonian Railway (or the 'Caley' as it was fondly called) took part in the fiercely competitive 'Races to the North' in the latter part of the 19th century. At the height of the railways' role in the British economy, the companies running trains on the two principal routes between England and Scotland, the East Coast and West Coast main lines, strove to outdo each other in the time taken by their services to reach the cities of Scotland.
The West Coast trains passed through Bridge of Dun (the current Caledonian's outer terminus), which was then an important junction. Another couple of miles further east was the famous Kinnaber Junction where the two routes met. The competitors' trains were obliged from there on to use the same tracks to reach Aberdeen and beyond. There were often tense moments as the local signalman was obliged to decide which of the two expresses rapidly approaching the junction he should allow through first, the West Coast or the East Coast.
Sadly, railways in Angus were considered uneconomic, and a goodly proportion of passenger services were cut back in the early 1950s, long before Dr Beeching had been heard of. All passenger services from Brechin ceased on August 4th, 1952, although freight trains were to run for nearly 30 more years. The 'Strathmore' line, the West Coast route through Bridge of Dun, remained open until September 4th, 1967, when it too was shut leaving the line from Kinnaber to Brechin a freight-only branch. Doubts about its future prompted the establishment on the Brechin Railway Preservation Society in 1979, who were able to establish the seeds of a preserved railway by the time British Rail closed the Brechin branch completely in December 1981. Members worked tirelessly over the next few years, culminating in the reopening of the line to Bridge of Dun as a fully-fledged steam railway in 1993.
Our Railway is then the modest but proud inheritor of the tradition established by its noble predecessor, renowned in the nineteenth century for the outstanding elegance and speed of its famous blue passenger express locomotives. We hope one day to be able to run trains into Montrose again, but this depends on many more volunteers and a lot more money. Perhaps you could help us? See the 'join the team' link.
