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Description

This station was located on the west side of the Downfield Tavern (at a slight angle to the line) near where Strathmartine Road crossed the railway.

In the 1860s Strathmartine Road crossed on the level. The station's fairly short goods loop was directly south of the level crossing and passenger platform to the south of the loop. The platform was on the east side. A goods shed was at the north end of the loop, served by reversing from the southbound line. The original road alignment had been deviated to allow construction of the line and a level crossing built, just to the north of the tavern. Baldovan Road ran north east from the station, via Baldovan Flour Mill to Baldovan House. The original name of the station was Offset at Flour Depot, St Mary's Road.

A later deviation of Strathmartine Road (agreed in 1865) took it a little further north to cross the line by a new bridge. The loop was extended and goods yard layout altered to be served from the north on the southbound line. The low platform was also extended. There was a simple wooden building with boxed in ends and open mid-section to provide a covered area all under a single roof sloping to the rear. The building was north of the inn. It's suggested this building had survived from Dundee and Newtyle days, in fact there was no building when the Caledonian Railway took over in the 1860s. The central part of the roof had a distinct sag which was already evident in 1905.

The Baldovan Industrial School opened to the north of the station in 1855.

In 1907 Downfield [Tram] became the northern limit of one of the Dundee tramways on extension from Fairmuir [Tram] along the Strathmartine Road to the east of the inn. Although the tram route, like the Lochee Deviation, avoided climbing the Law it took a more direct route to the east of it to Dundee's city centre and provided a quicker competing route serving a much higher population. And it was a modern electrified tram route.

After closure the site was cleared and it is difficult to trace the station today. The passenger station site was behind tavern and some housing to the north has been built over the northern part of the site. A new roundabout cuts through much of the goods yard site and Cox Street now carries the road northwards, this part of Strathmartine Road now being a cul-de-sac. The goods yard is now partly the roundabout, partly a grassy area and partly small industrial units. The road bridge at the north end of the loop is gone, but a portion of dressed wall bordering where the girder was located remains.

Interestingly the Ordnance Survey Name Book (1857 to 1861 for Forfar and Angus) states

This is the first station from Dundee on the Dundee & Newtyle Railway.

Local

The tavern, now called the Downfield Hotel, remains open.

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