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Note: text in square brackets is added for clarity and was not part of the location's name.

Description

This was the terminus of the Arbroath and Forfar Railway in Forfar. In 1848 the station was replaced by Forfar [2nd] on the opening of the Scottish Midland Junction Railway and the re-gauging of the Arbroath and Forfar Railway.

The station was in the 'V' of the junction between Victoria Street and Carseburn Road at Windmill Brae, somewhat closer to the town than the later station which was on the northern outskirts. The station was above street level on all sides, particularly to the west and north, with the portion with a shed very high above Carseburn Road (built up with a stone wall from ground level with storage below the track).

The station building with ticket and other offices at 29 and 31 Victoria Street, dating from 1839, survived until the end (unlike the shed to its west). The Victoria Street building presented two stories to the road and one to the railway side to its north.

The station shed appears to have survived closure to passengers and was a coal and lime depot served by two sidings, later just one. The goods yard was laid out to the east of the station with sidings and a goods shed, some approached by turnplates, on the south side of the passenger station lines. The very first locomotive shed and water tank were in this area, replaced by Forfar Shed [1st].

Further east again were a second group of sidings by the Forfar Gasworks and cloth factories. And yet further out from the station was Forfar Shed [1st].

The goods yard remained in use, surviving the closure of the Strathmore main line to passengers and as a through route in 1967. It was latterly visited by excursions, until closure in 1979. The main line survived until 1982. There is no railway in Forfar today.

Nothing remains of the station except a very heavily built and buttressed wall above Carseburn Road. Further east abutments of a bridge over North Street survive, another tall heavy wall above parking at Market Place, and the former alignment can be traced in the boundaries between various properties, a diagonal line running through to Market Street to the north east.

The 'playfield' may be the East Green, a drying or bleaching green, and now largely a car park with a small playing field. The addition of 'playfield' was probably after the site closed to passengers to become a goods yard.

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