RAILSCOT | Meigle Upper Junction

Meigle Upper Junction

Location type

Station

Name and dates

Meigle Upper Junction (1848-1861)

Opened on the Scottish Midland Junction Railway.
Opened on the Newtyle and Glammiss Railway.

Description

This was an interchange station opened in 1848 on the earlier course of the Newtyle and Glammis Railway. It was without road access and was formed between the main line of the Scottish Midland Junction Railway and the old curve which ran uphill to Newtyle [1st]. Initially the curve was a different gauge and there was no physical connection, being operated by the Dundee and Perth Railway (lessees of the Dundee and Newtyle Railway). After it became standard gauge, around 1849, there was access between the lines via reversing spurs east of the station and the curve was worked by the Scottish Midland Junction Railway as far as Newtyle [1st].

Scotch Gauge

A station existed at Kirkinch on the Newtyle and Glammis Railway which, along with Newtyle [1st] on the Dundee and Newtyle Railway, were probably the nearest stations to Meigle on the Scotch Gauge until the standard gauge lines were built.

Re-gauging

The former Newtyle and Glammis Railway was closed in July 1846 for reconstruction as a double track standard gauge mainline by the Scottish Midland Junction Railway.

Interchange

On opening of the Scottish Midland Junction Railway in 1848 a new interchange station, without road access, was opened where the Glamis line met the new mainline. It appears that the line from Newtyle [1st] was not regauged until 1849. Following the re-gauging the layout of the station was two platforms on the main line, the westbound one having a second face for the curve to Newtyle. There was no signal box, only a ground frame. The junction only allowed goods trains to reverse just east of the interchange in sidings before running west towards Coupar Angus. Departure east was not possible without two reversals, perhaps to protect the main line against runaways from Newtyle. There does not appear to have been public access, this may only have been an interchange.

Meigle [1st] station, later known as Alyth Junction, was not far west and Kirkinch, a station on the Newtyle and Glammis Railway which closed permanently with the re-gauging, was not far east.

Flyover at Alyth Junction

The station closed in 1861 when the Newtyle [1st] to Ardler curve re-opened. Trains for the west would require no reversals and those to the east a single reversal. The timing of the re-opening would be associated with the opening of the Alyth Railway.

Today the trackbed of the main line remains obvious.

Aliases

Meigle Upper Meigle Junction

External links

NLS Collection OS map of 1892-1914
NLS Collection OS map of 1944-67
NLS Map

Nearby stations Kirkinch Alyth Junction Meigle [2nd] Meigle [3rd] Newtyle [1st] Newtyle [2nd] Leason Hill Washington [N and CAR] Jordanstone Ardler Eassie Pitcrocknie Platform Auchterhouse [1st] Auchterhouse [2nd] Alyth	Drumkilbo Siding Nethermill Junction Newtyle Incline Newtyle Junction Meigle Burn Bridge Newtyle Junction Turntable Newtyle Mill Tourist/other Nevay Church Drumkilbo House Belmont Castle Meigle Sculptured Stone Museum Meigle House Cardean [House] Camno Crossing Hatton Castle
Location names in dark blue are on the same original line.

Chronology Dates

/ /1846	Newtyle and Glammis Railway Scottish Midland Junction Railway Line sold to the Scottish Midland Junction Railway. It was then closed and upgraded to standard gauge and two tracks between Meigle Upper Junction and Glammis [2nd]. (Alternative date: 1845).
02/08/1848	Newtyle and Glammis Railway New station Meigle Upper Junction opened. Curve from Nethermill Junction to Glammis line opens to an interchange station at Meigle, but former curve from Nethermill Junction to Ardler Junction does not re-open.
01/10/1849	Dundee and Newtyle Railway Re-gauging to standard gauge, under contractor Falshaw, begins. Work completed in a month and handed back after the three month period set aside for the work. The former Newtyle and Glammis Railway section from Newtyle [1st] to Meigle Upper Junction was subsequently re-gauged.
02/10/1849	Newtyle and Glammis Railway Last portion of original line closed by the operator, the Dundee and Perth Railway, between Newtyle [1st] and Meigle Upper Junction, an interchange station near Eassie, where there was a break of gauge. (The Newtyle and Coupar Angus Railway was already completely closed by this date.) Re-opened shortly afterwards having been converted to Standard Gauge.
/09/1861	Newtyle and Glammis Railway Portion of 73 chains closed north from Nethermill Junction to Meigle Upper Junction. New curve built from Nethermill Junction to Ardler Junction on more gentle curve than earlier Coupar Angus fork. The new curve was now the connection between the Dundee and Newtyle Railway and Strathmore main line.