The Brechin and Edzell District Railway was a local line in Scotland connecting Edzell, then a developing tourist centre, to the nearby main population centre of Brechin, where there was a branch of the Caledonian Railway. The short line opened in 1896, and it was worked by the Caledonian Railway.
The sparse local population did not sustain the line long, and passenger services were withdrawn in 1931; an experimental resumption in 1938 was brief and unsuccessful. Goods services continued, and construction at an RAF base in the early 1960s brought some business but the line closed completely in 1964.
History
Early proposals
Brechin was an important town but its manufacturing output, and its requirement for coal and agricultural minerals, were stifled because of the difficulty of transport to and from the nearest harbour where coastal shipping was available: Montrose. Robert Stevenson was commissioned in 1819 to report on a means of transport between Brechin and Montrose. Brechin was a natural distribution centre for the locality, and the local sandstone was in demand for the construction of buildings in London. A canal was proposed but the topography of the district was a problem, and Stevenson recommended consideration of an iron railway. The primitive locomotives of the day were inadequate for the gradients encountered, but Stevenson proposed several alternatives, including a route consisting of level sections with intermediate inclined planes worked by stationary engines, and a route that descended from Brechin on a steady gradient of 1 in 414. Stevenson admitted that some of his proposals were technically unproven, and passenger revenue was forecast to be only £50 per annum. Stevenson's plan was not adopted.
Promoters in Brechin revived the idea of a railway in 1836, when they called in the engineering consultants Grainger and Miller. A viable survey was presented, but it was not immediately adopted, and a revised scheme was surveyed in 1839 by which time a new wet dock was being built in Montrose. The 1839 scheme was not adopted and once again nothing was done.
The Aberdeen Railway
The frenzy of railway speculation in the 1840s led to a number of railway schemes in the northern areas of Scotland. It was thought important to link Aberdeen to the planned network further south, and it began to become clear that Perth was going to be a focus. Perth was the lowest crossing point on the River Tay, and bridging the Firth at any lower point presented challenges beyond the technological capability of the time.
Railways already existed from Dundee to Forfar: the Dundee and Arbroath Railway and the Arbroath and Forfar Railway had been opened in 1838, although their planned link at Arbroath had not been constructed. Now a railway was planned to run from Perth to Forfar: this became the Scottish Midland Junction Railway (SMJR) and was authorised by Parliament in 1845. Another line was promoted to reach Aberdeen, and there was controversy over the route. One scheme was to run from Forfar to Aberdeen by way of Brechin, but an alternative was to leave the existing Arboath and Forfar line near Friockheim, a few miles from Arbroath and take a course that by-passed Brechin. The second scheme would shorten the mileage of new construction required, but Brechin would only be served by a branch line. The population of Brechin in 1841 was 3,951.
The second scheme was the one adopted, and the Aberdeen Railway obtained Parliamentary authority on that basis on 31 July 1845, the same day as the SMJR.
The Aberdeen Railway opened part of its main line on 1 February 1848, from Friockheim to Bridge of Dun and Dubton; there were branches, opened at the same time, to Brechin (from Bridge of Dun) and Montrose (from Dubton). Although Brechin was not on the main line, it had its connection to Montrose. The Aberdeen Railway had run out of money at this point and it was not until 1 February 1850 that it reached Aberdeen, and even then this was a temporary terminus at Ferryhill, on the outskirts of the Burgh. The Brechin station was on the east side of the town, facing Montrose.
A railway to Edzell
Brechin had a railway, and in the later decades of the nineteenth century, Edzell, a small village a few miles north of Brechin, had established itself as a popular holiday centre, and this led to thoughts of connecting it with the railway network at Brechin. The population of Edzell parish was less than 1,000 in 1891. A railway was proposed in 1889, and the Brechin and Edzell District Railway Act was given the Royal Assent on 4 August 1890. The capital was £50,000.