Single track on the ECML

[souwest]

Hi,

 

I will not put up the question - where is the East Coast Main Line single track? The answer is between Usan south of Montrose and Esk vaiduct in Montrose - a stretch of about 5 miles. According to old-maps it is shown as from Usan to Montrose in 1968, and as from Inverkeilor station much further sound in 1932. So, sometime between 1932 and 1968 the double track was extended. Do any readers have any ideas?

 

And yes, it is the East coast main line, and yes it was single so LNER hauled pacifics did run on long trains (to Aberdeen) on single track - you have a prototype! I think there were a couple of stations - Lunan Bay at least on this single section.

 

Looking forward to seeing what contributors come up with.

 

Souwest

[keefer]

1969 Sectional appendix definitely has the single-line section from montrose south - usan, 1 mile 1500yds (mentions 25mph restriction over single-double line connection at both locations)

 

thought the on-line 1960 SA might help: http://www.britishrailways1960.co.uk/ScREEKVD01.html but doesn't seem to reference the single-line at all

[Edwin_m]

This 1958 accident report refers to the single line starting at Usan.

[Graham R]

... sometime between 1932 and 1968 the double track was extended

 

The Arbroath-Montrose section was built as single track when the first Tay Bridge was opened, and partially doubled in stages:

 

Arbroath-Inverkeilor doubled 20 Jul 1897 (there were intermediate stations at Letham Grange and Cauldcots)

Inverkeilor-Lunan Bay 17 Apr 1932

Lunan Bay-Usan 29 May 1932

 

Letham Grange had a signalbox from 1881 but only became a block post a year before the line was doubled. It closed in 1960. Cauldcots box opened with the double line and closed in 1965; Lunan Bay box closed in 1964. Inverkeilor box is still open, though I'm not sure if it's switched out some of the time. Usan box opened in 1906, presumably to break the section, and was abolished last year [i think] along with Montrose South, when control of the single line was transferred to Montrose North. (The single section was worked by electric tablet until the 1960s when Scottish Region Tokenless Block was installed. In LNE days at least, regular locos on the section were fitted with tablet exchangers, and exceptions had to be telegraphed ahead).

 

All the intermediate stations closed to passengers in 1930, victims of motor buses. Prior to WW1 they had a sparse service of four stoppers a day, with an extra train from Arbroath to Inverkeilor and back on Saturday afternoons.

 

The Arbroath-Montrose section has had a generally uneventful existence, except for three accidents around Lunan Bay:

 

- in 1898 (before the line was doubled) when a down light engine, which should have stopped to change tablets and cross an up goods at Lunan Bay, instead ran through the station at speed against signals and hit the waiting goods head-on, killing the light engine crew.

- in 1958 when a four-wheel fruit van, tail load on a down passenger train, derailed due to excess speed and after being dragged two miles, broke free and blocked the line. A following down express ran into it, but fortunately the driver had seen it and braked, and there were no injuries.

- in 1975, when an Up express failed in section near Lunan Bay. The assisting engine, arriving from Usan, was incorrectly told the failure was at Letham Grange, five miles further on, and was running over the speed limit on a down grade when it exploded the detonators protecting the express. It couldn't stop in time and hit the rear coach, sadly killing one passenger and injuring 38.

 

This is probably a bit more info than you wanted, sorry, but I have happy memories of the section around Lunan Bay from family afternoons on the long sandy beach there in the 1960s and 70s. The line crosses a viaduct near the beach at the north end, and the muffled roar of class 40s on down trains would suddenly burst out full volume as they emerged onto the viaduct at about 40mph and charged onwards to Aberdeen. I can still hear them!

 

cheers

Graham

 

Edit: should have included the source of the dates - Register of Scottish Signalboxes, Alexander & Nicoll, 1990