The Dundee & Mewtyle Railway, including the Alyth and Blairgowrie Branches, by Niall Ferguson

The Dundee & Newtyle Railway, including the Alyth and Blairgowrie Branches, by Niall Ferguson

From the inside front fly leaf: The Dundee and Newtyle Railway obtained its Act of Parliament before Stephenson's Rocket ran at Rainhill and opened only six months after the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, yet its important place in the early history of the railways of Scotland in particular, and the United Kingdom in general, has generally been recognised only by railway historians.

A number of articles about the Dundee and Newtyle Railway have been published over the years: unfortunately most of those have been hampered by the fact that their authors have not had access to the original company records, which have, until recently, remained in the care of the company's solicitors in Dundee. As result, although giving a general impression of the history of the first railway north of the River Tay, most have drawn on the same early sources and have tended to repeat their inaccuracies and generalisations. The present author has had access to all the records of the company, and of its two small subsidiary lines to Glammis and Coupar Angus, thus enabling the full story of all three lines to be told for the first time.

It is impossible to write a history of the Dundee and Newtyle Railway without also describing the branches to Blairgowrie and Alyth, whose operations were intimately linked with the Dundee and Newtyle, so their history from construction to closure is also covered.

Drawing on a mass of original sources, and complemented by a large selection of maps, photographs and drawings, this book gives the meticulously researched history of a railway which somehow survived its early financial difficulties to last from the age of the birth of the steam locomotive until almost the year of steam's demise from British Railways.

The author is a family doctor who now lives on the Surrey/Hampshire border, but who trained in Dundee, and lived there for some years. He is a founder member of the Caledonian Railway Association and is also Caledonian Railway steward of the Historical Model Railway Society. Apart from the railways around Dundee, his other main areas of interest are Caledonian Railway carriages and fly-fishing.

The condition of the book is generally excellent. The dust jacket is clean and bright, the spine is intact and all pages are clean, intact, unblemished and tightly bound. Please note their is some light bubbling to the right hand side of the inside pages throughout.