The Dundee and Perth Railway was a Scottish railway company. It opened its line in 1847 from Dundee to a temporary station at Barnhill and extended to Perth station in 1849. It hoped to link with other railways to reach Aberdeen and changed its name to the Dundee and Perth and Aberdeen Railway Junction Company, but this early attempt was frustrated, and for some years it failed to make a physical connection with other railways in Dundee.
It was taken over by the larger Scottish Central Railway in 1863.
Most of its main line is still in use today as the Perth to Dundee section of the railway network.
History
The first railways
By 1840 Dundee was already served by two railways: the Dundee and Newtyle Railway had opened in 1831, connecting the city and harbour with the fertile agricultural area of Strathmore. The line had three rope-worked inclines with the sections either side operated by horses, and it had primitive stone block sleeper track with fish-bellied rails, to the unusual gauge of . The other early Dundee railway was the Dundee and Arbroath Railway; this too had primitive permanent way, to its own unusual track gauge of . It had opened in 1838 - 1840 (in stages). There was a third railway in Angus, the Arbroath and Forfar Railway; like the D&AR it had the primitive track construction and the same track gauge. It too had opened in 1838 - 1839. None of these railways connected with one another, and none of them was commercially successful.
A railway between Dundee and Perth had been proposed in the 1830s, but there was hostility from influential local people and the idea had been dropped.
A Perth line proposed
It was reported in 1835 that the population of Dundee had doubled in the previous twenty years; industry and trade through the harbour were growing considerably, and definite proposals were made for a line from Dundee to Perth. Insuperable opposition from powerful landowners made the scheme impossible to pursue, and it was dropped.
In the 1840s there was a lengthy period of debate about the best route to connect central Scotland by rail to the emerging English network. For some time it was assumed that only a single route would be viable, and the argument was fierce. This stimulated consideration of other routes in Scotland, and it resulted in a frenzy of railway schemes being promoted. Building on the positive public mood towards railway projects, a public meeting in Dundee in January 1845 determined that a railway to Perth was now necessary, and a Parliamentary Bill was presented for that session. The Dundee and Perth Railway received its authorising Act of Parliament on 31 July 1845.
The line was to be a little under in length. The track gauge of was considered, in accordance with the two existing Arbroath lines, but standard gauge was actually adopted.
The 1845 session saw many other Scottish railways authorised: the Caledonian Railway (Glasgow and Edinburgh to Carlisle) was authorised on the same day as the Dundee and Perth Railway; its share capital was to be £1.5 million. The Scottish Central Railway was one of the others authorised that day; it was to build from Castlecary, on the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway, to Perth. Other lines were to create a northward axis to Aberdeen.
The Caledonian Railway was naturally the most significant railway in this spate of authorisations, and even before its Act of Parliament it saw its destiny as controlling large tracts of Scotland; but with no cash to spend, it set about concluding agreements with the other (as yet unauthorised) lines to lease them. This would need no money at first, and would simply incur a lease charge periodically once the lines had been built.
During construction the Dundee and Perth company arranged to lease the Dundee and Newtyle Railway for 999 years for a lease charge of £1,400 per annum; this was authorised by an Act of 27 July 1846, and seems to have been done to prevent the Scottish Midland Junction Railway, then building from Perth to Forfar, from using the Newtyle line to gain access to Dundee.