Follow the curve

“I saw the photo of the ‘last train through Forfar’ in a recent column,” emails Bruce Dorward. “My first impression on seeing the photo was: ‘That looks like Forfar but there is something wrong.’ It took me a few minutes to work out what, exactly, was wrong before I concluded that the photo had been printed from the wrong side of the negative and, in which case, it was not the LAST train through Forfar.

“I then scanned the photo into my computer and flipped the image horizontally. This confirms my judgement.

“The published photo was taken from the east end of the station looking along the platform served by north-bound trains. Forfar station was built on a rather sharp curve and this photo shows the inside radius of that curve, you see along the train as it follows the curve.

“If it had been the other, south-bound, platform the train would have gone out of sight as it curved away from the camera and more of the station offices would have been seen.

“I conclude that this may have been the last north-bound train through Forfar, a Glasgow–Aberdeen service calling at Forfar at 4.10 pm.

“The last train was a south-bound service calling at Forfar at 7.05 pm. I was there, but the equivalent north-bound train, 7.28 at Forfar, became the first through Glasgow–Aberdeen service to be routed via Dundee.” coaches on thre train that left Perth at 10.30. It stopped at various stations, although by that time many of the platforms had already been removed. For example, at Coupar Angus, you could get out of the train but you were standing on the tracks.

“The train got into Forfar at 12.13. then, at 12.47, it made the run back to Perth. The train made the same journey again and then left Forfar at 5.15 for the return journey to Perth where it arrived at 6.47pm.”