In the early years of the nineteenth century there was an explosion in the volume of textile production in Forfarshire as industrialisation was introduced.

In 1826 Stevenson and Blackadder surveyed a railway route; they planned an inclined plane to descend into Arbroath; the final approach to the harbour was to have been through the streets.

This scheme too did not proceed, but it was revived in 1824, by which time a waggonway was a viable alternative; Robert Stevenson supervised the survey.

The Edinburgh firm of railway engineers Grainger and Miller had been commissioned to carry out the review, and they proposed a route rather different to Stevenson's.

A local man, William Lindsay Carnegie, was the dynamic force in promoting the railway scheme.

Hostility was encountered from the owner of Guthrie Castle, and from the turnpike trustees, and considerable revision to the initial route was made.

[2][4] Whishaw later reported that the engineer, Mr Grainger, considers the English gauge [of 4ft 8½in] too narrow, and the Great Western gauge [of 7ft 0¼in] too wide; he has, therefore, taken something like a mean, which would enable him to allow sufficient space for the proper construction of the locomotive engines, and also afford more useful space in the carriages.

The D&AR surveyed an alternative entry to Arbroath, described as the high level line, but the extra cost of this deterred actual implementation of the route, and although the authorising Acts for both companies referred to branches to Almericloss, there was no definite agreement to build them.

[3] Grainger and Miller designed the railway as a single line with passing places every 600 yards (550 metres) or so;[note 2] this was their custom at the time, based on horse-drawn waggonways with no fixed timetable.

Two quarries were gearing up in anticipation of the advantage of rail connection: at Letham and Leysmill, within about 5 miles (8 km) of Forfar.

From Saturday 24 November 1838 passenger traffic between Forfar and Leysmill was started, using horse traction as the locomotives were not ready.

[3][5] Writing in 1842 following a site visit in 1841, Francis Whishaw reported that We were much surprised, when examining this line in September last, to see a party of reapers travelling by the third-class railway-carriages in preference to walking to their work; and we found on enquiry that this was by no means an isolated case, but of everyday occurrence.

[5][13] As has been described, both the A&FR and the Dundee and Forfar Railway had powers to build branches to Almericloss, intended as a joint goods depot and exchange point.

The 1843 Bradshaw shows the two lines running with separate passenger timetables and a note in the D&AR section that "Passengers wishing to proceed, will find a [road] coach waiting to convey them, free of charge, between the Arbroath station of the Forfar railway and the Arbroath station of this railway.

[3] In the first years of operation, the railway was running at a healthy profit; its financial difficulties were confined to lack of capital.

Moreover, the original permanent way was not as durable as had been hoped, and significant sums had to be expended on upkeep; in addition the government passenger tax was a heavy burden.

[4] In the preparation for the bills for the 1845 parliamentary session, the A&FR was approached in March 1844 by the promoters of the Aberdeen and East Coast of Scotland Railway.

They wished to build a line from Aberdeen to Friockheim, and run trains from there via Arboath to Dundee over the D&AR.

At the same time the promoters of the Scottish Midland Junction Railway were planning to build from Perth to Forfar, creating a through route from the south to Aberdeen partly over the A&FR.

The route left the original main line west of Rosemount Road and followed the present-day alignment across the north-west flank of the town.

For a period the Aberdeen Railway, itself gripped by shortage of capital, was only open as far north as Bridge of Dun.

[15] In fact the majority of the Aberdeen Railway traffic took the Guthrie curve and ran to Perth via Forfar and the SMJR.

The new company concentrated its traffic from Aberdeen to the south via Forfar, and the line into Arbroath fell into disuse.

Lengthy legalistic prevarication followed, legal opinion indicating among other things that the act had required bridges, and therefore no-one had the right to demand gates at a level crossing.

In 1865 and 1866 respectively the SCR and the SNER were further absorbed by the Caledonian Railway, forming a continuous line under single ownership from Carlisle to Aberdeen.

The Caledonian control ended the reason for diverting trains away from the Forfar route, and the Friockheim curve was closed again, on 1 November 1867.

Nonetheless traffic soon declined; Caledonian Railway trains between Dundee and Aberdeen were discontinued from 1 February 1908 and the spur line closed once again, this time finally.

Technicalities prevented all the legal requirements being finalised by the due date, although for practical purposes the transfer took place.

Following the end of World War II local railway usage declined substantially, and the line between St Vigeans Junction at Arbroath and Guthrie was closed.

On 4 September 1967 the through services between Perth and Forfar ceased, and the former NBR route was the sole main line to the north.