The station overlooks the Montrose Basin and is situated on the Dundee–Aberdeen line, 90 miles (144 km) north of Edinburgh Waverley, between Arbroath and Laurencekirk.

There is a crossover at the north end of the station, which can be used to facilitate trains turning back if the line south to Arbroath is blocked.

This was essentially a continuation of the NBR main line from Edinburgh via the Tay Rail Bridge and allowed the company to accelerate its services between the Scottish capital and Aberdeen by an hour.

[6] The section of line across the viaduct and on to Usan is the only single track section on the entire line between Edinburgh & Aberdeen - though the rest of the route was doubled by the NBR in the years after opening, the cost of widening or rebuilding the viaduct to accommodate double track was deemed prohibitive and so it remained single.

[8] The station is equipped with a ticket office, toilets, a car park, bike racks and a payphone adjacent to platform 1.