The former Monikie Railway Station

The railway came to Monikie on 14th November 1870, with the opening of the Dundee & Forfar Direct Railway, although there was no station at Monikie.

Following a public petition to Caledonian Railway (which company actually owned the Dundee & Forfar Direct Railway) a new station was built at Monikie, at a cost of £1,191-8s-7p, and was opened to traffic in 1872. Originally there were no sidings at, Monikie Station, but, in 1872, a siding was laid in for "Mr. Mitchell's Trustees"; and this was followed later on with a siding into a farina mill (farina is a kind of flour made from potatoes - now almost exclusively manufactured in Holland).

In 1873, a 3-ton crane was installed, and a house erected for the station-master (where?- Ed.) In 1904, a "manure" siding was added at the Forfar end of the station. (The term "manure" covered a wide range of farm fertilisers, such as bone meal).

The July 1922 edition of "Bradshaw's Railway Guide" shows 8 trains calling at Monikie en route to Forfar, between 7.20am and 9.17pm, and 8 trains heading in the opposite direction for Dundee, between 6.58am and 8.24pm. In those days, this was a pretty generous allocation to a rural area where there was very little in the way of buses, and probably even fewer private cars. Indeed, it was quite unusual for country dwellers to travel to such exotic places as Edinburgh or Perth, even visiting Dundee only 11 miles away was an adventure!

Monikie Station was a popular destination for Sunday School excursions from Dundee, the attraction being the park adjacent to the reservoirs. I can recall, being of a very tender age, travelling by train from Lochee Station (in the NW suburbs of Dundee) to Monikie, via the "tunnel" under Dock Street, Dundee, on the Scottish East Coast Main Line) - this was definitely "one-upmanship"!

Having failed to beat off the later, more attractive and cheaper competition from buses, passenger train services were withdrawn from the Forfar Direct line on 10th January, 1955. (Unfortunately I was unable to travel on the line that day, as my father and I were paying our respects to one of the pioneer railways in Scotland, the Dundee & Newtyle -but that is, as they say, another story!)

The Forfar Direct line was, later, truncated to the north of Kingsmuir Station, and could only thereafter be serviced from the Dundee end. Subsequently, on 2nd November 1967, the remaining line, now used only for freight, was closed totally, and lifting of the track followed shortly afterwards.

All that remains of Monikie Station today mainly swamped by trees and rampant undergrowth, though there is understood to be ideas of the local Community Council to arrange to landscape the area.

The farina mill, shown on the 1902 O.S. map as "Affleck Seed Crushing Works", later became the Monikie Farina Mill and later still, Monikie Granary, and is now derelict, and awaiting development.

Interestingly, one remaining example of the most obvious evidence of the railway is the old snow fence near Hogston Farm, and the long embankment climbing away from Monikie to Forfar.

J. O.