The Dundee railway landscape changed dramatically 40 years ago.
The closure of the Camperdown Junction signal box on March 17 1985 marked the end of a rail tradition stretching back to the great Victorian age of steam.
It was a sad day for rail enthusiasts.
People loved seeing the signal boxes and semaphores.
The operation was taken over by the new £2.5 million Dundee Signalling Centre.
Dundee East, Dundee West, Dundee Central and Buckingham Junction signal boxes were closed on March 17, March 31, April 14 and May 19.
They were eventually demolished.
The curtain fell on a vintage chapter of railway lore.
Sadness as history swept away in 1985
Scott Cunningham is a member of the Angus Railway Group.
He has chronicled life on the tracks in Dundee for six decades and Camperdown Junction signal box provided the backdrop for many a rail photograph.
“So far as Camperdown box is concerned, it certainly was the end of an era with the old manual signal boxes around Dundee being closed,” he said.
“The traditional signal boxes with their semaphore signals gave photographers and general observers the ability to know when trains were coming.
“Today’s colour lights require you to be facing the signal to know if it’s changed.
“The Camperdown box closure happened during a momentous year in Dundee with so much happening to change the railway landscape as we knew it.
“There was much demolition including the locomotive shed which was adjacent to Magdalen Green and the realignment of tracks at Tay Bridge Station.
“Things that had for so long been familiar were swept away without any consideration for their history.”
A history going back to the coming of the railway.
Camperdown Junction marked the point where the line to Dundee Tay Bridge Station – today’s Dundee Station – joined the Dundee and Arbroath Railway.
The latter line had opened in 1838 and was the area’s second railway, after the pioneering Dundee and Newtyle Railway.
Initially, it terminated at Craigie before Trades Lane Station opened in 1840.
This was replaced by what would become Dundee East in 1857.
In 1863 the Dundee and Arbroath Railway was taken over by the Scottish North Eastern Railway, which was absorbed by the Caledonian Railway
in 1866.
Camperdown Junction signal box opened in 1878
The 38-lever Camperdown Junction signal box was built in 1878.
Also being constructed at the same time was the line through the tunnel to Tay Bridge Station, which opened in June 1878 with the new bridge.
This box had a relatively short life because of daily wear and tear.
The Dundee and Arbroath Railway informed the Board of Trade it would be replaced with a new 52-lever signal box that was erected “a little to the west”.
The Courier in April 1902 said it was “fitted up with all the latest appliances”.
John Hinson’s Signal Box website said the Caledonian Railway was building quite ornate boxes on their Northern Division when Camperdown was erected.
It was similar to the Ferryhill Junction Signal Box in Aberdeen.
Hinson said: “A 52-lever frame originally controlled the complex layout of the approaches to the Dundee East terminal station as well as connections to the through lines to Glasgow and Edinburgh via Dundee Tay Bridge station.
“What is most striking about the box is the partially cantilevered operating floor.
“Only part of this is built in timber.
“The back wall is in brick continuing up from the base.”
Signalmen would keep in contact through a series of bells.
Among the longest-serving at Camperdown Junction was William Gordon.
He signalled trains through for 18 years.
Mr Gordon retired in October 1932 and colleagues at Dundee East Station presented him with a smoker’s cabinet, a walking stick and a purse for his wife.
Camperdown signalman was modest hero
There were signalling changes prior to the rationalisation of the area in 1939.
Dundee East signal box closed.
Work transferred to Camperdown Junction signal box.
It was extended by 50% to accommodate the provision of a new 95-lever frame.
Signalmen were trained to be alert.
David Ferguson averted a tragedy on the line in January 1953.
He was waiting for a goods train from Aberdeen passing through the junction.
Mr Ferguson had accepted the train and closed the level crossing gates when he looked out of his window and saw someone lying between the tracks.
The Courier said: “Mr Ferguson dashed along the track towards the oncoming train.
“Lying between the lines he found an old man wearing a light raincoat.
“He was dazed and bleeding from a cut above the eye.
“His feet were overlapping the track over which the train was due to cross.
“Mr Ferguson pulled him to safety.”
He left the 84-year-old man at the side of the track and called the police.
The lucky man was taken to Dundee Royal Infirmary and given stitches for a head wound.
The modest signalman stressed he was only doing his duty.
Three Dundee stations became one by 1966
But the changes kept coming.
Declining passenger use led to Dundee East being closed in January 1959.
The disused tracks became overgrown with weeds and plants.
Dundee East was demolished without ceremony in 1964.
Dundee West was reduced to a pile of rubble in 1966.
The Tay Bridge Station was the only one left.
The following decade brought the promise of even faster trains to come.
They did.
A £31 million seven-part improvement scheme to rail lines was completed in readiness for the introduction of the InterCity 125 trains in Scotland.
The new trains operated along the full route from October 1978, which started with the 9am Aberdeen-London and 11.25am London-Aberdeen services.
The InterCity 125 was an instant hit.
British Rail began phasing out the last remaining semaphore signals and control switched to the new computer control rooms.
Around 350,000 travellers a year were travelling from Dundee in 1985 when it came into use on March 17 when Camperdown Junction Signal Box was closed.
The spider’s web view vanished…
The speed limit in Dock Street was raised from 15mph to 40mph.
Scottish Secretary George Younger and Bob Reid, chairman of the British Railways Board, officially opened the Dundee Signalling Centre on May 17 1985.
The signal boxes vanished, a loss mourned by many who remember these iconic former sights including Jim Page from Angus Railway Group.
“Camperdown crossing was one of my favourite localities,” he said.
“The view from the footbridge was like no other with railway in all directions.
“A bit like viewing from the centre of a spider’s web.
“This was an area with a high volume of railway traffic.
“Sadly, much of the railway interest had gone when the signal box closed.”
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