Although the whole idea of the railway was to connect the farming areas to the north of the Sidlaws to the harbour in Dundee, the station was built in Ward Road which was a good half mile from the docks.
From its opening on 16th December 1831 until 1861, when a bypass was built which left the Dundee to Perth line near Invergowrie and skirted Lochee, trains were pulled out of the back of the station up a 1 in 10 incline, past the Royal Infirmary, by a stationary engine located to the south of Kinghorne Road.
This photo comes from an account by Don Martin and Paul Bamford *- the Royal Infirmary is seen half way up the Dundee Law which forms the background of the photo. One can imagine that there is a chimney on the horizon which might be associated with the stationary engine.
In James Nasmyth: Engineer, An Autobiography there is a description of the first adventure by train of an old woman from Newtyle to Dundee. "In those days the train was let down part of the railway by a rope. The woman was on her way down hill, with a basket of eggs by her side. Suddenly the rope broke, and the train dashed into the Dundee Station, scattering the carriages, and throwing out the old woman and her basket of broken eggs. A porter ran to her help, when, gathering herself together, she exclaimed, "Odd sake, sirs, d'ye aye whummil* [footnote... Whummil, to turn upside down.--Jamieson's Scottish Dictionary. ...] us oot this way?" She thought it was only the ordinary way of delivering railway passengers."
* this link no longer connects
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May 2019