HST action in Angus

43133/032 pass signal CO14 with 1B80 from Aberdeen (12.07) to Edinburgh Waverley

Almost four years on from my only previous visit (May 2022) and the lure of a 90-mile trip aboard one of ScotRail’s comfortable Inter7City HSTs tempts me to take a journey from Edinburgh to Montrose and then a short bus ride on to Craigo, to capture HSTs passing the re-opened signal box and its quartet of semaphore signals.

Craigo is a small village five miles north of Montrose that is home to a Caledonian Railway signal box dating from 1907 and boasting a 21-lever frame. As I wrote following my previous visit, the box was routinely “switched out” for many years, but re-opened on a regular basis when Montrose-Inverurie local services began in 2018.

43035/012 pass Craigo Signal Box with 1A79 from Edinburgh Waverley (09.30) to Aberdeen

Most notable of its four semaphore arms is down home signal CO16, which stands on a lattice post immediately in front of the signal box and can be seen and photographed from a road over-bridge to the south and a road running alongside the railway, signal box and former station site (closed June 1956).

Craigo Signal Box and down home signal CO16

From this road bridge – re-built since my last visit and now having absurdly high concrete parapets that mean you need bring a folding stool to see over it – there is a fine view looking south of up section signal CO14, while looking towards the signal box there is a view of both home signals, CO16 (down) and CO12 (up).

Colas Rail 70814 passes signal CO15 with 6A65 from Oxwellmains Lafarge to Aberdeen Craiginches

A fourth semaphore that is not visible from this bridge is a down section signal (CO15), standing north of the signal box. To get a reasonable side on view of a train approaching it I took a ten-minute walk, following a footpath signed to the attractive Marykirk Bridge, close to which is an open field with a good view of the railway embankment and signal.

43133/032 pass signal CO12 with 1B80 from Aberdeen (12.07) to Edinburgh Waverley

Anyone lamenting their demise on GWR services in Cornwall and seeking Class 43 action should look no further than the northern end of the East Coast Main Line, where four and five-car ScotRail Inter7City HSTs are the mainstay of hourly Glasgow/Edinburgh-Aberdeen services, with six HST workings scheduled to pass Craigo during the two hours I spent there on 9 March 2026.

LNER 800110 approaches Craigo with 1S03 from London King’s Cross (05.48) to Aberdeen

Besides the HSTs, regular traffic passing Craigo also includes two-car Class 158 units on local Montrose-Aberdeen/Inverurie workings and LNER Class 80x Azumas on services operating between Aberdeen and King’s Cross, with the solitary non-passenger working being a Colas Rail Class 70-powered working of cement tanks from Oxwellmains Lafarge near Dunbar to Aberdeen Craiginches.

43134/124 head away from Montrose with 1A81 from Edinburgh Waverley (11.30) to Aberdeen

Back at Montrose a second Scottish signal box to enjoy a new lease of life is the listed Montrose North box (North British Railway, 1871). This was closed for a number of years before being re-opened in 2010 under a re-signalling project that saw closure of two other signal boxes – Montrose South and Usan – with two of its three semaphores (MN37 and MN13) standing near the box and just north of the station platforms.