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Research dossier · Places & Architecture

Perth railway station (Scotland)

railway station in Perth, Perth and Kinross, Scotland, UK

Architectural plans, a scale model, maps and brass measuring instruments
Places and architectureInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 1, 2026
Entity authorityQ302555 ↗
Source-derived summary

Perth railway station serves the city of Perth, Scotland. It lies on both the Glasgow–Dundee line and the Highland Main Line. It is managed by ScotRail, which provides the majority of services, with London North Eastern Railway and the Caledonian Sleeper. It is sited 151 miles 25 chains (243.5 km) from Carlisle, via Stirling, Cumbernauld and Motherwell; and 86 miles 77 chains (140 km) from Edinburgh Waverley, via Kirkcaldy and Inverkeithing.

History

Openings

The station was opened as Perth General Station by the Scottish Central Railway (SCR) in 1848, to a design by William Tite. Originally the terminus of the SCR main line from Greenhill Junction, near Glasgow, it soon became a junction of some importance; the arrival of the Dundee and Perth Railway from Dundee, following the completion of Tay Viaduct, a bridge across the River Tay, the Edinburgh and Northern Railway (E&NR) from Ladybank on the Fife coast and the Scottish Midland Junction Railway (SMJR) from Forfar within months.

Subsequent construction by the Perth and Dunkeld Railway (P&DR) and the Perth, Almond Valley and Methven Railway added further lines into/out of the city, with the former becoming part of what is now the Highland Main Line to Inverness. The SMJR meanwhile would become part of a through route to Aberdeen by 1856, thus giving Perth travellers easy access to all of the major Scottish cities.

All of these lines, apart from the E&NR, were eventually taken over by the Caledonian Railway; although the Highland Railway (which took over the P&DR) and North British Railway (NBR; which absorbed the E&NR) also had access by means of running powers from Stanley Junction and Hilton Junction respectively.

The NBR would subsequently open a more direct route to the Scottish capital than the Caledonian's route, via Stirling and the central lowlands, in 1890; this left the existing Ladybank line at Bridge of Earn and headed south via Glenfarg to Mawcarse, where it joined the Fife and Kinross Railway's line to Kinross.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Perth railway station (Scotland)” is railway station in Perth, Perth and Kinross, Scotland, UK. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Perth, railway and station, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA strong orientation record where physical form, institutional use and historical geography need to be read together. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1848, 1856, 1890—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. For this dossier, Perth, railway and station is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “railway station in Perth, Perth and Kinross, Scotland, UK” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Place names and jurisdictional language are key evidence: both can reveal earlier catalogue descriptions and overlooked record series. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 1, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q302555. Authority coordinates are 56.392, -3.440. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1848, 1856 and 1890.

Critical limits

Architectural summaries often privilege surviving fabric and can understate demolished phases, contested use or displaced communities. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.

Best used for
  • Historic place names
  • Jurisdictional context
  • Routes into maps and plans
Verify next

Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Perth railway station (Scotland)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Perth railway station (Scotland) primary sources, Perth railway station (Scotland) archive and Perth research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Perth railway station (Scotland)”?
  2. Which earlier names or jurisdictions may reveal additional records?
  3. Which authority defined the place, boundary or structure at the relevant date?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Perth railway station (Scotland)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.