Although the seal of the Newtyle and Coupar Angus Railway Company shows a carriage drawn by a steam locomotive, with Old Father Time outpacing carrier pigeons and racehorses, the first trains had to be horse-drawn until the railway company was able to purchase a locomotive. 

From an early beginning as a short extension of the Dundee and Newtyle Railway, this section of line was swept up by successive railway companies to become part of the Scottish Midland Junction Railway, the Scottish North Eastern Railway and the Caledonian Railway, before becoming part of the London Midland Scottish Railway carrying express trains between London Euston and Aberdeen. Through trains ceased to run in 1964, although freight trains ran from Perth to Forfar until 1982, after which the line was taken up. 

Meigle has had two railway stations with a further three local stations bearing the name 'Meigle'.  

The first was a halt on the Newtyle and Glammiss Railway, which was opened in June 1838, initially as a horse-drawn railway. The halt had been closed under the name Kirkinch Station in 1847 but it re-opened the following year as Meigle Lower Junction Station (Eassie Station being renamed Meigle Upper Junction Station), after the line connecting the Coupar Angus and Glamis lines was laid. This station served the now steam-driven Scottish Midland Junction Railway from Perth to Aberdeen via Forfar but closed in 1861. 

1861 was also the year that the Alyth branch was opened with a station in Meigle itself which was opened on 12 August 1861. The platform was on the south side of the Forfar Road and was known as Fullarton Station.  

As traffic grew on the Perth to Forfar line, a new Meigle Station was opened in 1867, though this was later to be re-named as Alyth Junction Station. 

In 1876, Fullerton Station closed on the opening of Meigle Station on 1 November 1876 which was just on the other side of the Forfar Road. The old Fullerton Station building on the south side of the road then became the level crossing keeper’s house and is currently called Station Cottage. 

At one o’clock in the morning of 6 November, 1873, a goods train pulling a large number of heavily laden wagons travelling from Perth to Aberdeen pulled into Alyth Junction (then known as Meigle Station) where it was shunted onto the up-line to Perth to allow the midnight mail train from London to pass. 

The engine of the goods train was stopped almost immediately in front of the station and the three wagons next to the engine carried about 60 calves on their way to Aberlemno, with another 50 destined for Forfar in another wagon.  

A few seconds after the mail train left the station, a south-bound engine pulling a single van came speeding down the line from Forfar and crashed into the stationary engine.  

The impact of the crash forced the Forfar train skywards and some 45 yards back up the line, with burning fuel being scattered all around and steam enveloping the whole station. The front of the train was completely smashed and the large driving wheels were knocked off and left twisted, while the one inch thick and four inches wide driving shaft was twisted like a piece of bent wire. The tender (the coal carrier immediately behind the engine of a steam train) had been driven hard into the engine and the van was smashed to pieces. The engine itself was a wreck with the cylinders, cranks and gearing all having been twisted out of shape.  

The heavily laden goods train which had been sitting at the station was pushed into its tender with the three front wagons smashed to splinters. Some of the following wagons were off the rails. The impact was so great that what was left of the first wagon ended up on top of the tender. Most of the calves were crushed to death, others were thrown out, and most stuck between dislodged wheels and large pieces of broken wood.  

The porters at the station, with the help of others who had heard the noise of the crash and rushed to the scene, headed for the Forfar engine to rescue the driver and the fireman. Unfortunately, one died at the station; the other was badly injured and taken to the infirmary in Perth.  

The crash scene became even worse when another heavily laden goods train from Aberdeen ran into the wreckage of the two smashed trains. This collision could have been worse still if it had not been for some men carrying danger lights having hurried along the line in an effort to try to stop the train as it approached the station. The driver saw the lights and started to slow his train but he was not in time to stop it before it hit the crumpled wreckage of the Forfar train.  

The front of this third engine was stoved in with most of its gearing being damaged, the wagons immediately behind the engine were smashed to pieces and others derailed and thrown across the line. Just before the impact of this second crash the driver and fireman realising that they were not going to stop in time managed to jump clear of their engine and escaped uninjured. 

Unfortunately, the 1873 railway disaster was not the only one to occur on this line.  

On 17 July, 1948, a local train travelling from Dundee West Station to Blairgowrie overran the signal situated about one mile west of the [which?] station where the branch line merged with the main Perth-Aberdeen line. 

The signal was indicating 'danger' as the Aberdeen to Glasgow Postal Express, which had been given a clear signal, was travelling at about 70 mph along the main line. With both trains travelling westwards towards Coupar Angus, a converging collision was inevitable, and the impact was such that both trains travelled for about 100 yards after the collision, locked together. 

Sadly the driver of the Dundee train and the fireman of the Aberdeen Express both lost their lives and 12 people were injured, one seriously. Seven passengers and one railway employee had to be taken to hospital while the other five were treated locally.  

The engine of the express train parted from its tender, smashing into a small bridge over the ditch which marks the boundary between Perthshire and Angus. The engine finished up on its side facing the way it had just come, while the three postal sorting vans, which were immediately behind the express engine tender, were totally smashed and ended up in a potato field. The six passenger carriages fared much better, one remaining on the track while the other five were derailed but not badly damaged.  

The engine of the local train departed from its two coaches and finished upside down; one of its coaches, having had one side torn open, lay at an angle down the embankment while the other coach was jammed against the last coach of the express train.  

This disaster could have been much worse as a train crowded with holiday makers from Glasgow heading for Aberdeen was already past Coupar Angus but was still some distance from the signal when the driver noticed steam blocking his view near where two boilers sat next to the line. He thought that this was peculiar so decided to slow his train, and by doing this he managed to bring the train to a stop just five feet from the wreckage - an action that must have saved many lives.