Tay Bridge

The Tay Bridge carries rail traffic across the Firth of Tay in Scotland between Dundee and the suburb of Wormit in Fife. Its span is 3,286 metres (2.042 miles). It is the second bridge to occupy the site. Plans for a bridge over the Tay to replace the train ferry service emerged in 1854, but the first Tay Bridge did not open until 1878. It was a lightweight lattice design of relatively low cost with a single track. On 28 December 1879, the bridge suddenly collapsed in high winds while a train was crossing, killing everybody on board. The incident is one of the worst bridge-related engineering disasters in history. An enquiry determined that the bridge was insufficiently engineered to cope with high winds. It was replaced by a second bridge constructed of iron and steel, with a double track, parallel to the remains of the first bridge. Work commenced on 6 July 1883 and the bridge opened in 1887. The new bridge was subject to extensive testing by the Board of Trade, which resulted in a favourable report. In 2003, the bridge was strengthened and refurbished, winning a British Construction Industry Engineering Award to mark the scale and difficulty of the project.

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Tay Bridge disaster

The Tay Bridge disaster occurred during a violent European windstorm on Sunday 28 December 1879, when the first Tay Rail Bridge collapsed as a North British Railway (NBR) passenger train on the Edinburgh to Aberdeen Line travelling from Burntisland to Dundee passed over it, killing all aboard. The bridge, designed by Sir Thomas Bouch, used lattice girders supported by iron piers, with cast iron columns and wrought iron cross-bracing. The piers were narrower and their cross-bracing was less extensive and robust than on previous similar designs by Bouch. Bouch had sought expert advice on wind loading when designing a proposed rail bridge over the Firth of Forth; as a result of that advice he had made no explicit allowance for wind loading in the design of the Tay Bridge. There were other flaws in detailed design, in maintenance, and in quality control of castings, all of which were, at least in part, Bouch's responsibility. Bouch died less than a year after the disaster, his reputation ruined. Future British bridge designs had to allow for wind loadings of up to 56 pounds per square foot (2.7 kilopascals). Bouch's design for the Forth Bridge was not used. As of 2024, it remains the fifth-deadliest railway accident in the history of the United Kingdom, as well as the second deadliest rail accident in Scottish history, being surpassed by the UK's deadliest: the Quintinshill rail disaster.

Firth of Tay

The Firth of Tay (; Scottish Gaelic: Linne Tatha) is a firth on the east coast of Scotland, into which empties the River Tay (Scotland's largest river in terms of flow). The firth is surrounded by four council areas: Fife, Perth and Kinross, Dundee City, and Angus. Its maximum width (at Invergowrie) is 3 mi (4.8 km). Two bridges span the firth: the Tay Road Bridge and the Tay Rail Bridge. The marshy Mugdrum Island is the only major island in the firth. The Firth of Tay in Antarctica was discovered in 1892–1893 by Captain Thomas Robertson of the Dundee whaling expedition and named by him after the one in Scotland. He also named nearby Dundee Island in honour of the main city on the firth.

Wormit railway station

Wormit railway station served the town of Wormit, Fife, Scotland from 1889 to 1969 on the Newport Railway.

Radio Tay

Radio Tay is a group of two Independent Local Radio stations serving Tayside and northeast Fife in Scotland. Radio Tay is owned and operated by Bauer Radio and forms part of Bauer's Hits Radio and Greatest Hits Radio network of radio stations. Radio Tay was formerly based at 6 North Isla Street in Dundee, however due to the station vacating the premises, now their only dedicated local show for the Tayside area (weekday breakfast) is broadcast from Radio Forth's studio in Edinburgh. Tayside Sound Limited was incorporated on 27 April 1979 to set up a radio station in accordance with the then regulatory body, the Independent Broadcasting Authority. Radio Tay commenced broadcasting on Friday 17 October 1980 from the Taybridge TV transmitter site at the southern end of the Tay Road Bridge on 95.8 MHz FM and an AM transmitter on 1161 kHz at Greenside Scalp close to the Taybridge site but located lower down, at the shoreline of the River Tay. Relay transmitters in Perth opened on 14 November 1980 – FM on 96.4 MHz from the existing Perth TV transmitter on Craigie Hill on the SE edge of the city and a new AM transmitter on 1584 kHz at Friarton Road, also on the southern perimeter. The Taybridge FM transmitter changed frequency to 102.8 MHz as part of a European agreement to reallocate FM frequencies. The 95.8 MHz having been allocated to BBC Radio 4 in Scotland. The 102.8 MHz transmissions from Taybridge were moved to the larger Angus TV transmitter site, near Tealing, on 10 February 1994. The Taybridge transmitter became a relay site and changed to the same frequency as the Perth relay transmitter (96.4 MHz) Originally launched as a simulcast station on AM and FM, Radio Tay split into two distinct radio services on 9 January 1995: Tay FM, playing contemporary hit music and Tay AM, carrying an older selection of classic hits. On 19 January 2015, Tay 3 was launched as a locally branded, but national service of pop music aimed at 15- to 25-year-olds, however this brand was withdrawn in September 2017. These stations broadcast to the Tayside catchment area, with a potential target audience of 391,000 people. As of Q1 2024, Tay FM has a weekly reach of 110,000 listeners (source: RAJAR). Radio Tay's locally targeted programming for Tayside on Tay FM consists of 4 hours per day on weekdays (Breakfast 6-10am). Greatest Hits Radio (Tayside & Fife) (formerly Tay 2) produces no shows intended specifically for the Tayside area. Both stations carry local news, sport and traffic bulletins every day. Networked programming is carried on Tay FM from sister stations including Radio Clyde in Clydebank and Hits Radio in Manchester.