Newport-on-Tay East railway station Survey map remained practically unchanged till it closed. There were two accidents in the station. In one case, a train hit one of the level crossing gates, and it had to be replaced. The other accident was more serious. A workman was killed during an accident while shunting coal waggons. The railway was mainly used by people who lived in Newport and worked in Dundee. Until the opening of the Tay Road Bridge in 1966 the Tay Ferry provided the only alternative means of getting there. The opening of the Road Bridge allowed direct bus services from Newport to Dundee,
River Tay over. The entire train fell into the firth, with the loss of 75 passengers and train crew. The event was commemorated in a poem, The Tay Bridge Disaster (1880), written by William McGonagall, a notoriously unskilled Scottish poet. The critical response to his article was enhanced as he had previously written two poems celebrating the strength and certain immortality of the Tay Bridge. A second much more well received poem was published in the same year by the German writer Theodor Fontane. A. J. Cronin's first novel, "Hatter's Castle" (1931), includes a scene involving the Tay Bridge Disaster, and the