Description

Sutherland Railway Company, 1871. 2-storey, T-plan station building with long re-entrant angle fronting platform infilled as verandah under swept roof and supported by bracketed timber posts. Whitewashed rendered rubble. Near centre entrance in platform frontage; 2- and 4-pane glazing; coped end and wallhead stacks; slate roof with projecting eaves.

SIGNAL BOX (Map Ref: ND 02360, 15519): 1894, Dutton and Company 'Type 1' signal box. Timber weather-boarding and cover-strip construction; projecting, half-gabled porch reached by timber forestair; glazed frontage with multi-pane timber glazing; decorative bargeboards. Corrugated metal roof.

FOOTBRIDGE (Map Ref: ND 02365, 15497): late 19th century, standard Highland Railway cast-iron footbridge spanning railway track; lattice balustrade.

Statement of Interest

Helmsdale Railway Station is a fine and well-detailed example of a North East Highland station, built for Duke of Sutherland's Railway in 1871. The northernmost railway in the UK, it is now part of the Far North line extending from Inverness to Thurso. The station building is of a similar design to that at nearby Golspie. The station, signal box and footbridge together form a significant group of historic railway buildings.

Signal boxes are a distinctive and increasingly rare building type that make a significant contribution to Scotland's diverse industrial heritage. Of more than 2000 signal boxes built across Scotland by 1948, around 150 currently survive (2013) with all pre-1948 mechanical boxes still in operation on the public network due to become obsolete by 2021. The 1894 signal box at Helmsdale is a good, early example by the English signalling manufacturer, Samuel Dutton & Company who were contracted to build all the boxes between Invergordon and Georgemas. A distinctive identifying feature of this design is the decorative moulding in the gables. Dutton's early boxes are similar in design to McKenzie and Holland's Type 3 box which was used at stations further south on the Highland Railway including Nairn, Aviemore and Boat of Garten (see separate listings). Dutton was previously an engineer with McKenzie & Holland and took a number of patents with him when he set up on his own account. As of 2013, other 'Type 1' boxes by Dutton on the Far North line include Rogart (see separate listing), Ardgay, and Forsinard.

Listed description and statutory address revised as part of Scottish Signal Box Review (2012-13).

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Helmsdale railway station at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q2412149

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Kent: West and the Weald: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Sussex: East with Brighton and Hove (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Department for Communities Listed Historic Buildings of Northern Ireland: Information Guide for the 2nd Survey of Historic Buildings
• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects, Supplement 2014
• 
  Old House Eco Handbook: A Practical Guide to Retrofitting for Energy-Efficiency & Sustainability
• 
  London 3: North West: North West v. 3 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)