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Latitude: 58.1178 / 58°7'4"N
Longitude: -3.659 / 3°39'32"W
OS Eastings: 302359
OS Northings: 915518
OS Grid: ND023155
Mapcode National: GBR K7B8.GM6
Mapcode Global: WH5DS.R7S4
Plus Code: 9CCR489R+49
Entry Name: Signal Box, Helmsdale Station
Listing Name: Helmsdale Railway Station Including Footbridge and Signal Box
Listing Date: 23 July 1987
Category: B
Source: Historic Scotland
Source ID: 339003
Historic Scotland Designation Reference: LB7184
Building Class: Cultural
Also known as: Helmsdale Station, Signal Box
ID on this website: 200339003
Location: Kildonan
County: Highland
Electoral Ward: East Sutherland and Edderton
Parish: Kildonan
Traditional County: Sutherland
Tagged with: Signal box
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.
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 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.
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