Description

1927, London Midland and Scottish Railway Company signal box. 2-storey, 3-bay, rectangular-plan with piended roof and projecting eaves. Brick base with 3 segmental-arched openings and locking room door to W. Timber forestair and operating room door to E; upper stage fully glazed to E, N and W with glazed bay advanced at centre to N; narrow iron walkway to E, N and W (interrupted by advanced bay) supported on decorative cast-iron brackets and with iron handrail.

Glazing at upper stage incroporates sliding windows; 9-pane fixed glazing to lower stage. Grey-green slates to roof. Cast-iron rainwater goods.

Statement of Interest

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.

Built in 1927 by the London Midland and Scottish Railway, the signal box at Dunragit is a fine and largely intact example of this once widespread type in Scotland. LMS built boxes to Midland Railway designs in England until around 1929. The Type 12 box, with its characteristic projecting centre bay, was less common than the companies standard Type 11, with very few examples surviving (2013). The distinctive piended roof, projecting bay, cast-iron frame to upper level walkway, and locking room windows all add to its interest as a fine inter-war example of its building type. Operational as of 2013, the building retains its 32 lever locking frame.

Dunragit Station was opened in 1861 and closed in 1965. The signal box remained in use due to it controlling a level crossing over the B7084.

Change of category from C to B and list description updated as part of Scottish Signal Box Review (2012-13).

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17792033

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

• 
  Oxfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  [(Shropshire)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1958)
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  Sussex: East with Brighton and Hove (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Building Small Projects (New Best of Fine Woodworking)
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  London 6: Westminster (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England): Westminster v. 6
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  ENGLAND GUIDE TO POST WAR LISTED: A Guide to Post-war Listed Buildings