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Summary

Description

1877, Caledonian Railway Company - Type 1 signal box. Square-plan, 2 stage, brick with slated piend roof. Full-width 4-bay timber glazing to upper stage, returning to side elevations with deep bracketed cill-shelf. Segmental-headed window at upper stage to NE elevation with jettied timber outshot addition to right. Timber door to SW elevation with timber stair leading to projecting timber porch. Jettied timber projection to NW.

9-pane glazing pattern to timber-framed windows. Slate roof. Cast-iron rainwater goods. INTERIOR: 20 lever locking frame (1911).

Statement of Special 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.

The 1877 signal box at Errol is a rare and early example of the first standardised Caledonian Railway signal box. Located beside a level crossing, Errol is the best representative of the six Type 1 boxes remaining in the country (as of 2013). The Caledonian was established in 1830 and went on to become one of the five key railway companies in Scotland prior to nationalisation.

Errol Old Station and Footbridge (see separate listing) is intervisible with the signal box at the level crossing. While now converted to domestic dwellings and in separate ownership, the sensitively restored station buildings form a good railway grouping with the signal box and the cast-iron pedestrian bridge.

The signal box was built after Dundee and Perth and Aberdeen Railway Junction Company had been absorbed by the Caledonian Railway. A team of three signalmen worked the station on a 24 hour shift system including David Fyall who worked the box for 40 years and has a platform seat dedicated to his memory.

List description revised as part of the Scottish Signal Box Review (2012-13).

References

Bibliography

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