Description

William Roberts for Highland Railway, dated 1894. Long single storey S facing range on down platform linked to 2-storey station house at rear. Coursed grey rubble, contrasting tooled ashlar sandstone dressings. 20-bay frontage to platform with transomed bipartite and tripartite windows; deep 5-bay canopy supported by cast-iron columns with decorative brackets shelters E half of platform front (valences gone). 2 crowstepped entrances to rear.

STATION HOUSE: to rear; 3-bay with off centre door flanked by narrow window; paired windows in centre bay; long short detailing to windows and angles. 2- and 4-pane glazing throughout; end and ridge corniced stacks; crowstepped gables; slate roofs.

FOOTBRIDGE: (Map Ref: NH 75667, 00414): 1894, Highland Railway Company. Cast-iron footbridge with lattice balustrade; 2 lamp standards adapted to electric light.

SIGNAL BOX: (Map Ref: NH 75688, 00412): Mackenzie and Holland for Highland Railway, 1894 (extended 2007). Plank and strip weather-boarded rectangular signal box. 4-pane glazed windows to locking room. Signal cabin reached by metal forestair (originally of timber construction). Continuous fenestration to operating room with 4-pane glazing to track frontage, returning to gables. Projecting eaves and timber bargeboarding. Large extension to original half gabled porch extended to W by Network Rail in 2007, supported on metal frame. Original slate roof and timber forestair replaced in the early 1970s.

Statement of Interest

Kingussie is a substantial, well-detailed example of a late 19th century Highland Railway station and station house complex with associated footbridge and signal box. The decorated brackets and cast-iron columns to the glazed awning are good representatives of Highland Railway architecture and add to the wider interest. The line (and the earlier station on this site) was opened in 1863 by the Inverness and Perth Junction Railway. The station was rebuilt by the Highland Railway Company in 1891-4.

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 is a 'Type 3' box by McKenzie and Holland. This important signalling manufacturer provided signalling for much of the Highland Railway during the late 19th century. Other survivals of this once common type are the large example at Aviemore Station and a little altered box at Boat of Garten North on the preserved Strathspey Railway line (see separate listings).

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

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17826872

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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