Description

Loch Lomond And Trossachs National Park Planning Authority

1901. A well-preserved group of former station buildings including single-storey booking office with half-timbered walls on brick base, central M-gable and bracketed canopy; Caledonian Railway Company signal box (non-standard) with round-arched windows and deep eaves; timber waiting room; and channelled concrete retaining walls to entrance of station.

BOOKING OFFICE AND STATION: symmetrical 8-bay S (entrance) elevation: advanced M-gable to centre with brick-mullioned tripartite windows and timber-panelled front door to side; gablehead slightly jettied-out with stone corbels; regular fenestration to wings. Fairly regular fenestration of doors and windows to N (platform) elevation; large decorative cast-iron brackets supporting corrugated-iron canopy. Half-timbered gable to W elevation with slightly advanced brick stack. Piended-roof to E elevation with flat-roofed ancillary building adjoining. Tall corniced brick chimney stacks with red clay cans; red tile roof with finialed terracotta ridge tiles.

SIGNAL BOX: Map Ref: (NN 69917, 24414) Caledonian Railway Company (Southern Division non-standard design), 2-storey signal box on red brick base with yellow brick quoins. 2 segmental-arched windows flanking central door at ground to N. Timber mullioned multi-light glazing to operating room with round-arched timber detailing to each window head. Glazing coninous to all elevations, broken only by brick chimney stack at centre of N elevation. Timber steps to timber porch on stilts adjoining W elevation. Piended slate roof with deep bracketed eaves.

WAITING ROOM: timber-clad structure with later corrugated-iron roof; off-centre timber-panelled door and continuous glazing to S elevation. Brick stack to N.

RETAINING WALLS: curved, channelled concrete retaining walls near entrance of station. Abutments to removed former iron bridge.

Statement of Interest

St Fillan's is a fine and largely complete example of an early 20th century rural railway station grouping in Perth and Kinross and the most complete station group remaining on the former Comrie, St Fillans and Lochearnhead Railway. The former booking office and station is notable for its decorative cast-iron brackets supporting the platform canopy, its corbelled gable-head and tall brick stacks.

St Fillan's station was built for the Lochearnhead, St Fillans and Comrie Railway that ran between Balquhidder Station and Comrie. The line was opened in sections with St Fillan's station opening in 1901. The company was absorbed soon after by the Caledonian Railway in 1902. The railway continued to Lochearnhead in 1904 and Balquhidder in c1905. The line closed fully in 1951.

Signal boxes are a distinctive and now 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 mechanical boxes on the public network due to become obsolete by 2021. The non-standard Caledonian Railway signal box at St Fillan's is a particularly rare and important example within its building type. It is a variant of perhaps the most significant Scottish signal box design - the Caledonian S4. Once widespread, these boxes feature ornate carved brackets fixed to the head of each window mullion. They were designed by the southern division of the Caledonian Railway Company. The St Fillan's box is distinguished by its round-arched timber detail to window heads and its use of polychromatic brickwork. Standard S4 boxes survive at the former Biggar Railway Station and at the Bo'ness and Kinneil Railway (see separate listings). The Caledonian Railway Southern Division also produced Type S1, S2, S3 and S5 boxes, none of which are known to survive.

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

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17835420

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

• 
  Listed Buildings: The Law and Practice of History Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas
• 
  Suffolk: East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Harrow on the Hill: A photographic portrayal of listed buildings and structures (Historic Buildings Picture Guides)
• 
  Yorkshire: York and the East Riding (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides): Written by Charles O'Brien, 2014 Edition, Publisher: Yale University Press [Hardcover]
• 
  Sussex: West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)