Survey Data
Reg No
50080417
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Social
Original Use
Signal box
Date
1845 - 1855
Coordinates
311189, 233506
Date Recorded
29/05/2013
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Detached four-bay two-storey former signal box, built c.1850, no longer in use. Hipped roof, hidden behind stepped crenellated brown brick parapet with cut limestone copings, and cast-iron rainwater goods. Brown brick walls laid in Flemish bond to first floor with cut limestone quoins. Tooled snecked limestone walls to ground floor, with chamfered plinth course. Square-headed window openings with chamfered cut limestone surrounds and one-over-one pane timber sash windows. Blind openings to front (south) elevation ground floor. Red brick voussoirs to first floor windows. Square-headed door opening to east elevation, with chamfered limestone surround, and timber battened door. Located to immediate north of railway tracks, opposite running shed.
Appraisal
The Great Southern & Western Railway was established in 1844, and the Inchicore Railway Works was constructed on a 73 acre site at Inchicore from 1846. At its peak the GS&WR employed over 2,000 men at Inchicore Works. It continues to be the main engineering works for Iarnród Éireann today, maintaining a fleet of diesel locomotives and rolling stock. This signal box was used until the 1980s, and contained a twenty-six lever frame manufactured by the Railway Signal Company of Liverpool. As the first signal box after Heuston Station, it is a small yet grand building, reflecting the architectural style of the Sand House and the running shed to the south. Skill and craftsmanship are evident in its brick and masonry construction, and the building retains early timber sash windows.