Survey Data
Reg No
13008008
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Social
Original Use
Signal box
In Use As
Signal box
Date
1890 - 1910
Coordinates
213553, 274960
Date Recorded
01/09/2005
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Detached two-bay two-storey signal box, built c. 1900. Pitched artificial slate roof with cast-iron rainwater goods and painted timber bargeboards. Heating flue attached to roof to the centre of the north pitch. Painted timber weatherboard to upper floor, overhanging with painted cast-iron brackets to north elevation, shallow porch to east elevation. Red brick to ground floor in Flemish Bond. Square-headed openings to first floor with replacement windows and a glazed timber panelled entrance door to the east elevation. Doorway accessed via external flight of metal steps. Segmental-headed openings to ground floor with fixed timber windows, painted sills and timber battened entrance door. Situated to south platform of Longford Town Railway Station (13004044) and to the southeast of Longford Town centre.
Appraisal
This small-scale railway structure is an integral element of the transport and civil engineering heritage of County Longford. Despite some alteration, this signal box retains its early form and character. The variety of materials used in its construction makes for a visually pleasing composition while the decorative cast-iron brackets add an aesthetic quality to the principal elevation (north). This signal box was originally built by the Midland and Great Western Railway Company to serve the Dublin to Sligo line and it forms part of an extensive collection of structures associated with Longford Town Railway Station (13004044). It is possible that this structure was built or rebuilt following damage during the Civil War (1922-3), a fate suffered by many signal boxes in Ireland at the time.