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When the London Midland & Scottish Railway was formed in 1923, each of the operating divisions continued building boxes to the pre-grouping designs for six years. In 1929, a decision was made on standardisation, and the four divisions in England and Wales adopted a standard design illustrated at Kettering Junction. However, the Scottish Division managed (for reasons that have never been established) to go its own way architecturally, and for ten years all new boxes were built to the design seen here. Featuring a hipped roof with a flattening out at the edge, and a central observation window, this was a design that appeared both attractive and sturdy.

As an early example of its type, Longforgan was provided with a 20-lever frame of the typical Stevens & Sons style used extensively in Scotland (see Spean Bridge) were given LMS frames as illustrated in the similar box at Blackford.

Longforgan box, which is on the Caledonian Railway's route between Perth and Dundee, is one of the few on that line to survive and is now a fringe box to Dundee Signalling Centre.

I was flattered to learn that this photograph was used in the cover of a Railtrack internal document published in 2000. Unfortunately, the copy that was used had the letter "F" of the box name digitally removed!

All photographs copyright © John Hinson unless otherwise stated