Caledonian Railway

Opened: 1904

Closed: 1982

Location code: Sc19/32

Oban box opened in 1904, when the station was enlarged. The box was to the same design as Grangemouth No3, but here we see the more common design of locking-room window with the arch arrangement repeated in the glazing.

A small all-timber version of this design existed just up the line at Taynuilt, but the majority were of brick construction as seen here.

This view shows the box in rather dilapidated condition after closure; a few windows have been broken by vandals.

This photograph was taken rather earlier, when the box was still active. The lever frame was located in the rear of the box, as was common practice after the turn of the century.

Few instruments adorn the block shelf, for the line is single track.

At the far end of the frame can be seen a Tyer's Electric Key Token Instrument for the single line section to Taynuilt.

The four-platform station was controlled from this 64-lever frame, with very few spare levers, for many years, although in its later days it was shortened to 48 levers. When the box closed, nearly everything was completely swept away leaving the station as a one-platform terminus at the end of a "No Signalman Key Token" single line, with just a couple of ground frames to allow engines to run round their trains.

Those changes occurred on 5th December 1982.