diff --git a/base/abstractarray.jl b/base/abstractarray.jl
index bb5dfa258feaf..8e0fdb5bc5ce2 100644
--- a/base/abstractarray.jl
+++ b/base/abstractarray.jl
@@ -37,7 +37,7 @@ Base.OneTo(6)
 """
 function indices(A::AbstractArray{T,N}, d) where {T,N}
     @_inline_meta
-    d <= N ? indices(A)[d] : OneTo(1)
+    d <= N ? indices(A)[d] : one(indicestype(typeof(A),d))
 end
 
 """
@@ -57,6 +57,23 @@ function indices(A)
     map(OneTo, size(A))
 end
 
+"""
+    indicestype(T, d)
+
+Returns the type of the indices for array type `T` along dimension `d`
+
+```jldoctest
+julia> A = ones(5,6,7);
+
+julia> indicestype(typeof(A), 1)
+Base.OneTo{Int}
+```
+"""
+function indicestype{T <: AbstractArray}(::Type{T}, d)
+    @_inline_meta
+    OneTo{Int}
+end
+
 # Performance optimization: get rid of a branch on `d` in `indices(A,
 # d)` for d=1. 1d arrays are heavily used, and the first dimension
 # comes up in other applications.
diff --git a/base/range.jl b/base/range.jl
index 3736f721bf597..47b312f33cef8 100644
--- a/base/range.jl
+++ b/base/range.jl
@@ -897,3 +897,5 @@ function +(r1::StepRangeLen{T,S}, r2::StepRangeLen{T,S}) where {T,S}
 end
 
 -(r1::StepRangeLen, r2::StepRangeLen) = +(r1, -r2)
+
+one{T, RangeT <: Range{T}}(::Type{RangeT}) = RangeT(one(T))