‘The Stratford Upon Avon & Midland Junction Railway’ (or S.M.J.) was a small independent railway company which ran a line across the empty, untouched centre of England. It visited the counties of Northamptonshire, Warwickshire, Oxfordshire and a little of Buckinghamshire, only existing as the SMJ from 1909 to 1923. In 1923 the S.M.J.became a minor arm of the London Midland and Scottish (L.M.S.), then in 1948 'British Railways'
Gone but not forgotten: "the damsel is not dead, but sleepeth"
Broom History Group will be holding an event at Broom Village Hall 2-4pm on 9th November 2024 including a film on the railway and Broom Junction.…Continue
Hi everybodyI’m building a OO gauge model of Fenny Compton and Clifford Sidings over here in Belgium.Quite a strange idea but so be it…In view of this I plan to transform a RTR Beatie Well Tank into SMJR N° 5 the 2-4-0T and use some etchings for the…Continue
Comment by alwyn sparrow on November 26, 2011 at 5:23
Apparently there was a serious explosion on the site in 1917 in which several workers were seriously injured.There is a short section about this former munitions site in Bill Simpsons
A very familiar view to me. There was a WW1 Ministry of Munitions shell filling factory on this /SMJ joint line. When the M40 was built a few old shell cases were found. In WW2 the area was used for military training and an old conventor tank was placed here as a target. The munitions factory had a rail connection to the LNWR Banbury - Cockley Brake Junction line. This had it's own loco with a spark arrester. I wonder how many trucks loaded with filled shells went to their destination via Towcester/Blisworth as an alternative to gaining the LNWR mainline at Bletchley via Buckingham/Verney Junction.
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