‘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"


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SMJ Forum

Evesham Redditch & Stratford-upon-Avon Junction Railway 8 Replies

Did this railway (as opposed to the East & West Junction Railway) go into receivership - if so, when. And when did it come out of receivership?Continue

Started by Richard Maund. Last reply by Richard Maund Feb 11.

Bidford-on-Avon 5 Replies

Shall we bring this discussion under the proper heading!So far as the OS plan surveyed 1885, published 1886, is concerned: the OS liked - wherever they could  - to have text running parallel to the top and bottom borders. When they came to add the…Continue

Started by Richard Maund. Last reply by Richard Maund Feb 10.

North End and Warwick Road stations? 57 Replies

Some time ago we ahd an interesting and lively discussion on the mystery station at Tiffield, which added quite a lot to our collective knowledge.I've recently been looking closely at two of the other mystery stations- at North End (sometimes…Continue

Started by Barry Taylor. Last reply by Richard Maund Jan 27.

1873 timetable 4 Replies

Page 12 of Arthur Jordan's book features a full page reproduction of the E&WJ public timetable handbill for August 1873. Does anyone know where the original of that handbill is preserved?Incidentally, the timetable itself formed the basis of…Continue

Started by Richard Maund. Last reply by Barry Taylor Jan 25.

SMJ photos

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Folks,

Please accept my apologies if I'm stepping out of line with this, but just recently we have formed the Helmdon and District Heritage Railway Society with the intention of turning Helmdon GCR station into a working museum. Given that the SMJ runs underneath the GCR Viaduct just north of Helmdon GCR station we are looking at including the SMJ as part of Helmdons railway heritage.

I was wondering if anyone knows if there are any colour pictures of the SMJ Company crest which we have so far been unable to find.

I hope posting this is ok but if there are any problems please let me know.

Best wishes

Paul

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Paul

 

Andy here - this whole site was my fault! (although I only got it going, the members have taken over that baton!)

As far as an SMJ crest goes... when I started the first version of the site - www.towcestersrailwayhistory.co.uk I too wanted a crest, it seemed a good central starting point. I too struggled, and have struggled since in finding a definite one.

If there is no-one here that can help - you are stuffed!

By te by, when the museum gets going, I have a bolt (one of those which sat inside those ceramic insulators that held the telegraph wires that seemed to go up and down as we looked out of our carriage windows) borrowed from Helmdon GCR station

 

Andy

Hi Andy,

Thanks for the reply, the SMJ crest does seem to be a problem to find, the original idea of the group was to design a badge a bit like the GWR, with the two crests side by side to show the Railway Heritage of Helmdon, having gone from two stations to none, however, I think this aim is likely not to occur sadly. That said, whilst were basing ourselves at the GCR station site, we value the SMJ legacy just as much as the GCR and any help the SMJ Society can give in this respect would be greatly appreciated.

As re the bolt, as you know the site is extensively overgrown and at the moment we need to have two surveys, ecological and archaeological done prior to any site clearance, once those are complete if there are no problems then it is anyone's guess just what will be found under the jungle, though we believe we have located the Down starter concrete signal post albeit in a wrecked condition probably from when it was taken down.

Paul

Paul

I've been many times and walked across the viaduct. Funny isn't it how they piled up everything that was the station into a heap on what was the island platform! 

There must be tonnes of stuff in the under-growth, happy hunting! Keep us up to date with your progress. The SMJ Society will help in anyway it can

Andy

Andy/ Paul

I just had a thought regarding the logo and did an internet search for this and I came up with the following link: -

http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/redirect/?CATID=11...

This takes you to all the original documentation for the SMJ as a Company. Just go to this link then follow down the page until you see the reference to the SMJ in blue, then follow from there. I have not had time to pursue from there but you might like to. There may be a picture of the logo here in one form or another. Probably also other really helpful info (of course you may have already looked at it.). I am not sure whether you can download all the files or will have to make a trip to Kew.

Hope this helps

Dave Hayward

Slightly of subject but equally relevant to Helmdon, did the Northampton & Banbury or the East and West Junction have coloured crests?

Again off track but possibly of interest... somewhere I've seen a picture of the GC being built near Helmdon Viaduct with a temporary link line to the East & West and some sort of a camp. I'll have a good look through all my GC literature to see if I can find it. There are unfortunately not too clear pictures of Helmdon taken by SWA Newton in Rolt's 'The Making of Railway' but somewhere I've seen better.

Found a picture of Helmdon GC campsite next to E&W line on this website follow link:-

http://thesmjr.ning.com/photo/helmdon-viaduct

I've just tried the links to the national archives but it appears that none of the documents have been digitised and cannot be downloaded. However, there does seem to be some interesting stuff on the SMJ that may not be in any of the books.

Back to the SMJ crest, I believe it's based on the Town Council's coat of arms (19th century one, not the present one). Being a modeller of the SMJ I've looked for the crest but the best I could come up with (in colour) is cross between the bowling club badge and a lapel badge, See attachments.

Regards,

Jim.

Attachments:

Folks,

Thanks for all the replies, There's some very useful and interesting info here. :-)

Andy,

Will happily keep the group up to date on how things progress and we've now located a ballast fork, handle long since gone that was probably used in the destruction of the site. Were lucky with the Island platform being essentially intact albeit in need of repairs and removal of trees and other growth.

Once again to all of you a very big thanks for the info

Best wishes

Paul

As regards the company 'crest', this seems to have been copied from the seal die,a metal stamp that was used with a seal press machine, to stamp official company letters.

Paul, do you have a copy of the G.C.R. seal die ?

HI Nigel, No I'm afraid we haven't

The G.C.R. seal die for comparison with the coat of arms.

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