‘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
Blisworth - Towcester ETS working
Electric train staff equipment had been brought into use between Blisworth and Towcester by 9 August 1910 (date of SMJR minute 451 (TNA file RAIL 674/3)) and presumably the new signal box at Blisworth appeared at the same time. In that this was so…Continue
Started by Richard Maund on Saturday.
Blisworth 1920
SMJ board minute 1474 of 13 April 1921 (TNA file RAIL 674/4) approved that “the following expenditure be charged to Capital” for year 1920: “Blisworth: Signalling and alterations to Permanent Way, Improvements and additional signalling: £800”. In…Continue
Started by Richard Maund on Saturday.
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.
SMJ photos
1964 train register book from Towcester.
I've uploaded a couple of pages from a 1964 train register book i have..
https://www.flickr.com/photos/32297024@N08/24706598791/
What was the status of the lines around Towcester at this time? How far did they go? There is atrain signalled by the code 2-2-3. This suggests it stopped at an intermediate siding. Where was this?
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Dick Bodily on
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Although official closure from Blisworth Ironstone to Woodford West was 3rd February 1964 it is believed that the Woodford West pickup and Byfield ironstone trains stopped running about a month earlier. 2-2-3 code might have involved collecting wagons stored on the former Olney branch. Is this the last page with entries?
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Permalink Reply by Richard Pike on
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The last entry is 8 November 1964. The later the entry the less detailed it is. Some entries have notes like 'materials' and the are other comments like Ravenstone Wood line.
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Richard,
Between the closure and 8th November the track was being progressively lifted westwards from the Blisworth end by PW trains accessing the closed line by reversal at Woodford West Junction. The trains were hauled by Woodford's 8Fs.Typically they would head off from Woodford early morning and return around teatime.
Picture shows one such train passing Blakesley wrong line returning to Woodford. Presumably there is a gap in the records after the official closure before these workings commenced and such workings would have continued after 8th November as track was lifted further west than Towcester.
Dick
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There is not much written about what happened to lines after closure. I'd always imagined Blisworth being the point rails retreated to but Woodford makes sense. It was almost dead itself and lots of spare capacity.
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