‘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"
I took my grandson to the National Railway Museum on Dec. 30th and noticed two bench seats, of the type found on station platforms until traditional stations were replaced with bus-shelters. Both bear the title " STRATFORD " - I'll try and upload…Continue
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
After uploading the photos in this album, I discovered a neatly drawn table in my rather scrappy notebook for 1964/65 which showed the steam freight workings over the SMJ. I have now added this table to the album as a photo. I cannot recall where this information came from but it could have been from one of the railway magazines of the time. The data more or less ties in with the photos taken in 1965 so I hope that this added information proves useful. The photos of the eastbound 9F-hauled trains certainly contain bulk coal wagons with HOUSE COAL CONCENTRATION on them so this would tend to confirm their origin as being South Wales. Well, it makes sense to me!
If anyone can shed more light on this, I would be pleased to hear from them.