‘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
Not been online for a while, been modelling but more importantly for this forum, preparing some drawings of the small SMJ (ex E&W) Station buildings at Byfield, Morton Pinkney and Blakesley. These have been scaled form photos in the Jan, Feb and March editions of Railway Bylines magazine.
There does seem to be a lack of photos of the platform side of these buildings. I am particuarly keen to find out what was under the small platform canopies at these three almost identical stations. I would be interested to see a view of the platform face of these stations and also the non-toilet end of the buildings.
There was no door on the road side of these stations so the entry doors must be on the platform sides but was there also a window? Did passengers have to walk onto the platform to enter the building?
I have a scanner and would be happy to upload my (albeit amateurish) scale drawings if there was interest.
I'll leave them as they are for now a deep brown. I'll keep the model I build pre-war because it's the most interesting period (apart from the SMJ days of course!) I have noted the engineering brick on the corner of the gents in the Bylines article. I think that must be a late addition because as you say it's not obvious on LMS period pictures nor is it apparent at Morton, Byfield or Ettington. The modesty wall surrounding the Gents door will be modelled when the building is slotted into place on the platform. I'll have to buy fire buckets though.......
The posterboards seem to have come and gone over time and I understand that railway companies paid for advertising space on other railway stations so I suppose it's not suprising that the Midland and Great Central should have boards at Blakesley. I think GWR Boards might be one step too far though!