‘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"

Welcome to
The SMJ Society

Or sign in with:

SMJ Forum

BLAKESLEY and an SMJ stamp

This item has come up in an auction recently and is a glimpse of the practice of carrying mail by train. Apart from the SMJ…Continue

Started by Graham Ward on Friday.

Further about Ravenstone Wood Junction 1 Reply

Firstly a belated thanks to Barry for his excellent research that has returned these signal lever plates to their rightful home! [Perhaps their place of residence on the website needs changing!] Apologies for starting s new Forum discussion on this…Continue

Started by Dave Hayward. Last reply by Barry Taylor Oct 23.

Ravenstone Wood Junction Signal Box-an anomaly 3 Replies

Closely examining the brass lever plates shown in the Olney Line entry in the Index Section of this website I noticed a significant anomaly. Some of the above plates, specifically 1, 10, 11, 12, 25, 32, 34. refer to platforms, loading dock, goods…Continue

Started by Dave Hayward. Last reply by Barry Taylor Oct 9.

SMJ keys from the Towcester area 1 Reply

I have been contacted by someone who wishes to dispose of two sets of SMJ-related keys from the Towcester area, but does not want to put personal email or other details on this website. They have been given to him by the estate manager at Easton…Continue

Started by Barry Taylor. Last reply by Barry Taylor Sep 4.

SMJ photos

EWJR Portland Cement Wagon

Hello All,

I found this item on ebay, although it's a model, what I'd like to know is, was it actually based on the real thing? As you can see it has the initials EWJR and return empty to Ettington, which all fits in with the real world.

It was listed as a Carette/Bassett-Lowke model of 1909. Carette were a German firm based in Nuremburg and did make coaches for Bassett-Lowke and, although they probably took the date of 1909 from the plate on the model, it also fits in on the time line.

For your info it was sold for £107!

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Jim Goodman on April 18, 2021 at 9:35

Hi Andrew,

Many thanks for your informative reply. I would certainly like to get hold of a copy of that copy of 'Model Engineer' you don't happen to know the date of it do you? Also I would be very interested to see a copy of the photo of the wagon used at Greaves Sinding, any chance of uploading it onto this thread?