‘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
Passenger Trains connected to the SMJ
Following on from the previous discussion about WD passenger trains on the SMJ during the 1940s; it must be said that passenger trains ran on metals connected to the SMJ until the mid 1960s. There was a passenger service from the nearest point to…Continue
Started by Dave Hayward on Tuesday.
Wartime passenger trains from Burton Dassett 3 Replies
Arthur Jordan in his book, The Stratford Upon Avon and Midland Junction Railway - The Shakespeare Route at pp 82 mentions a WW2 late night special from Stratford on Avon to Burton Dassett for soldiers at the CAD. I would envisage that this did not…Continue
Started by Dave Hayward. Last reply by Dave Hayward on Tuesday.
PPhoto Albums 1 Reply
AndyAbout two years ago I ended up with some railway matter from a Bill Kendall who had been a Signalman on SMJ ending his railway career at Northampton No 1. I worked with him when I was working in Rugby PSB, I also covered the signa?l boxes at…Continue
Started by Robin Leslie Patrick. Last reply by Dave Hayward Jun 8.
Broom Junction station site for sale 3 Replies
Great opportunity for an SMJ enthusiast perhaps. I'm not sure what you could actually do with this site though!…Continue
Started by Simon Stevens. Last reply by Simon Stevens May 17.
SMJ photos
nicknames
It has been a VERY long time since I had the chance to read something yu write. What a great surprise - but then I recalled that you run a great big chunk of history at Stoke Bruerne. It was a great pleasure to read you essay on nicknames. May-be M-ways do have nick-names - I've never heard of one but perhaps the emergency service discussion group could enlighten us? Is there a Police/Fire/Ambulance site - one for each county perhaps? Well - you never know.
Running 'C' headcode vacums from Bristol to London ove the SMJ always seemed a grand idea. But does anyone knw what happened at Broom Junction? Did the railway have another engine waiting there to take over because otherwise there would have been a lot of mils running tender first.
Another name for the DN&S, at Didcot at any rate was 'The Gold Coast'. That has reberverations with The Klondyke'. Gold - Maybe this refers to large amounts of overtime earned whilst working across it??
Mention of Didcot - The Up Goods Loop from Didcot East Jc to Moreton Cutting was always called 'The Gully' .
And of course there were dozens of goods trains with nicknames - and some passenger. I recall the 9.25 p.m Paddington was known as 'Paddy's Mail in our part and I suppose all along its route. 'The 'Down Owl' was another late night train - perhaps (can't recall properly) the 10.30 p.m Paddington - the Penzance sleeper. By contrast we had 'The Up Waker' which was an overnight Penzance - Paddington sleeper via Bristol that came through ours around 5.45 a.m. So that name was probably a fairly local one.
But this ain't SMJ. Sorry.
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