‘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"
.
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 Jun 16.
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 Jun 16.
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
Paint colours
The only decent colour pictures I have seen indicate a pale cream with dark brown contrasts and were taken post passenger closure.
Given that there are B&W photographs from operational times which clearly show that LMS totem signboards were fitted, my supposition is that the stations may have been repainted in the late 1930s into the LMS post 1936 cream + portland stone + brown or green or red (brown option)m and until that repainting probably inherited their pre-grouping paintwork. From that point on I suspect they retained their LMS paintwork.
My question really is whether anyone has any evidence that either confirms my suppositions, or contradicts them? Is there anything that describes what would have been inherited?
Views: 149
Replies to This Discussion
-
Permalink Reply by Simon Dunkley on
-
From photos taken in pre-grouping days, I have worked in the past on the assumption that they used the same limited weather-resistant palette as everyone else, and twenty years ago when building a small layout, I used brown and yellow with white window frames. This "felt" right, certainly for SMJ days. Early photos of Byfield signal box suggest a greater use of paler shades.
Follow this link: http://www.heritage-explorer.co.uk/file/he/content/upload/database/...
Or better still, this one: http://viewfinder.english-heritage.org.uk/gallery/450/BB9/BB98_0628...
Even if we find written evidence, we need to be careful - the are contemporaneous references to the darker colour used on the coaches being brown (per GWR), red (per Midland) or purple (per LNWR)!
I realise that this is not totally helpful, but unless someone has copies of the original orders, we may never be sure.
© 2026 Created by Andy Thompson.
Powered by
