Ravenstone Wood Junction to Towcester section

[David Blagrove]

This section still had rails for some years after closure and was used for storing redundant open wagons. These were of course cleared out before the track was lifted and a friend of mine, Tony Warwick, then a fireman based at Northampton (Far Cotton Sheds), made at least one trip from the Bedford line towards Towcester collecting the wagons c1965. After the wagons were stationed there it became the practice in fine weather for some of the older boys from Roade Secondary School to make there way across a couple of fields that separated the line from the School fields and make use of one of the wagons as a private smoking room during the lunch break. One day somebody released the brakes on the wagon in which the lads were "faggin' it" and they trundled off down the gradient towards the main line bridge, hitting another stationary rake with considerable force and scaring the lads out of their wits.
The M1 bridge was never, so far as I am aware, ever used by revenue-earning trains. The rails through Stoke Bruerne station were certainly removed by August 1965, although I found several ex-LNWR chairs lying in a heap by the Boat Horse road bridge a year later. some of these were used as ballast in a canal boat and one, cast-marked L&NWR 1909 I used for many years as a door stop. I believe these were in fact recycled main-line chairs used by the LMS during the 1930s when the whole line from Ravenstone to Towcester was relaid.

[Barry Taylor]

I cycled over to near Piddington on Sunday 30th August 1964 and found 8F 48662 surrounded by undergrowth on a track lifting train - so this helps to date things, and the wagons must have been removed by then.
Also I went to Stoke Bruerne on 21/7/1964 and the rails were still in place then so that narrows it down a bit further on that section

[David Blagrove]

Since I will be seeing ex-fireman Tony Warwick this evening, I will ask him if he can recall the engine that he was on when the wagons were collected.

[Dick Bodily]

David

Did your friend Tony Warwick ever fire on SMJ trains from Blisworth towards Stratford? If he did, does he have any memories of such work that could be put onto this website?

On a completely different subject I've just finished reading your 'Bread Upon The Waters'. Fantastic book! It really brings it all to life for someone like myself who had no experience of the canals other than watching the working boats go past Banbury Lane and sometimes I am ashamed to say as a child joining in the mithering of the boat people. I recognised the picture of George as someone who used to pass by, we certainly would not have annoyed him more than once! I especially liked the chapter about the great freeze up as as I experienced this at first hand. The village I lived in then ( Blakesley) was completely cut off for nearly two weeks. All the men who worked outside the village were sworn in as temporary council workers for the parish council and spent their days trying to cut a passage through the deep drifts on the Maidford Road. I didn't go to school for this time as the road to Towcester was blocked and worked on a large chicken farm breaking ice all day on the water troughs. It was like painting the Forth bridge as soon as I had finished it was time to start breaking the ice again. Character building stuff!

Dick

[David Blagrove]

Further to my comments last night, I duly spoke to Tony, who told me that the line was used AFTER the wagons were removed to store condemned carriages brought via Northampton and Ravenstone Wood Jnc. The reason that the movement was not via Blisworth and Towcester was that the bridge across the A43 near Easton Neston was removed. He thinks these carriages eventually went to Wolverton for scrapping. The wagons were all opens that had been used in the coal trade and when they were placed on the line most of them had coal residue in them. When they were removed they had all been swept clean by locals, even those some long distance from habitation! The train crew had to spend a long time walking the lenth of the train shutting the side doors before they could move off. Tony was not able to recall the numbers of the engines that he worked on along the line, but he says that they were all 4F 0-6-0s.

Thank you Dick for your kind comments about "Bread Upon the Waters". I believe Tony did occasionally work across the line towards Woodford, but he only joined BR in 1960 as a cleaner at Northampton and did not get out on the road much before 1962. I will certainly ask him next time I see him.

David

[Andy Thompson]

David. We value your input and wisdom to the website. I must come and look you up next time I'm in the area - we never did get to meet after the history talk in Towcester whenever it was!

Andy

[Barry Taylor]

I've just loaded a photo of a train at Hardingstone Junction east of Northampton, where the Wellingboro and Bedford branches diverge. It is a train of condemned stock coming from storage on the SMJ near Quinton- June 1960 ( the photographer was not noted for accurate record keeping so I have to assume that this is correct!) locos are 48151 and 48090. It must have needed the two 8F's to drag this lot off the rusty SMJ and over the alps back to Northampton. I have seen a similar shot at Blisworth (not the same locos) - its in the Kidderminster museum collection - so it seesm to confirm that the destinatio might well have been Wolverton Works

[Dick Bodily]

Does anyone know where the tracklifting trains came from that took up the section of track from Ravenstone towards Roade? I know that the section of the SMJ from Woodford West to Blisworth Ironstone sidings was removed westwards by trains using Woodford 8Fs as shown in the little picture immediately to the left of this comment. Was the section from Towcester towards Roade also removed to Woodford at the same time or had it already been lifted?

Dick

[Robin Cullup]

The section between Ravenstone Wood Jcn and Towcester is one piece of line that I find fascinating - perhaps because it is such a long section of single line going through "the middle of nowhere". In a 1937 WTT I see that all the trains over this section ran during the hours od darkness, mainly trains fro Avonmouth to St Pancras. By the 1950s trains were running during the day, but photographs of this section are difficult to find - mainly because so few trains used it. I remember trains rattling over the "Tin Bridge" at Roade in the middle 1950s - almost always hauled by "4F" 0-6-0s. The locals told us that these were from Gloucester shed - but I suspect most were from Bedford (15D) or Northampton (2E). I have seen a photograph of a light "4F" waiting to come off the SMJ at Ravenstone Wood taken on a box camera in the 1950s - unfortunately not in my collection.
I believe that the last through trains over this section ran in mid-April 1958, the SLS Journal (August 1958) reports that:
"The section between Towcester and Ravenstone Wood Junc. was temporarily closed from mid-May whilst the new trunk road was to be built across the line; at 8.30 am on Saturday 28th June, the tablet for the section was withdrawn from the Towcester signalbox and the section formally closed". The report goes on to say that this is the beginning of the end for the SMJR, and only the section between Byfield (for Woodford) and Stratford (for GW connection) would appear to be safe from closure. I have been told that the M1 bridge was built because BR envisaged a future use for the line, although the SLS Journal report refutes this and states that the "new trunk road" will be built through the site of the line.
As we all know the line did not re-open but was used for the storage of wagons and redundant coaching stock. By October 1958 "The Railway Observer" reported that "During the first two weeks of August, over 1000 surplus wagons were placed on the eastern end of the Ravenstone Wood - Towcester section, extending over the bridge over the main line". The "R.O." reports in May 1960 that "Track on the Ravenstone Wood - Towcester section is still intact, and the part from the M1 road bridge to Ravenstone Wood is occupied by about 300 coaches awaiting scrap, mostly Wolverton products, including a recessed end-door centre-corridor 12-wheeler M816, though there a few examples of CLC and Midland stock. The wagons from the western half of the line were removed earlier this year, but the line remains derelict".
By September 1960 the "R.O." reports "Buffer stops have been placed in position on the Ravenstone Wood - Towcester section, near the bridge over the main line at Roade. Indications are that the bridge is to be removed".Subsequently it was reported that dismantling of the girder bridge commenced on August 22nd (1960).
A year later in September 1961 the "R.O." reported that a steady clearance had been made of the redundant coaching stock and on 14th May (1961) only about a dozen remained, and a few days later even these were removed. However long lines of idle wagons now occupy the sections between M1 and Salcey, and between Towcester and the dismantled bridge at Roade. This piece also comments that Towcester remains the same with six freights a day including a mine train from Blisworth. In addition it states that " The western end of the SMJ is exceptionally busy with Banbury traffic between Fenny Compton and Stratford and thence via the new curve to Honeybourne and South Wales, with up to 40 trains a day".
In September 1962 apart from a rake of bolsters nothing is on the eastern section but west of the LNW main line "the track is fully occupied with over 1200 idle wagons".
By 1963 the track on the eastern end was black from disuse but "9Fs" have penetrated part of this line intermittently to deal with stored rolling stock. The "R.O." for September 1964 has a short piece "Lifting of track on the long-closed section between Roade and Towcester is now in progress, but from Roade to Ravenstone Wood is still rusty and overgrown".
So this is the sorry tale of this end of the SMJ - a through route with an interesting history, running through countryside that is still remote today.

[Andy Thompson]

Gents. Do we need to start re-writing the Olney branch section of the site (http://thesmjr.ning.com/page/stoke-bruerne)??

Some of this information will fit nicely somewhere in there surely

Andy

[David Blagrove]

It strikes me that such a rewrite is essential, since an awful lot of what has been written about the latter days of the Olney line is based on hearsay. References to written sources and dates are essential for historians of the future. Mind you, I'm not volunteering, I've rather a lot on my plate at the moment - non-railway stuff!

Andy Thompson said:

Gents. Do we need to start re-writing the Olney branch section of the site (http://thesmjr.ning.com/page/stoke-bruerne)??

Some of this information will fit nicely somewhere in there surely

Andy

[Andy Thompson]

We just need a willing vicitim (er... I mean volunteer!) David. What of this getting together of us SMJ lot and your canal bods then David
Andy

David Blagrove said:

It strikes me that such a rewrite is essential, since an awful lot of what has been written about the latter days of the Olney line is based on hearsay. References to written sources and dates are essential for historians of the future. Mind you, I'm not volunteering, I've rather a lot on my plate at the moment - non-railway stuff!

Andy Thompson said:

Gents. Do we need to start re-writing the Olney branch section of the site (http://thesmjr.ning.com/page/stoke-bruerne)??

Some of this information will fit nicely somewhere in there surely

Andy

[Peter Fleming]

I remember biking to Ravenstone Wood Junction one dark December afternoon right at the end of 1963 (I think). There was a road from Horton which deteriorated into an unmade track to the railway. I took a picture but, with very simple camera, it didn't really come out. I'm pretty sure that there were no wagons stored there at the time (but then they would be used in winter, storage of coal wagons was more of a summer thing).

In 1964 I used to bike along the old A50 near Horton and Salcey Forest crossing the line. I think it was lifted that summer.

Incidentally (old story I know) some ashes from the signalbox at the junction were obtained and are now the "ashes" competed for each year in a quiz between the Northampton branch of the RCTS and the Bedford branch of the LCGB.

Peter