‘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

Model Railways

HiI'm selling my collection of SMJR related 00 gauge modelsIf of interest for any of you please contact me by mail atjfreuville@gmail.comand I will send you the list and photosKind regardsJackContinue

Started by Jack Freuville Feb 23.

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 Nov 14, 2025.

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, 2025.

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, 2025.

SMJ photos

Ravenstone Wood Junction to Towcester section

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.

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Ian Lyman on October 13, 2012 at 19:00

I'm sure I've input this before...I fetched the ashes from the burnt out remains of the box and fellow RCTS member John Mawby made the casket. I visited the box many times and have rescued a number of Train Registers and also one of the box nameboards which goes with one of the boxboards I rescued from Towcester. I recovered both ends by climbing a ladder and unscrewing the boards and climbing back down - no fun as all the metal had been removed and the men were about to torch the wooden frame which they also did to Ravenstone Wood Jct. box. There is film at RWJct and down the branch to Roade in my Telerail DVD.

Re the 11.11.09 query - the trains came up from Northampton Far Cotton. Northampton power, men and guard booked on daily around 5.30am and were relieved at around 1.00pm by another engine, men and guard. This was the case when the track was lifted between Roade and Towcester and later Ravenstone Wood Jct. to Roade. As far as I know only Northampton men and guards signed the SMJ east of Woodford West Jct. as the only train that passed over the branch was the 8.30am Northampton - Woodford and back, Mondays to Saturdays and it was only worked by Northampton men. I cadged many trips on this train and it was a really super day out with our snap and strong (condensed milk) tea consumed in Byfield box before a gentle ride back through some very remote countryside...and almost always you could take the regulator as far as Blisworth.!