‘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"
An improbable, funny, but absolutely true story relating to the Kineton military railway.Long after my Army days I still retained an affection and passing interest in Kineton ammunition depot where I served during the 1960s. Coupled to a 'love' of…Continue
Started by Dave Hayward. Last reply by Dave Hayward Apr 28.
Electric train staff equipment had been brought into use between Blisworth and Towcester by 9 August 1910 (date of SMJR minute 451 (TNA file RAIL 674/3)) and presumably the new signal box at Blisworth appeared at the same time. In that this was so…Continue
SMJ board minute 1474 of 13 April 1921 (TNA file RAIL 674/4) approved that “the following expenditure be charged to Capital” for year 1920: “Blisworth: Signalling and alterations to Permanent Way, Improvements and additional signalling: £800”. In…Continue
Did this railway (as opposed to the East & West Junction Railway) go into receivership - if so, when. And when did it come out of receivership?Continue
Started by Richard Maund. Last reply by Richard Maund Feb 11.
Sunday 1st May 2016 marks the 150th anniversary of the opening of Towcester Station on the Northampton to Banbury Railway, which occurred without any reportage in the local papers. The contractor building the railway was W Shrimpton, who employed hundreds of navvies and was probably unusually liberal in employing a ‘missionary’ to attend to the men’s spiritual needs. Those attending the missionary’s Sunday services met in the newly constructed Towcester Station House but this soon became too small to accommodate all who wanted to attend. So with the help from some other gentleman, Shrimpton had a wooden chapel erected (probably somewhere near the present Tesco store) to house over 200 people. For the opening of the chapel on Friday 22nd December 1865 he arranged for a large tent to be erected next to the new chapel and invited all those working on the line together with their wives children to an evening tea there. Towcester people were also invited and swelled the numbers attending to over 1000 persons. The inside had been decorated with Chinese lanterns, flags, evergreens and texts from the scriptures. more