‘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
magnet fishing
Hi everyone, yesterday I did some magnet fishing with the grandchildren from the SMJ bridge over the river Tove in Towester, to great excitement of the children (and myself) we pulled out three chair screws and a rivet which looked similar in style…Continue
Started by Steve Camm Sep 1.
One of the best preserved SMJ bridges? 1 Reply
I was at Ettington the other day and apart from the good shed, which has had a lot of money spent on it including full glazing, the station building is still there. But my attention went to the station bridge (No. 73?) which is in very good…Continue
Started by John Evans. Last reply by Andy Thompson Aug 30.
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.
SMJ photos
Images of Stratford Old Town by D J Norton
Thanks go to his son, Mark for letting us display the images on the SMJ site. Please take time to visit Mark's site of his Dad's photographs - full of great images at http://www.photobydjnorton.com
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Comment by John Jennings on June 24, 2010 at 11:47
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Not completly swept away Duncan, the space between the platforms is now a road and you are right that the whole area has been redeveloped but it is possible to see a line of the platform edge copings alongside the new road. How they survived is not clear but as they did not intrude into the new road formation the platform was buried with just this line of copings showing!
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Wow! As a Geordie, my first awareness of the SMJ was from a photo in a little book called Discovering Old Railways by F G Cockman (a most knowledgeable enthusiast, now, sadly, gone). In 1977 whilst on a family canal holday, I went wandering across Stratford and found the plaforms still there and some foundations, all quite overgrown. I was but 17 and took some terribel images on my Kodak instamatice. I presume even these have been swept away by a developer
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