‘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"
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
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
Not sure if others are aware of the significant amount of documents held by the National Archives on the SMJ. The collection consists mainly of Directors Minutes etc. There is also a collection of early 20th C timetables, handbills etc. which I have…Continue
Photographed from the top of a signal post on April 4 1966.For those who have not done this, I would seriously not recommend it. I did it twice - here and at Farthingstone station. Each time I felt I was going to die. Even now, 46 years later, I can feel this signal swaying when I look at this photograph. (April 4 1966)
Hi John, really glad you took the risk to climb the post for this photo.It's fantastic! I was born in Byfield in 1960 and lived there for 24 years, ( my mum still does). I have recently been toying with the idea of building a model of Byfield station, still to work out whether 00 finescale or N, so much information. Thankyou
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