‘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'

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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.

PPhoto Albums 1 Reply

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

Started by Robin Leslie Patrick. Last reply by Dave Hayward Jun 8.

Broom Junction station site for sale 3 Replies

Great opportunity for an SMJ enthusiast perhaps. I'm not sure what you could actually do with this site though!…Continue

Started by Simon Stevens. Last reply by Simon Stevens May 17.

SMJ photos

Loco N° 5. 2-4-0T

Hi everybody

I’m building a OO gauge model of Fenny Compton and Clifford Sidings over here in Belgium.

Quite a strange idea but so be it…

In view of this I plan to transform a RTR Beatie Well Tank into SMJR N° 5 the 2-4-0T and use some etchings for the body I got from Peter Dawson.

The overall dimensions are similar enough to represent an acceptable loco.

The question is:

The Beatie Well Tank has outside cylinders which can be removed
SMJR N°s 5 & 6 were made by Beyer Peacock and had inside cylinders.
All the information I can dig out on Beyer Peacock locos show their 2-4-0 Tanks with outside cylinders similar to the Isle of Man engine.

This seems also to be often the case with the 0-6-0 tender locos.

Were the E&WJR and SMJR locos specials?

I find no trace of their purchase in the manufacturing records of Beyer Peacock.

Thanks in advance for any information.

Best regards

Jack

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Permalink Reply by Simon Dunkley on March 17, 2025 at 18:23

Hi Jack,

The EWJR locos were part of an order for three locos by the Swindon, Marlborough and Andoversford Railway (later part of the MSWJR), to be numbers 8, 9 and 10. The SMA could only afford 1 of the three locos, and the other two remained with the builders, who offered them to the EWJR. They were complete (numer 10 was even photographed in photographic grey ready for delivery to the SMA), needing only fitting with Westinghouse pumps and associated pipes, and the removal of the vacuum ejector.

Drawings of the SMA/MSWJR loco appeared in and old Model Railway News, and also the relevant Mike Barnsley book on the MSWJ.

As they were not ordered by the EWJR, this may explain why you. Can’t find records.

I would say that these locos were quite a bit bigger than the Bettie well-tanks.