‘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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PPhoto Albums

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 on Sunday.

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 on Sunday.

National Archives, Donation and Kineton Photograph

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

Started by Dave Hayward Apr 26.

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.

SMJ photos

3 New Albums from the Sixties

At last! I have now finally sorted out my thousands of 35mm slides, located the remaining SMJ ones, scanned the better/more interesting photos and put them into three new Albums: SMJ Steam in the Sixties, HCRS Steam Special 7-3-1965 and SMJ Stations & Structures in the Sixties.

I must apologise for the quality of many of these of these pictures as they were taken in winter with slow film speeds, lenses that were not at their best wide open and poor weather! However, Photoshop can hide a thousand sins and they are better than no pictures at all......

Please let me know if you spot any errors in the captions or have any useful additional information or if you would like more information from me.

Cheers,

John

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Dave Hayward on November 22, 2011 at 9:12

John

Your series of photographs really took me back to the sixties.

I was stationed at CAD Kineton from JAn 62 to Feb 64 and then again from Dec 66 to May 69. I can recollect the freights on the SMJ passing through all the time during my first tour but all had gone when I came back.

Two photographs of particular interest to me is that of Burton Dassett YArd, this must be rarity to actually have a photo of that yard. I remember happy days spent running around the seventy miles of track in the depot on old Bill's Wickham car during my first stay there. The other photo that takes me back to an even earlier stage of my life is the photo of the locos on the railtour. A Q1 in Northamptonshire must have been a real rarity, I remember these back in the fifties at my home town of Chichester in West Sussex.

Thanks

Dave Hayward

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Permalink Reply by John Cosford on November 23, 2011 at 16:07

Hi Dave,

Thanks for the info on CAD Kineton/Burton Dassett. When my mates and I visited the area in the early sixties, the depot did not appear on the OS map nor was it signposted from any of the roads that we travelled. As a result we never knew that the place existed until much much later!

When you were there between 62 and 64, were they still using steam locos within the depot? I ask only because I raised the question in an earlier discussion and no-one seemed to have any definitive information. I was actually trying to find out where the depot's steam locos went when they need a heavy overhaul as I assume that could not be done on site.

As for the Q1 loco, I only have one other photo of a Q1 which was taken on the line between Redhill and Guildford. Although there were 40 in the class, I think they must have been very shy (because they were so ugly) and so we hardly ever saw one on our forays into Southern Region territory! Putting one on the HCRS special at least gave us the opportunity to see, hear and ride behind one.....