Northamptonshire railways, SMJ

Happy 100th Birthday SMJ!

The Stratford Upon Avon & Midland Junction railways 100th birthday

January 1st, 2009 will be the SMJ’s 100th birthday. The Stratford Upon Avon Midland Junction railway (or SMJ) was a rail company which touched Northamptonshire, Warwickshire and a little of Oxfordshire and to find out how it all began we must look back to the mid 1800's - a time of railway revolution. A new line across the county of Northamptonshire was proposed which would run from the county town of Northampton, through to Banbury and on to Cheltenham. Nothing much came of the initial plan until iron ore was discovered in the Northampton area. With the iron ore a direct line to the blast furnaces of South Wales was thought potentially very profitable, independent of the other rail companies such as the London & North Western Railway (L&NWR).

The Bill for the railway was finally passed in July 1863 authorising: “The construction of a railway in the county of Northamptonshire to be called the Northampton & Banbury Junction Railway”. The Northampton & Banbury Junction Railways (N&BJR) board predicted that the connection of two such important towns as Northampton and Banbury would create a most significant line which in time would become a main line of communication. It was also anticipated that all that iron ore would form the bulk of the new lines traffic to South Wales. Work on the N&BJR set on a pace and despite requiring a deep cutting near Tiffield the 4 mile branch line from Blisworth to Towcester opened in May of 1866. With great ambition an act authorising an extension westwards to Chipping Norton and on to Blockley, Gloucestershire was passed, with further plans to extend the line to Ross-on-Wye.

The company briefly changed its name to ‘The Midland Counties & South Wales Junction Railway’, but in a dire financial state and like so many plans of the time, the financial crisis of that year put pay to the plan. The N&BJR then reverted back to its original name - and its original plan. Despite its financial problems, the N&BJR was able, via a further act of parliament, to finish the line to Banbury. The section from Towcester to Cockley Brake junction, ie. a junction with the London & North Western Railway, had two stations at Wappenham and Helmdon. Both of these were opened to goods traffic in August of 1871. On completion, the N&BJR reached neither Northampton nor Banbury over its 'own metals' and had to obtain running powers from Blisworth to Northampton and from Cockley Brake Junction to Banbury.

Whilst all this was going on another company, the East & West Junction Railway (E&WJR) appeared in the area, obtaining its Act in June 1864. The E&WJR plans were also to create a cross-country route for all this new found iron ore in the Northampton area but this time linking Towcester with Stratford-upon-Avon via a 33 mile branch line from a junction at Greens Norton on the N&BJR. With plans made and with what was thought to be sufficient capital been raised, a start was made in 1864 with the usual pomp and ceremony, but the financial crisis of 1866 put pay to the project. The lines promoters had to admit defeat and the plan was abandoned. The company didn't give up though and due to a economic upturn in 1871 a small section of the E&WJR line was opened between Fenny Compton and Kineton. Two years later saw the line open fully, to Stratford in one direction, and to Greens Norton junction at the other. Trains were required to run through to Blisworth over N&BJR 'metals' from Greens Norton Junction.

However, more trouble was brewing. The Great Western Railway (GWR) also had a station at Fenny Compton and were not happy with the prospect of losing mileage payments on goods traffic by accepting Birmingham bound E&WJR traffic at Stratford-upon-Avon; rather than at Fenny Compton. The E&WJR came up with a way round this problem by extending the line westwards from their Stratford Upon Avon terminus to join the Midland Railway’s 'Evesham and Redditch' line at Broom Junction. This, they thought would cut further miles off the GWR route to South Wales from Fenny Compton. All this put a great financial strain on the E&WJR company and after several court cases, the E&WJR had to suspended its passenger service in 1877. For 8 years no passenger trains ran on the line, plunging the company into a desperate financial position. The E&WJR cast its eyes eastwards for a solution towards another connection with the Midland Railway (MR).

The distance between Towcester and the Midland’s line from Northampton to Bedford was only 10 miles, it was hoped a line here could lift the desperate financial position of the E&WJR and allow the company to tap into ironstone deposits at Showsley and Shutlanger and Easton Neston, as well as the limestone deposits at Roade.

The grand aspirations of the new company manifested themselves in the official name given to the new company; on receiving its enabling Act in August of 1879. The new company was to be called “The Easton Neston Mineral and Towcester, Roade and Olney Junction Railway” - fortunately the new company never owned their own locos - imagine how that would have looked with that name written on the side of a tender!

Yet more financial problems meant the company undertook no construction on the new extension for more than eight years. Another Act was needed in 1882 to enable the company to raise further finance; enabling them also to spend money on the E&WJR which they would have had to do if the much hoped for heavy goods traffic off the ‘Midland’ were ever to materialise. As luck would have it the new act facilitated a name change, the company changing their name to “The Stratford-upon-Avon, Towcester and Midland Junction Railway” (ST&MJR).

True to the fashion of the day the celebratory luncheon was lavish - six main courses, plus lobster salad and veal and ham pies! In December 1887 construction began.

The opening of the line brought little financial relief for the company. Though space was optimistically left for doubling the line and land taken at stations to cater for expansion of traffic, the new line ran through sparsely populated countryside. It skirted the villages of Shutlanger, Stoke Bruerne, Roade and Piddington, to Ravenstone Wood Junction on the Northampton and Bedford line, over which running powers were granted to Olney in 1887. The two stations that were built on the branch were large substantial buildings for such a minor branch line - one, Salcey Forest, in the middle of nowhere, about a mile from Piddington, and one at Stoke Bruerne, about halfway between there and Shutlanger. Passenger services started in December 1892, the first trip being a very low key affair. At Salcey Forest one passenger left the train and one joined and at Stoke Bruerne there were eight waiting, the train arriving at Towcester two minutes late. Alas passenger traffic never picked up and proved just as illusive for rest of the life of the branch. Receipts in the first quarter were about £5 against the £500 costs of hiring the trains. The line was to see several special trains, goods traffic and the odd excursion train sometimes called at the two stations but full passenger services were withdrawn on 23rd March 1893 - never to be restored.

In 1897 E&WJR and ST&MJR were to experience yet more financial problems, a receiver was appointed in May of 1898 and something had to be done. The two companies tried to sell out to the Midland, the L&NWR and the Great Central Railway (GCR), none of which were interested, although the arrival of the GCR did bring welcome extra traffic to the two railways. The virtually bankrupt companies set their houses in order with another Act of Parliament in August 1908.

On January the 1st 1909, 'The East & West Junction Railway', 'The Evesham, Redditch and Stratford Railway', and ‘The Stratford-upon-Avon, Towcester and Midland Junction Railway’, amalgamated to form the Stratford Upon Avon & Midland Junction Railway. All the while, the N&BJR had forged an equally troubled, uninspiring, and stubborn existence between Blisworth and Cockley Brake via Towcester but by another act of 1910 it was agreed to amalgamated the N&BJR into the new SMJ.

The new Stratford-Upon-Avon & Midland Junction railway worked hard on its image, styling itself “The Shakespeare Route”. It worked on retaining custom, and generating new. They advertised connections with the Midland at Broom Junction, with the Great Central Railway at Woodford & Hinton and the L&NWR at Roade, Blisworth and Banbury. Through carriages ran to Stratford from Marylebone via Woodford and proved reasonably successful.

The new broom swept clean, the track was thoroughly updated and cleaned up, the coaching stock was overhauled, but goods traffic struggled. The Midland withdrawing its banana traffic, which passed from Avonmouth to St. Pancras via Stratford and Olney, in September of 1912, lost the company revenue in the region of £1,100 per annum. These special trains also carried hardware from Bristol - this was to become a big problem. During the first world war of 1914-1918 the SMJ suffered like many company from staff shortages, the years prior to the war had not been very profitable for the S.M.J. either. The increased war traffic brought shareholders very little. For the larger companies like the L&NWR and the Midland this made difficulties - for the SMJ it was almost the final straw. Although the SMJ’s men had not taken part in the 1911 rail strike (and were given an extra day’s pay as recognition for this) another nail in the SMJ’s coffin was the national strike which came after the war in September 1919. The strike once again hurt the SMJ, they calculated that the awards would cost them an extra £6,600 per year, plus overtime on top. What was to add to the problems was the companies being fobidden by law from increasing both passenger fares and goods rates. Despite this, a tiny dividend was paid in 1921 and half that again in 1922.

The end of the line for the SMJ was in sight and came on 31st December 1922. The SMJ had lasted 14 years before becoming an arm of one of the ‘Big Four’. The London Midland and Scottish (LMS) along with the other three new companies, The Great Western Railway (GWR), The London & North Eastern Railway (LNER), and The Southern Railway were created in 1923 during "The grouping", ‘The big Four’ companies; it was expected, would be better managed and more profitable. There was still to be an element of competition as many towns and cities were served by two or more of these large companies. Many of the former SMJ’s passengers would have noticed little change.

The L.M.S. withdrew several former SMJ locos in an attempt to standardise stock and over the next few years yet another new broom replaced and upgraded track with the view of increased goods traffic and with the hope to finally bring the Olney branch from Towcester into full use, the LMS even diverting some of its own goods traffic along the line.

Ever keen to steal a march on the competitors, in this case the GWR, the LMS thought to tap into Stratford-Upon-Avon’s tourist potential. They bought a hotel in the town and named it the ‘Welcome Hotel’, introducing specials from Blisworth, they even ran evening specials to connect at Blisworth with the line to Stratford from London. In 1932 the LMS offered a unique service when they introduced the ‘Ro-Railer’. Built by Karrier Motors in Huddersfield, the ‘Ro-Railer’ was, on the outside an ordinary road going, single deck bus, but the ‘Ro-Railer’ had a hidden secret. Mounted on the buses axels; flanged wheels, raised and lowered as required allowed the ‘Ro-Railer’ both to run through the streets of Stratford and along the line to Blisworth. The experiment was withdrawn in June of 1932 due to mechanical problems and a lack of passengers.

The plunge into a second World War took another great toll on the railways and on the state of the national economy in general. The need for diversion routes along secondary lines, the former SMJ being remote and near no major towns or cities proved most useful. The lines position near important air fields like Silverstone, and RAF Hinton-in-the-Hedges near Banbury was advantageous too; meaning the former SMJ stations could be used to supply the bases with provisions. Apart from there being a few more people in uniforms at stations, the line saw little change during the war years, save for the platform lamps being painted out and the regular black-outs.

July 1945 saw the end of hostilities in Europe. The elected Labour government promised reform pledging to nationalise the railways and on the stroke of mid-night, December 31st 1947, with whistles from steam locomotives across the land, ‘British Railways’ was born. No more would there be individual rail companies owning and running the railway lines of Britain.

Changes were few and far between. A new logo appeared on some locos, a few new liveries appeared but the former SMJ noticed little had changed. The fact was the former SMJ went into stagnation and very little effort was made to run the line economically. Passenger numbers fell and talk of closures filled the air. July 1951 saw the withdrawal of the Blisworth and Banbury passenger service and April 1952 saw the end of passenger services between Blisworth and Stratford.

Ironically; at the very end of its life, the former SMJ saw a resurgence in goods traffic with 9F’s and ‘Black 5’s’ trudging along the line. With its connections with the GCR, the GWR and the L&NWR the original plan of running goods trains along the line came to fruition. – all be it too late. By the mid 60’s the station at Towcester, the major cross-roads station of the line was without tracks, locked up and abandoned. The unusual, 3 tier signal box, tall to enable the signalmen to see over the footbridge was now itself being demolished.

Although many who worked and rode the line are no longer with us, a short section of the former SMJ survives today, ironically the very section which was first section opened by the East & West Junction railway. This section has been retained running from the main line at the Fenny Compton station to just east of the former SMJ station of Kineton to serve the DSDA Kineton, Marlborough Barracks, an M.O.D. station in Warwickshire. Anybody wanting more can go to my website at www.smjr.info

I end with a quote from J.M. Dunn and his 1952 book ‘The Stratford-Upon-Avon & Midland Junction Railway' from The Oakwood Press; “Such, then, was the S.M.J. Through many tribulations, and under various names, the old East & West, which began its career in 1864 and was in chancery, five years later before a mile of its line was opened, struggled and survived. Its allies were no better off than it was itself; and ‘The Shakespeare route’ looked better on a map than it ever could be in fact. All the same, for part of its life the railway was managed with an enthusiasm that deserved a better fate than it received – long life without prosperity.”

So you might say “Just another railway line that was destined to failure”. Yet there seemed so much to this little railway company and ‘The Stratford-Upon-Avon & Midland Junction Railway’s’ 100th birthday is, I feel worth a mention. Happy birthday SMJ!

I appreciate the many people whose lives touch the line and who have sent me their photos, memories and memorabilia and told me their stories, plus my ever growing collection of memorabilia, photos and bits of paper! A special thanks to Steve Purcell for his expertise on Quarrying in Northamptonshire.