STRATFORD MIDLAND RAILWAY JUNCTION Steam Rail History NEW Company Rolling Stock

The Stratford-upon-Avon & Midland Junction Railway may only have existed as an independent company for a brief period of fourteen years from 1909 to 1923 but its name has lived on across a swathe of south Midlands countryside, where it is still remembered as the \u2018SMJ\u2019. The line had its origins in the \u2018second railway mania\u2019 of the 1860s when, with Northamptonshire iron ore in great demand by the ironmasters of South Wales, two new railways were proposed to provide a shorter route and reduce transportation costs. The Northampton & Banbury Junction Railway opened from Blisworth to Towcester in 1866 but immediately ran into financial difficulties. It took another six years for their trains to reach Banbury and grand plans for extensions were soon abandoned. The East & West Junction Railway also had designs on connecting Northamptonshire with South Wales but was similarly affected by a lack of finance and, by 1871, had only managed to construct a short leng.