The Midland and South Western Junction Railway (M&SWJR) was an independent railway built to form a north–south link between the Midland Railway and the London and South Western Railway in England, allowing the Midland and other companies' trains to reach the port of Southampton. The M&SWJR was formed in 1884 from the amalgamation of the Swindon, Marlborough and Andover Railway and the Swindon and Cheltenham Extension Railway. The line was absorbed by the Great Western Railway at the 1923 grouping of the railways, and became part of British Railways on nationalisation in 1948. The railway closed to passengers in 1961, and to goods between 1964 and 1970. A small part of it has been reopened as the heritage Swindon and Cricklade Railway.
First proposals By 1845 the Great Western Railway (GWR) had established itself as the dominant railway company controlling west to east trunk routes from Bristol and the West of England to London. The GWR was a broad gauge railway and it sought to monopolise the area it occupied, excluding competing railways. A number of schemes had been proposed to build a north-south railway route, particularly one connecting the manufacturing districts of the West Midlands and Lancashire to Southampton and the Channel Ports. Such a railway would inevitably cut through the territory – at first simply occupied by the west to east Bristol line – which the GWR considered to be its own.
As early as 1846 a Manchester and Southampton Railway was proposed; it would have been long, running from north of Cheltenham to Southampton, passing to the east of Swindon and near Marlborough. It would have cost £1.5 million to build. It was defeated in the House of Lords by a narrow margin after the GWR had given an undertaking to lay narrow gauge rails on its line between Oxford and Basingstoke, facilitating north-south connections by that route.
The ambition of an independent through railway from north to south was eventually reduced to serving local communities, and the first line on the corridor envisaged was the Andover and Redbridge Railway, which was incorporated on 12 July 1858. Redbridge was on the London and South Western Railway (LSWR) a short distance west of Southampton, an important port. The LSWR quickly acquired the young company (in 1863) and opened the line on 6 March 1865.
A broad gauge line at Marlborough The Berks and Hants Extension Railway (B&HER), an extension of the earlier Berks and Hants Railway, opened on 11 November 1862. A member of the GWR family of railways, it was built on the broad gauge and ran broadly west to east between Devizes and Hungerford, passing south of the important market town of Marlborough and forming another barrier to north-south connections.
During construction, Marlborough businessmen promoted an independent branch line from the , and it was authorised by the Marlborough Railway Act 1861 (24 & 25 Vict. c. clxvii) on 22 July 1861; it was to be called the Marlborough Railway and form a junction with the at Savernake. The line opened on 15 April 1864. Trains departed from a new platform at Savernake, to make the journey of to a station which later became Marlborough High Level, with no intermediate stations.
This line too was worked by the , and the and the Marlborough Railway were absorbed by the Great Western Railway in 1886; the Marlborough Railway was purchased for £9,250 in cash. Both lines were converted to in 1874.E T MacDermot, History of the Great Western Railway, volume II, published by the Great Western Railway Company, London, 1931
Swindon, Marlborough and Andover Railway
Early efforts
Business interests at Swindon and Marlborough pressed to promote a north-south connection, and a Swindon, Marlborough, Southampton and New Forest Railway was promoted, soon renamed the Swindon, Marlborough and Andover Railway (SM&AR). With considerable support at Marlborough and from the LSWR, and perhaps surprising support from the Marlborough Railway and the GWR, the (36 & 37 Vict. c. cxciv) which authorised the scheme received royal assent on 21 July 1873, with share capital of £375,000 and borrowing powers of £125,000. The Marlborough Railway was authorised to subscribe up to £25,000 in addition, and improvements to their railway could be carried out.
The line was to start a short distance east of the GWR Swindon station, curving sharply to the south and passing through a tunnel south of Hunt Street, and run to a joint Marlborough station, possibly an enlargement of the existing station; there would be an end-on connection with the Marlborough Railway. Running powers were granted over the Marlborough Railway and a short distance of the adjacent main line of the Berks and Hants Extension Railway, from Savernake to Wolfhall Junction. From the junction a second section of the SM&AR was to run southwards to join the London and South Western Railway (LSWR) at Andover. The final section to Andover was to run adjacent to the LSWR main line, but a connection to it there at the point of geographical junction was prohibited.The location was called Abbots Ann, later Red Post or sometimes Red Posts. The LSWR was to build the third line over that section, and lease it to the SM&AR.
When tenders for the construction were invited at the end of 1874, only one was received, for . Efforts were made to obtain competing tenders, and eventually a contract was let to William Wright on 25 June 1875. However faulty work in the tunnel at Swindon soon led to a collapse of the workings there, and shortly to the failure of the contractor in December 1875. The company continued work directly but ran out of money and work ceased in October 1876. It seemed that the scheme was to be abandoned, but authority for an extension of time was obtained in the (41 & 42 Vict. c. xiii) in July 1878
Swindon to Marlborough
The company realised that there was no hope of raising the necessary capital to continue, and planned an altered route with easier engineering. Deviations were authorised by the (42 & 43 Vict. c. xci) on 3 July 1879; these reduced the earthworks and avoided the Swindon tunnel, at the expense of more and steeper gradients. The route southwards from Swindon was now to curve round the west of the hill on which the Old Town stands, leaving the GWR main line at Rushey Platt, west of the Swindon GWR station. There was also a deviation at Marlborough to avoid the need for a viaduct, but this had the effect of bringing the line into the Marlborough Railway somewhat south of its station, so that the SM&AR had to provide its own station there, duplicating the Marlborough Railway station. The deviations amounted to about out of the between Swindon and Marlborough.
In September 1879 work was resumed by Watson, Smith & Watson "on terms guaranteeing interest payments to shareholders at 5 per cent per annum until the line was open for traffic". That firm's financial strength was considered controversial, and it is not clear how the contractor was to be remunerated, but preference dividends were authorised by an act of Parliament, the (43 & 44 Vict. c. xviii), on 29 June 1880. Construction now proceeded more rapidly, and the section from Swindon (SM&AR station, later Swindon Town) to Marlborough (SM&A station) was opened formally on 26 July 1881 and to the public on 27 July 1881. There were intermediate stations at Chiseldon and Ogbourne.
An accident occurred on 11 July 1881 under trial running conditions at Chiseldon, when a guard slipped from the footboard of a train and his foot was crushed by the wheel of his train.
No terms for access to Swindon GWR station had been set, and the company now negotiated with the GWR; the GWR was hostile, seeing the SM&AR as facilitating a potential north–south penetrating route, and the terms went to arbitration; this awarded considerably reduced charges compared with the GWR's initial demands: £3,900 per annum for the use of Swindon GWR station, plus other charges. A passenger service between the SM&AR and GWR stations at Swindon was started by the SM&AR on 6 February 1882.
Marlborough to Andover Construction of the line south of Savernake was making good progress and on 21 March 1882 Major Marindin inspected the line for opening. The new SM&AR works were found to be satisfactory, but of course opening the line throughout required running from Marlborough to Savernake over the Marlborough Railway. It had opened in 1864 as a single line broad gauge branch. Never intended as a through line, it was steeply graded and sharply curved, and worked by wooden train staff and ticket, on the time interval system without block telegraph. At Savernake it joined the Berks and Hants Extension Railway, which was itself a single line, and the Savernake station had "only one through platform and very rudimentary signalling equipment". Passenger trains crossed there by reversing from the platform into the loop. Marindin said it was "not fit for the existing traffic, and still less for the additional traffic that would pass through it upon the opening of the additional lines".Quoted in Sands (1959), page 9
The SM&AR was therefore refused permission to open until the GWR (effectively the managing company for the B&HER and the Marlborough Railway) improved the arrangements at Savernake, in particular providing interlocking and the signalling system on the branch. This required an enabling act, the (45 & 46 Vict. c. cxcv).
At this time the southern section of the SM&AR was ready, and the company had engaged and trained staff to work the line, so it started a train service from its Grafton station to Andover, beginning on 1 May 1882 and using a temporary connection at the point of geographical junction near Andover (later to be called Red Post Junction). Permanent use of such a connection was prohibited, and the third track from there to Andover, for the use of SM&AR trains, came into use on 20 November 1882. Intermediate stations were at Collingbourne, Ludgershall and Weyhill.
The GWR was not hastening to make the Marlborough line ready for the intruder, and the financial responsibility for the improvement works went to arbitration; meanwhile the officials of the SM&AR, responsible for two separated sections of railway, had to acquire a horse and trap for managerial visits to their line. The works were finalised on 30 January 1883, so finally the SM&AR was able to operate throughout from Swindon to Andover, from 5 February 1883. Its own route ran from Rushey Platt (near Swindon) to Marlborough Junction () and Wolfhall Junction (east of Savernake on the B&HER) to Red Post Junction (west of Andover, ). All was single track except the connecting curve at Rushey Platt and a short section at Marlborough. The capital expenditure had been over £600,000.
Swindon and Cheltenham Extension Railway
The original aspiration had been to link the Midland Railway with the south coast: reaching Swindon was not enough. On 18 July 1881 an act of Parliament, the (44 & 45 Vict. c. cxlvi), was obtained to incorporate a "nominally independent company", the Swindon and Cheltenham Extension Railway (S&CER). It was to build from Rushey Platt to Andoversford, a little to the east of Cheltenham, on the recently opened Banbury and Cheltenham Direct Railway, a member of the GWR group of affiliates. This would give the S&CER access to Cheltenham. The act authorised some branches (never built), and was secured in the face of GWR opposition, due to the S&CER's allegiance to the SM&AR and through it to the LSWR.
Obtaining the act had cost the company dear in parliamentary expenses, but it instructed Watson, Smith and Watson to proceed with construction; it appears that little supervision of the contractor was exercised, however. Moreover, the GWR continued its obstructive tactics, now in connection with the bridge for the S&CER to cross the GWR main line at Rushey Platt.