The Midland & South Western Junction Railway was one of several independent cross-country lines that ran north-south through southern England. It diverged from the GWR’s Cheltenham to the Banbury line at Andoversford to pass through the very heart of the Great Western at Swindon, where it had its own station, Swindon Town. From there it went south through Marlborough to reach Andover where it had access to Southampton through an arrangement with the London & South Western Railway.
At grouping the MSWJR fell into the hands of the GWR who had never been enamoured by this impudent intruder into its territory and little was done by the new owners to invest in the system or develop traffic flows on what should have been a useful north-south route.
This volume explores the MSWJ after it finally closed as a through line in 1961 including coverage of freight traffic on the remaining isolated sections such as specials to Ludgershall and the Cirencester works trains.
Part 1 From Opening to Decline, (ISBN 9781909328716) provides a short history of the line and focuses on the decades leading up to closure as a through route in 1961 and includes a wealth of unpublished colour photos.
