Images from the Transport Treasury Collection Compiled by Jeffery Grayer THE Midland and South Western Junction Railway (M&SWJR) was a 61-mile-long cross country railway route which closed to passengers on September 9, 1961. It ran from Andoversford Junction (with the GWR) in the north down through Cirencester, Cricklade, Swindon, Marlborough, Savernake and Ludgershall to Andover on the LSWR main line. The M&SWJR linked the Midlands via Cheltenham with the South Coast and Southampton. After Nationalisation the route was divided between Southern and Western Regions.
Though very little remains of this useful alternative route today other than a single track stretch from Andover for traffic to MOD Ludgershall – the Swindon & Cricklade Railway Society now has a 2.5 mile section of the M&SWJR as a preserved railway. Here the flavour of the old route is re-created.