Lickey Incline
Encyclopedia
The Lickey Incline is the steepest sustained main-line railway incline in Great Britain
and is situated south of Birmingham
, in England. The climb is a gradient of 1-in-37.7 (2.65%) for a continuous distance of two miles (3.2 km).
Some trains still require the assistance of banking locomotives
to ensure that the train reaches the top.
, surveyed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel
in 1832, who suggested a route well to the east. William Moorsom
was asked to take over, with his remuneration linked to the savings he achieved. At the time, most railways were for difficult terrain between canals, and the use of cable assistance would not have seemed unreasonable. (When Brunel, for instance, first surveyed the GWR
, he planned to use cable assistance in the Box Tunnel
.)
The climb is just over two miles (3.2 km), at an average gradient of 1 in 37.7 (2.65%), between Bromsgrove
and Blackwell
(near Barnt Green
). It is on the railway line between Birmingham
and Gloucester
. The Lickey Incline is the steepest sustained adhesion
-worked gradient on British railways. It climbs into Birmingham from the south over the Bunter geological formation
(one or two exposures are visible from the track-side), and passes about a mile and a half (2.4 km) away from the Lickey Hills
, a well-known local beauty spot.
While many have suggested a gentler route could have been taken, and others have pointed out that there are steeper climbs elsewhere, the Lickey has acquired a mystique all of its own.
s were kept at Bromsgrove shed at the foot of the incline.
The first locomotives were American Norris
4-2-0
s, English manufacturers having declined to supply. The railway acquired 26 of them, of which the last nine were built in England, three by Benjamin Hick and Sons
and six by Nasmyth, Gaskell and Company
The last one was withdrawn in 1856.
Around 1845 a large 0-6-0ST, the Great Britain was built in Bromsgrove Works
.
1377 Class
1Fs, and later 2441 Class
0-6-0Ts were used on the route.
In 1919 the specialised 0-10-0
No. 2290 "Big Bertha"
was introduced to complement the existing 0-6-0Ts. "Big Bertha" was withdrawn in 1956 and replaced by BR standard class 9F
No. 92079, which acquired Big Bertha's headlight.
The LNER Class U1
Garratt was also tried out unsuccessfully in 1949–1950 and again in 1955. On one memorable occasion it was banking a train hauled by LMS Garratt
No. 47972 which stalled on the bank and was rescued by "Big Bertha", resulting in the remarkable formation of a train with no fewer than nineteen driving axles.
The Lickey was transferred to the Western Region
in 1958 and the 3F tanks were replaced by GWR 9400 Class
pannier tanks and 92079 was replaced by classmate 92230, which did not acquire the headlight.
s, working in pairs. Other classes that appeared include Hymeks
. The Hymeks allocated to Lickey banking duties were modified such that the lowest transmission ratio was inoperative, despite the requirement for high tractive effort. The reason for this apparently perverse modification was that the typical speed of a train ascending the bank was approximately that at which the transmission would change between first and second gear, and so it tended to "hunt" between the two. The repeated gear changes under full power caused excessive wear and damage, and the simplest way to avoid the problem was to lock first gear out of action, so the locomotives used only second gear and upwards.
First-generation diesel multiple units were somewhat underpowered and climbed the bank often at little above walking pace, especially as they aged; it was not unknown for them to need to be rescued by a banker. The more powerful modern DMUs negotiate the line with little speed reduction, though there remain rules that at least half of the engines of a Class 220
or 221
must be working in order to ascend. Many current freight trains still need to be banked however and DB Schenker (formerly EWS) uses five dedicated Class 66
Nos 66055–9 to do this.
If the driver decided he needed more bankers than the table provided for him, he would whistle approaching Stoke Works signsl box: a short whistle, pause, and a number of shorts indicating the number of bankers he wanted. (The 0-10-0 counted as two).
He stopped at a marker fifteen yards to the rear of Bromsgrove Station
up home signal, or further up if necessary to clear the crossover by which the bankers moved on to the back of his train. They were not coupled to his train or to each other. When he was in position each banker gave two crow whistles, and the train driver gave two crows in reply. Then he gave one long whistle and all of them opened their regulators.
At the top the bankers kept pushing through Blackwell station
and then shut off in turn, keeping well apart, then crossed over to the down line and closed up ready to return.
To speed things up at busy times, Blackwell down advance starter signal had a calling-on arm which applied only to the bankers accepting them downhill while the station was still occupied.
Descending trains were never accepted unless the line was clear as far as Bromsgrove South, and were strictly required to slow to 10mph at the top and not exceed 27mph on the way down. Loose-coupled freight trains had to stop at the top to apply wagon brakes and not exceed 11mph.
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
and is situated south of Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
, in England. The climb is a gradient of 1-in-37.7 (2.65%) for a continuous distance of two miles (3.2 km).
Some trains still require the assistance of banking locomotives
Bank engine
A bank engine or helper engine or pusher engine is a railway locomotive that temporarily assists a train that requires additional power or traction to climb a grade...
to ensure that the train reaches the top.
History and geography
It is part of the Birmingham and Gloucester RailwayBirmingham and Gloucester Railway
The Birmingham and Gloucester Railway is a railway route linking Birmingham to Gloucester in England.It is one of the world's oldest main line railways and includes the famous Lickey Incline, a dead-straight stretch of track running up the 1-in-37 gradient of the Lickey Ridge...
, surveyed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel
Isambard Kingdom Brunel
Isambard Kingdom Brunel, FRS , was a British civil engineer who built bridges and dockyards including the construction of the first major British railway, the Great Western Railway; a series of steamships, including the first propeller-driven transatlantic steamship; and numerous important bridges...
in 1832, who suggested a route well to the east. William Moorsom
William Moorsom
Captain William Scarth Moorsom was an English soldier and engineer. He was born in Whitby to a military family, being the son of an admiral, and trained at Sandhurst, becoming a captain in the 52nd regiment...
was asked to take over, with his remuneration linked to the savings he achieved. At the time, most railways were for difficult terrain between canals, and the use of cable assistance would not have seemed unreasonable. (When Brunel, for instance, first surveyed the GWR
Great Western Railway
The Great Western Railway was a British railway company that linked London with the south-west and west of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament in 1835 and ran its first trains in 1838...
, he planned to use cable assistance in the Box Tunnel
Box Tunnel
Box Tunnel is a railway tunnel in Western England, between Bath and Chippenham, dug through Box Hill, and is one of the most significant structures on the Great Western Main Line...
.)
The climb is just over two miles (3.2 km), at an average gradient of 1 in 37.7 (2.65%), between Bromsgrove
Bromsgrove
Bromsgrove is a town in Worcestershire, England. The town is about north east of Worcester and south west of Birmingham city centre. It had a population of 29,237 in 2001 with a small ethnic minority and is in Bromsgrove District.- History :Bromsgrove is first documented in the early 9th century...
and Blackwell
Blackwell, Worcestershire
Blackwell is a village located in the North-East of Worcestershire and comes under the jurisdiction of Lickey Parish Council.Nearby large towns include Barnt Green and Bromsgrove. Worcester and Birmingham are also influential...
(near Barnt Green
Barnt Green
Barnt Green is a village and civil parish in the Bromsgrove District of Worcestershire, England, located immediately south of Birmingham, with a population at the 2001 census of 1,733.-Origins:...
). It is on the railway line between Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
and Gloucester
Gloucester
Gloucester is a city, district and county town of Gloucestershire in the South West region of England. Gloucester lies close to the Welsh border, and on the River Severn, approximately north-east of Bristol, and south-southwest of Birmingham....
. The Lickey Incline is the steepest sustained adhesion
Rail adhesion
The term adhesion railway or adhesion traction describes the most common type of railway, where power is applied by driving some or all of the wheels of the locomotive. Thus, it relies on the friction between a steel wheel and a steel rail. Note that steam locomotives of old were driven only by...
-worked gradient on British railways. It climbs into Birmingham from the south over the Bunter geological formation
Bunter (geology)
Bunter beds are sandstone deposits containing rounded pebbles, such as can notably be found in Warwickshire, Cheshire, Staffordshire, Nottinghamshire, Yorkshire, Devon and Dorset in England...
(one or two exposures are visible from the track-side), and passes about a mile and a half (2.4 km) away from the Lickey Hills
Lickey Hills
The Lickey Hills are a range of hills in Worcestershire, England, eleven miles to the south-west of the centre of Birmingham near the villages of Lickey and Barnt Green...
, a well-known local beauty spot.
While many have suggested a gentler route could have been taken, and others have pointed out that there are steeper climbs elsewhere, the Lickey has acquired a mystique all of its own.
Steam locomotives
To assist trains up the incline and in some cases to provide additional braking, particularly to unfitted freights, specialised banking engineBank engine
A bank engine or helper engine or pusher engine is a railway locomotive that temporarily assists a train that requires additional power or traction to climb a grade...
s were kept at Bromsgrove shed at the foot of the incline.
The first locomotives were American Norris
Norris Locomotive Works
The Norris Locomotive Works was a steam locomotive manufacturing company based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, that produced about a thousand railroad engines between 1832 and 1866. It was the dominant American locomotive producer during most of that period, and even sold its popular 4-2-0 engines...
4-2-0
4-2-0
Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, 4-2-0 represents the wheel arrangement of four leading wheels on two axles, two powered and coupled driving wheels on one axle, and no trailing wheels...
s, English manufacturers having declined to supply. The railway acquired 26 of them, of which the last nine were built in England, three by Benjamin Hick and Sons
Benjamin Hick and Sons
B. Hick and Sons, later known as Hick, Hargreaves & Co, was a British engineering company, based at the Soho Ironworks in Bolton, England....
and six by Nasmyth, Gaskell and Company
Nasmyth, Gaskell and Company
Nasmyth, Gaskell and Company, originally called The Bridgewater Foundry, specialised in the production of heavy machine tools and locomotives. It was located in Patricroft, in Salford England, close to the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, the Bridgewater Canal and the Manchester Ship Canal...
The last one was withdrawn in 1856.
Around 1845 a large 0-6-0ST, the Great Britain was built in Bromsgrove Works
Bromsgrove railway works
Bromsgrove railway works was established in 1841 at Aston Fields, near Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, England as a maintenance facility for the Birmingham and Gloucester Railway...
.
1377 Class
Midland Railway 1377 Class
The Midland Railway 1377 Class is a class of steam locomotive. They were introduced in 1878 by Samuel W. Johnson based on an earlier 1874 design. Up to 1891, 185 were built: 165 by Derby Works and the last 20 by the Vulcan Foundry....
1Fs, and later 2441 Class
Midland Railway 2441 Class
thumb|right|The view from 47231's cab, showing tank top detail, Belpaire firebox, large dome and chimney.The Midland Railway 2441 Class was a class of steam locomotive. Introduced by Samuel Johnson in 1899, originally with round-topped fireboxes. Henry Fowler later rebuilt them with Belpaire...
0-6-0Ts were used on the route.
In 1919 the specialised 0-10-0
0-10-0
Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, 0-10-0 represents the wheel arrangement of no leading wheels, ten powered and coupled driving wheels on five axles, and no trailing wheels...
No. 2290 "Big Bertha"
MR 0-10-0 Lickey Banker
In 1919, the Midland Railway built a single 0-10-0 steam locomotive, No 2290 . It was designed by James Clayton for banking duties on the Lickey Incline in Worcestershire , England...
was introduced to complement the existing 0-6-0Ts. "Big Bertha" was withdrawn in 1956 and replaced by BR standard class 9F
BR standard class 9F
The British Railways BR Standard Class 9F 2-10-0 is a class of steam locomotive designed for British Railways by Robert Riddles. The Class 9F was the last in a series of standardised locomotive classes designed for British Railways during the 1950s, and was intended for use on fast, heavy freight...
No. 92079, which acquired Big Bertha's headlight.
The LNER Class U1
LNER Class U1
The London and North Eastern Railway Class U1 was a solitary 2-8-0+0-8-2 Beyer-Garratt locomotive designed for banking coal trains over the Worsborough Bank, a steeply graded line in South Yorkshire and part of the Woodhead Route. It was both the longest and the most powerful steam locomotive ever...
Garratt was also tried out unsuccessfully in 1949–1950 and again in 1955. On one memorable occasion it was banking a train hauled by LMS Garratt
LMS Garratt
The London Midland and Scottish Railway Garratt was a class of Garratt 2-6-0+0-6-2 steam locomotive designed for heavy freight. A total of 33 were built from 1927, making them the most numerous class of Garratt in Britain.-Overview:...
No. 47972 which stalled on the bank and was rescued by "Big Bertha", resulting in the remarkable formation of a train with no fewer than nineteen driving axles.
The Lickey was transferred to the Western Region
Western Region of British Railways
The Western Region was a region of British Railways from 1948. The region ceased to be an operating unit in its own right in the 1980s and was wound up at the end of 1992...
in 1958 and the 3F tanks were replaced by GWR 9400 Class
GWR 9400 Class
The Great Western Railway 9400 Class is a class of 0-6-0 pannier tank steam locomotive, used for shunting and banking duties.The first ten 9400s were the last steam engines built by the GWR. After nationalisation in 1948, another 200 were built by private contractors for British Railways...
pannier tanks and 92079 was replaced by classmate 92230, which did not acquire the headlight.
Diesel locomotives
Steam was replaced by Class 37British Rail Class 37
The British Rail Class 37 is a diesel-electric locomotive. Also known as the English Electric Type 3, the Class was ordered as part of the British Rail modernisation plan....
s, working in pairs. Other classes that appeared include Hymeks
British Rail Class 35
The British Rail Class 35 is a class of mixed-traffic B-B diesel locomotive with hydraulic transmission. Because of their Mekydro-design hydraulic transmission units, the locomotives became known as the Hymeks....
. The Hymeks allocated to Lickey banking duties were modified such that the lowest transmission ratio was inoperative, despite the requirement for high tractive effort. The reason for this apparently perverse modification was that the typical speed of a train ascending the bank was approximately that at which the transmission would change between first and second gear, and so it tended to "hunt" between the two. The repeated gear changes under full power caused excessive wear and damage, and the simplest way to avoid the problem was to lock first gear out of action, so the locomotives used only second gear and upwards.
First-generation diesel multiple units were somewhat underpowered and climbed the bank often at little above walking pace, especially as they aged; it was not unknown for them to need to be rescued by a banker. The more powerful modern DMUs negotiate the line with little speed reduction, though there remain rules that at least half of the engines of a Class 220
British Rail Class 220
The Class 220 Voyager are a class of diesel-electric high-speed multiple-unit trains built by Bombardier Transportation in 2000 and 2001....
or 221
British Rail Class 221
The Class 221 Super Voyager is a class of British diesel-electric multiple-unit express trains built by Bombardier Transportation between 2001 and 2002, entering service on 12 April 2002....
must be working in order to ascend. Many current freight trains still need to be banked however and DB Schenker (formerly EWS) uses five dedicated Class 66
British Rail Class 66
The Class 66 is a six axle diesel electric freight locomotive developed in part from the British Rail Class 59, for use on the railways of the UK. Since its introduction the class has been successful and has been sold to British and other European railway companies...
Nos 66055–9 to do this.
Operation in steam days
The bankers would stand in a siding on the up side to the south. The load of each train would be telegraphed from Cheltenham.If the driver decided he needed more bankers than the table provided for him, he would whistle approaching Stoke Works signsl box: a short whistle, pause, and a number of shorts indicating the number of bankers he wanted. (The 0-10-0 counted as two).
He stopped at a marker fifteen yards to the rear of Bromsgrove Station
Bromsgrove railway station
Bromsgrove railway station serves the town of Bromsgrove in Worcestershire. It is located at the foot of the two-mile Lickey Incline which ascends at a gradient of 1-in-37.7 towards Barnt Green on the line between Birmingham and Worcester. The station opened as part of the Birmingham and Gloucester...
up home signal, or further up if necessary to clear the crossover by which the bankers moved on to the back of his train. They were not coupled to his train or to each other. When he was in position each banker gave two crow whistles, and the train driver gave two crows in reply. Then he gave one long whistle and all of them opened their regulators.
At the top the bankers kept pushing through Blackwell station
Blackwell railway station
Blackwell railway station was a railway station serving Blackwell in the English county of Worcestershire. It was opened by the Birmingham and Gloucester Railway in 1841 a year after the line opened. In 1846 it became part of the Midland Railway which had been formed two years before...
and then shut off in turn, keeping well apart, then crossed over to the down line and closed up ready to return.
To speed things up at busy times, Blackwell down advance starter signal had a calling-on arm which applied only to the bankers accepting them downhill while the station was still occupied.
Descending trains were never accepted unless the line was clear as far as Bromsgrove South, and were strictly required to slow to 10mph at the top and not exceed 27mph on the way down. Loose-coupled freight trains had to stop at the top to apply wagon brakes and not exceed 11mph.
External links
- - Lickey Archive Photobook – Sister site to lickeyincline.com exclusively for photographs from all eras
- www.lickeyincline.co.uk – Lickey Incline Preserved Rail Resources