The Lickey Incline, south of Birmingham, is the steepest sustained main-line railway incline in Great Britain. The climb is a gradient of 1 in 37.7 for a continuous distance of two miles (3.2 km). Constructed originally for the Birmingham and Gloucester Railway (B&GR) and opened in 1840 it is located on the Cross Country Route between Barnt Green and Bromsgrove stations in Worcestershire.
An LMS Stanier Class 5 4-6-0 working hard to ascend the Lickey at about 10 mph (16 km/h) with the smoke from the assisting banking engine seen at the back
1 in 37 Gradient post shows drivers the summit of Lickey Bank
Up express in 1948
BR 9F banker near the summit approaching Blackwell in 1957
Birmingham and Gloucester Railway
The Birmingham and Gloucester Railway (B&GR) was the first name of the railway linking the cities in its name and of the company which pioneered and developed it; the line opened in stages in 1840, using a terminus at Camp Hill in Birmingham. It linked with the Bristol and Gloucester Railway in Gloucester, but at first that company's line was broad gauge, and Gloucester was a point of the necessary but inconvenient transhipment of goods and passengers onto 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in gauge that became the national standard. Nearly all of the original main line remains active as a "trunk" route, also known as an arterial route or line.
Vignoles rail as used for the Birmingham and Gloucester Railway in 1840
The "England" locomotive built by the Norris company
Site of the 1840 Tewkesbury station
Tewkesbury Quay branch in 1951