Bromsgrove Rail User Group

On the 17th September 1840, after incalculable sweat and toil by both men and horses, the work on the incline was completed. Locomotives of American origin were used in the early years of the Incline's operation as it was considered that nothing manufactured in the UK would be able to cope with the sustained gradient. A total of seventeen machines - of 8 and 12 tons - built by the Norris company in Philadelphia were imported and of particular importance were the 12 tonners. It was one of this group that has remained the most well known. Called the PHILADELPHIA, it was the first 'Lickey Banker'.

The 12 ton Class A Extras as they were known inevitably struggled to cope with increasing loads. William Crueze, the company’s Locomotive Superintendent, skillfully oversaw important modifications to wheels, fireboxes and boiler tubes to enable all the Norris locomotives to work under English conditions. However, a modification to the water systems of the bankers seems to have been done without his supervision, a lapse fro which he paid with his life, dying the night 7th/8th April 1841.

Early Locomotives