Bromsgrove Rail User Group

The railway linking the cities of Birmingham and Gloucester

started its life in the 1830s when the Birmingham and Gloucester Railway Company laid down plans for the course that the line should take. The most direct route between the two cities would involve the railway having to go via the Lickey Hills. Since it was thought  unlikely that locomotives could be found that would deal with the gradient such a course would require, discussion centred upon whether the line should indeed go over the Lickey or whether a detour to avoid the hills completely would be preferable. Not only was the extra cost of the second option a huge problem, it would have meant the company losing important traffic from the salt district. Eventually it was decided that even with the uncertain standard of locomotive technology, the company should go for the direct route. And so the Lickey Incline, with a 1 in 37 gradient that stretches two miles from Bromsgrove Railway Station to Blackwell, entered the construction stage.

Planning the Railway