tardebigge
BCT Fan
Although not fully related to Birmingham, most of the train buffs may find this link interesting:
https://lickeyarchive.photobook.org.uk/
https://lickeyarchive.photobook.org.uk/
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Lickey Incline
- Thread starter tardebigge
- Start date
Graham
GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN
tardebigge,
Wonderful to see all those photos, and I think it is very much Brum related as where we lived in Sparkbrook, if the wind was favourable, you could hear the trains going up the incline! I wonder if there is any video with the sound of these trains climbing?
Brings back fantastic memories, thanks.
Wonderful to see all those photos, and I think it is very much Brum related as where we lived in Sparkbrook, if the wind was favourable, you could hear the trains going up the incline! I wonder if there is any video with the sound of these trains climbing?
Brings back fantastic memories, thanks.
Darby
master brummie
Cadeau,
I think it more likely that the trains you could hear were on the Camp Hill/ Moseley line.
Try www.steamsounds.org.uk
I think it more likely that the trains you could hear were on the Camp Hill/ Moseley line.
Try www.steamsounds.org.uk
Last edited by a moderator:
Graham
GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN
Darby,
Could easily be true, we kids were told that the sound came from the Lickey incline. Who were we to know any better? Still nice to see those photos though, and thanks for the link.
Lloyd
master brummie
I think it was Alf who posted a link to video of the Lickey, possibly this one of two 2-6-0 engines, regulators full open, valve gear wound to maximum, hauling 9 fully laden coaches up the bank in 1997. Most of the exhaust from the chimney is steam, but I'll bet the draught it was pulling through the boiler tubes fair sucked the coal off the firemen's shovels!
Engines working hard like this would burn coal faster than a man could shovel it, bigger British and most American locos had automatic stokers, a kind of Archemedes screw pushing pulverised (crushed) coal from the tender straight onto the fire.
[ame="https://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=QpQSFMK3F80"]YouTube - 2968-7325 on the Lickey Incline[/ame]
motorman-mike
Brum visitor who stayed.
I remember coming up from Bath on the old "Pines Express" back in the 50's with a Black 5 on the front. After Gloucester it was obvious all was not well and came to a stand at Stoke Works signal box. Being nosey, my head was soon out the open window in time to see one of the crew disappear into the signalbox. Shortly after, the guard came round shouting there would be a delay. Still with head out the window I enjoyed the sight of another engine working tender first wrong road turn up and couple on to the "Pines". It was a WR 2-8-0 that must have come out of Bromsgrove where we were soon pulled to. There 3 Jinties were brought up behind and we went up the Lickey Bank faster than at any time I've been up it before or since by steam. I read somewhere that firiong problems were quite common on Midland locos turned at Bath because they came down on Debyshire coal which was pushed to the front of the tender for recoalng but Bath supplied Welsh Steam Coal. Once the fireman had got through the Derby stuff the Welsh burnt differently and the fun (or misery) began.
motorman-mike
Brum visitor who stayed.
Firiong? Oops must put me specs on for this game!
Louis Dalby
The Ham Man
Yes I think you are right, When I was at Moseley Hall ( Feb - July 1946 ) I would lie awake at night listening to them coming up the bank from Camp Hill. Years later I got to know the signalman at Brickyard crossing which was very interesting with all these Bankers.
My son is a signalman at Bournemouth !! I wonder ? it must be catching.
mysterymermaid
Mermaid from Brum!
The you tube link was great, some of my grandchildren go to Blackwell and one of the houses towards the end of the video belongs to a family that had five children in 12 months!! They had a little boy then had quads that were born at about 25 weeks when the 1st was only 6 months old. The end of The Lickey Incline travels the edge of the meadows at the back and side of our house, We can not see the track from our house but when the wind is in the right direction we hear the trains hoot as the reach the end of the Incline
When a steam train comes nowerdays our field fills up with spectators its lovely to hear the older trains.
When a steam train comes nowerdays our field fills up with spectators its lovely to hear the older trains.
I went to school at Camp Hill in the 1950s, and remember a wide range of different bankers used on the Bordesley Incline, including the Lickey Banker (58300?), and the massive Beyer-Peacock 2-8-8-2 69999.
Happy and never to be forgotten days!
Dave
Thank you for the link to those evocative films, wonderful.
Brings back so many great memories, I was born and raised at the bottom end of George St West a couple of hundred feet or so from the Hockley goods yard and the GWR main line between London and Wolverhampton, many, many a hot sultry summers night I would lie in bed listening the the tank engines Marshalling the freight wagons and the express trains blowing the warning whistles as they came out of the tunnels heading towards Wolverhampton from Snow Hill.
Wonderful memories that will stay with me untill the end of my days.
Dibs
Brings back so many great memories, I was born and raised at the bottom end of George St West a couple of hundred feet or so from the Hockley goods yard and the GWR main line between London and Wolverhampton, many, many a hot sultry summers night I would lie in bed listening the the tank engines Marshalling the freight wagons and the express trains blowing the warning whistles as they came out of the tunnels heading towards Wolverhampton from Snow Hill.
Wonderful memories that will stay with me untill the end of my days.
Dibs
Lloyd
master brummie
Oh, I didn't know that beast worked in this area!
Beyer-Garratt locos (built at the Beyer, Peacock works at Gorton, Manchester) had one huge boiler suspended between two normal locomotive chassis, and were the most powerful type of steam loco operated regularly in the UK.
Louis Dalby
The Ham Man
58100 and 47303 returning to Bromsgrove after banking " The Pines ".
Louis Dalby
The Ham Man
The LNER Beyers were tried on the Lickey but only for a few weeks.
Louis Dalby
The Ham Man
4 MT 2.6.0 43047 approaching Bromsgrove with a Worcester stopper
Yes, I only remember seeing 69999 on Bordesley incline 2 or 3 times.
This would have been sometime in between mid 1954 to mid 1956 (my
first 2 years at Camp Hill Boys' School before it closed and went to Kings Heath). You mention 'LNER Beyers', but I only recollect the one. I wonder if you have the numbers for any others.
Dave
Louis Dalby
The Ham Man
Peter Walker
gone but not forgotten
Here is a picture of the original 0-10-0 Midland Railway Lickey Banker of 1919, taken from my treasured copy of 'Locomotives of the LMS', pulished in 1947 shortly before nationalisation.
It was used mainly on heavy freight trains, as it was powerful but rather unwieldy. The caption gives a bit more information about it.
In 1927 Fowler designed a 2-6-6-2 Garratt-type of loco for the LMS, and 32 of these monsters were built. They came into Birmingham with heavy coal trains from the Notts and Derby coalfield, but I rather think they never got any further in that Bromford sidings, where the trains were divided into smaller groups.
The other picture is of the book from which I took the picture. I guess the LMS publicity people thought they would beat Ian Allan's ABC's. The scene is a bit like 'spotters bank' on the Trent Valley main line just south east of Tamworth station. I stood there a few times.
Peter
It was used mainly on heavy freight trains, as it was powerful but rather unwieldy. The caption gives a bit more information about it.
In 1927 Fowler designed a 2-6-6-2 Garratt-type of loco for the LMS, and 32 of these monsters were built. They came into Birmingham with heavy coal trains from the Notts and Derby coalfield, but I rather think they never got any further in that Bromford sidings, where the trains were divided into smaller groups.
The other picture is of the book from which I took the picture. I guess the LMS publicity people thought they would beat Ian Allan's ABC's. The scene is a bit like 'spotters bank' on the Trent Valley main line just south east of Tamworth station. I stood there a few times.
Peter
motorman-mike
Brum visitor who stayed.
Here is Big Bertha giving it some stick back in the 1950's.
G
Graham S
Guest
Yes, I think you're right; as far as I know the LNER had only one Garratt. The LMS, however, had 33 of them, working mainly on coal trains out of Toton on the edge of the Notts coalfield and the Pennine routes of Derbyshire & Greater Manchester. They were 2-6-0+0-6-2, and they were rare sights outside their regular routes. I have a vague memory of seeing one in the Birmingham area in the early 50s, but I may be mistaken, and it might well have been seen from a train on the way to visit my father's family in Lincolnshire.
Graham
Graham
G
Graham S
Guest
Just read Peter Walker's post - my spotting of a Garratt in BIrmingham was almost certainly at Bromford, then.
Graham
Graham
I used to see 2-6-6-2 Garratts regularly in the 1950s when I went trainspotting at Bromford. Does anyone remember the footpath which ran alongside the sidings from the side of Bromford Bridge to I think the bottom of Common Lane and was known as the 'Monkey Run'? The LNER engine 69999 was a much larger beast with 2-8-8-2 wheel arrangement and I only remember this from seeing it for short period operating on Bordesley incline. Has anyone any info on its original purpose with the LNER?
Dave
G
Graham S
Guest
It was actually planned by the Great Central as early as 1910, and finally built to a more modern gresley design in 1925. Its purpose was to bank coal trains up the Worsborough Incline between Wentworth Junction and West Silkstone Junction.
More info here:
www.lner.info/locos/U/u1.shtml
Graham
More info here:
www.lner.info/locos/U/u1.shtml
Graham
Hi
I always remember as a kid in about 1958 waiting at the dead end of Highbury Rd Kings heath at about 9-00pm in the evening waiting for the Pines exspress most times I think it was pulled by a Jub and some times by a 92 'er and once I remember a Brit pulling it. Any way just of the subject of steam is there any one who remember some of the first Desiels we all used to boo when we saw them 10000 & 10001 and Deltic. After reading all the coments I was drifting back wondering where all the time had gone. J.T.
I always remember as a kid in about 1958 waiting at the dead end of Highbury Rd Kings heath at about 9-00pm in the evening waiting for the Pines exspress most times I think it was pulled by a Jub and some times by a 92 'er and once I remember a Brit pulling it. Any way just of the subject of steam is there any one who remember some of the first Desiels we all used to boo when we saw them 10000 & 10001 and Deltic. After reading all the coments I was drifting back wondering where all the time had gone. J.T.
motorman-mike
Brum visitor who stayed.
BOOOOOOO! (Kindly wash your mouth out with red carbolic soap for even mentioning such unmentionables in steam circles.)
)