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Birmingham And Gloucester Railway
All photographs of this railway in date order.
![A Class 56 sweats up the Lickey Incline with a chemicals train from Baglan Bay in the late 1980s.<br>
<br><br>[David Spaven //]](/images/29000/29689.jpg "Lickey Incline")
![Class 45 <I>Peak</I> No. 129 breasts the summit of the Lickey incline, with a train bound for the north east. The train is running through the site of Blackwell station, closed in 1966 and already demolished by this time although the railway cottages and access footpath can still be seen. The lamps on the trackside provided illumination for guards pinning down the brakes of loose coupled freights before they started the 1:37 descent of the Lickey. <br><br>[Mark Bartlett /11/1971]](/images/28000/28088.jpg "Blackwell")
![A pair of EE Type 3s, led by 6859, bank a train of unfitted 21T coal hoppers up the Lickey Incline in 1972. The bankers dropped off the train at Blackwell Summit and returned to Bromsgrove for their next task.<br><br>[Mark Bartlett //1972]](/images/62000/62669.jpg "Lickey Incline")
![The partially demolished Gloucester Eastgate station looking south west in 1977, less than two years after closure. A supermarket, together with new roads and car parks, now occupy the site. <br><br>[Ian Dinmore //1977]](/images/44000/44212.jpg "Gloucester Eastgate")
![14 bogie oil tanks, presumably empty, are hauled up the 1:37 Lickey Incline without banking assistance, and the double headed Brush Type 2s sounded tremendous. Leading loco 31130 is now preserved on the Battlefield Railway but 31141 was withdrawn in 1989 and cut up the same year at M C Metals, Glasgow.<br><br>[Mark Bartlett 05/03/1980]](/images/22000/22554.jpg "Lickey Incline")
![Banked by hard working 37206 and 37210, Brush Type 4 47272 lifts a long train of tank wagons up the Lickey Incline on a very gloomy 5th March 1980. After a succession of number changes the Class 47 served with DRS as 47790, employed on the more glamorous <I>Northern Belle</I> duties [See image 49779]. <br><br>[Mark Bartlett 05/03/1980]](/images/46000/46137.jpg "Lickey Incline")
![<I>Peak</I> Class 46 no 46012 drops down the Lickey incline with a passenger train heading for the south west of England in June 1980. This view looks up towards the summit at Blackwell [See image 28088].<br><br>[Mark Bartlett 21/06/1980]](/images/32000/32733.jpg "Lickey Incline")
![47307 lifts a heavy tank train up the Lickey Incline in 1980, with considerable assistance from two Class 37 banking engines [See image 49932]. 47307, the former D1788, was a Tinsley loco at this time. It was finally withdrawn in 2002 and cut up at EMR Kingsbury in 2008. <br><br>[Mark Bartlett 11/09/1980]](/images/49000/49924.jpg "Lickey Incline")
![Two Lickey bankers, EE Type 3s 37158 and 37204, giving much needed assistance to 47307 and its long train of tank wagons on the 1:37 Lickey Incline in 1980 [see image 49924]. The summit at Blackwell is alongside the houses that can be seen above the tanks. There the bankers will drop off and return to Bromsgrove. <br><br>[Mark Bartlett 11/09/1980]](/images/49000/49932.jpg "Lickey Incline")
![Ashchurch aint what it used to be. A closed route to the left led to Malvern, the main line to Birmingham remains and the Evesham route to the right is cut back to an MOD base.<br><br>[Ewan Crawford 13/09/2006]](/images/18000/18169.jpg "Ashchurch for Tewkesbury")
![A Cross Country Voyager arrives at Cheltenham Spa on 13 May.<br><br>[Peter Todd 13/05/2008]](/images/19000/19056.jpg "Cheltenham Spa")
![The old water tower at Ashchurch can be seen beyond the station platform but all other infrastructure associated with the Tewkesbury branch line that diverged west here has been built over. The Voyager has just passed the goods loop on its way from Birmingham towards Bristol.<br><br>[Mark Bartlett 27/07/2008]](/images/20000/20100.jpg "Ashchurch for Tewkesbury")
![A Worcester to Swindon direct service formed of 153305 calls at Ashchurch. The former Evesham line, closed in 1963, is now a siding into Ashchurch MOD Depot and can be seen trailing in from the right. The station itself closed in 1971 but reopened in 1997. <br><br>[Mark Bartlett 30/07/2008]](/images/20000/20069.jpg "Ashchurch for Tewkesbury")
![A colourful pair pass at Ashchurch with the view looking north. Ashchurch is a superb location as trains can be seen approaching from several miles away in each direction. Often photographers equipped with binoculars can be found here. This was formerly an important junction on the Midland's Birmingham to Gloucester line with the old Midland line to Tewkesbury and Malvern running off to the left and that to Evesham and Barnt Green to the right (now cut back to some MOD sidings in the Ashchurch area).<br><br>[Ewan Crawford 05/09/2009]](/images/25000/25401.jpg "Ashchurch for Tewkesbury")
![View south over Halesowen Junction on 29 January 2010. The remaining part of the Longbridge Plant is on the horizon and you could almost imagine the line to the right is still in use. The train in the background is sitting in a turn-back siding to the south of Longbridge station.<br><br>[Ewan Crawford 29/01/2010]](/images/27000/27512.jpg "Halesowen Junction")
![In 2010, before the <I>Super 60</I> refurbishment programme, there were still a few Class 60s working hard on the mainline and here 60040 <I>The Territorial Army Centenary</I>, in <I>Army</I> livery, heads a lengthy oil train north at Tredington level crossing between Cheltenham and Aschurch.<br><br>[Mark Bartlett 17/07/2010]](/images/29000/29846.jpg "Tredington Crossing")
![South West Trains 158890 comes off the long straight section south of Aschurch heading for Cheltenham and the South Coast. The train is aproaching the AHB level crossing at Tredington and the sweeping curve to the south of this location.<br><br>[Mark Bartlett 17/07/2010]](/images/29000/29859.jpg "Tredington Crossing")
![Northbound 4E66, (coke empties from Margam to Redcar), approaches Homedown Level Crossing running about 50 minutes late. <br><br>[Ewan Crawford 18/02/2011]](/images/32000/32905.jpg "Ashchurch for Tewkesbury")
![A northbound CrossCountry DMU entering Ashchurch station on 29 December 2011. The MoD exchange sidings stand in the left background.<br><br>[Peter Todd 29/12/2011]](/images/37000/37016.jpg "Ashchurch for Tewkesbury")
![Freightliner 66585 brings southbound coal empties through Ashchurch station in December 2011.<br><br>[Peter Todd 29/12/2011]](/images/37000/37039.jpg "Ashchurch for Tewkesbury")
![The branch running north east from the station into MoD Ashchurch, on 29 December 2011. The huge Defence Storage & Distribution Centre at Ashchurch is the MoD's main S&D site for all types of armoured and soft skinned vehicles, as well as bridges, boats, construction equipment and other military hardware.<br><br>[Peter Todd 29/12/2011]](/images/37000/37080.jpg "Ashchurch for Tewkesbury")
![A CrossCountry Voyager approaching Bromsgrove station on 1 March 2014 with a service from Bristol to Edinburgh. The train is about to ascend the Lickey Incline.<br><br>[John McIntyre 01/03/2014]](/images/46000/46584.jpg "Bromsgrove")
![London Midland services meet at Bromsgrove on 1 March 2014. On the left is a Hereford to New Street service and on the right New Street to Worcester, both operated by class 170 dmus.<br><br>[John McIntyre 01/03/2014]](/images/46000/46981.jpg "Bromsgrove [1st]")
![The CrossCountry 1100 from Glasgow Central to Bristol on 1 March 2014 has just descended the Lickey incline and is passing through Bromsgrove station some 6 and a half hours into the journey.<br><br>[John McIntyre 01/03/2014]](/images/47000/47025.jpg "Bromsgrove [1st]")
![Freightliner 66545 passing through Ashchurch station on 8 March 2014 with Rugeley Power Station to Stoke Gifford empty coal wagons.<br><br>[John McIntyre 08/03/2014]](/images/46000/46673.jpg "Ashchurch")
![The 1207 Manchester to Bristol CrossCountry Voyager passing Ashchurch for Tewkesbury station on 8 March 2014. The line into the MOD depot is just visible to the right of the footbridge.<br><br>[John McIntyre 08/03/2014]](/images/46000/46777.jpg "Ashchurch for Tewkesbury")
![A grab shot from a train to Hereford on 18 April 2015, showing how the new Bromsgrove station is being built South of the current platforms. This will minimize the distance from the new car parks to the platforms, but will also allow stopping Northbound trains to gather some speed before getting stuck into - or on! - the Lickey Incline. [see image 47025]<br><br>[Ken Strachan 18/04/2015]](/images/51000/51131.jpg "Bromsgrove")
![The 16.23 to Lichfield Trent Valley pauses at Barnt Green on 27 December. We had intended to make a return trip to Bromsgrove, but we didn't check the timetable first; so we took the next train to Birmingham instead. [See image 25401] for the other end of the Redditch Loop.<br><br>[Ken Strachan 27/12/2016]](/images/57000/57677.jpg "Barnt Green")
![The late running 16.43 to Birmingham New Street calls at Barnt Green just after Christmas 2016. [Ref query 484]<br><br>[Ken Strachan 27/12/2016]](/images/57000/57797.jpg "Barnt Green")
![Bromsgrove station, 22nd May 2017. It looks like massive redevelopment has just taken place. [The station has been relocated further south -Ed].<br><br>[Alan Cormack 22/05/2017]](/images/59000/59979.jpg "Bromsgrove")
