The LNER Garratt on the Lickey Incline below Blackwell

Copyright Ben Brooksbank

View NE just below the summit at Blackwell; ex-Midland Birmingham - Bristol main line. Up the famous Lickey Incline, two miles at 1-in-37 up from Bromsgrove, all except very light trains had to take on a banker at Bromsgrove. Normally either several 0-6-0T's or the special 0-10-0 'Big Bertha' was used, later a BR Standard 2-10-0 took over 'Big Bertha's role. However, in March 1949 with the electrification in the offing of the Worsborough Incline in South Yorkshire, Britain's largest locomotive, the unique 2-8-0+0-8-2 Garratt No. 2395 (BR No. 69999), was transferred to Bromsgrove and put to work on the Lickey for 18 months. For various reasons it was not a success - even after conversion to oil-burning. Here it is behind an Up freight in April 1949; the Sanatorium at Blackwell is seen in the distance.