Birmingham and Gloucester Railway

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The Birmingham and Gloucester Railway is a railway route linking Birmingham to Gloucester in England.

It is one of the world's oldest mainline railways and includes the famous Lickey Incline, a two mile dead straight stretch of track running up the Lickey Ridge at a gradient of 1/37. The line was built to link the factories of Birmingham to Bristol and its docks, as well as to operate passenger services.

[edit] Origins

The idea for a line had been mooted during the construction of the Stockton & Darlington railway. There was already a horse drawn coal railway between Bristol and Gloucestershire, however a line running the whole distance to Birmingham was suggested. At that time, the canal journey from Birmingham to Bristol took almost a week, and the road journey, which due to expense and road quality was only really suitable for passengers, took the best part of four days.

Several surveys were completed in the ten years after 1824. Brunel in 1832 surveyed a line well to the east of its present track, but due to lack of finance the scheme was suspended and he withdrew. The line, as it is, was surveyed by Captain W.S.Moorsom who had previously been associated with the Cromford and High Peak Railway. All observers recognised the challenge that the Lickey Ridge posed to the construction of the railway. Other lines, such as the C&HPR had previously been built up steeper inclines, however the Birmingham and Gloucester was a mechanised commercial railway, and was intended to be worked by steam locomotives. Both Stephenson and Brunel said that a general purpose steam locomotive could not work such a gradient.

Due to the Lickey problem, many investors remained sceptical and withheld funds; certain landowners asked excessive prices for land needed to construct the railway. Also, the people of Bromsgrove protested the proximity of the 'iron beast' to the town. Eventually it was decided that the incline could be worked by a system of 'banking engines'. Deals were struck with recalcitrant landlords and Bromsgrove station was built almost two miles outside the town, in Aston Fields. The line was authorised by Act of Parliament in 1836, just eleven years after the opening of the Stockton and Darlington Railway. The line was completed as far as Bromsgrove by 1840. In 1841 it had reached as far as Camp Hill where it joined the London and Birmingham Railway to the latter's Curzon Street terminus in Birmingham.

The Act of Parliament gave the Birmingham and Gloucester the right to use any future London and Birmingham terminus in Birmingham, which meant that the later Midland Railway had the right to share Birmingham New Street Station when it was built by the LNWR.

Notwithstanding Bromsgrove people's reservations, the railway's maintenance shops were built there around 1841 providing a welcome change of employment for the town's nail makers.

The original Birmingham and Gloucester company merged with the Bristol and Gloucester Railway in 1845 to form the short-lived Birmingham and Bristol Railway (q.v.), which in turn became a part of the Midland Railway in 1846.

[edit] Development

The line remains part of one of the UK's 'mainline' railway routes (see for example Cross Country Route), despite a series of changes in ownership. The Midland Railway, later became part of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway in the rationalisation of 1923. The LMS, along with the rest of the UK's mainline railways, became part of British Railways when it was nationalised in 1948 by the Labour government. In 1995, the line was sold to Railtrack as part of the privatisation of the Major government, and then partially returned to public ownership under Network Rail in 2003.