An Arriva Cross-Country Class 221 Voyager
storms up the Lickey at full power.
Having spent a very pleasant night in a brand new Travelodge at Reditch, a pleasant couple of hours were spent by the famous Lickey Incline, the legendary railway climb south of Birmingham where steam and even early diesel engines and crews were tested to the limits of their ability.
Modern trains with high powered engines make light work of it of course, but it's still impressive to see an express passenger service or heavy freight tackling the gradient.
An Arriva Cross-Country Class 221 Voyager
storms up the Lickey at full power.
A Cross-Country Class 170, ex Central Trains,
coasts down the 1-in-37 incline at speed.
The Lickey Incline is paralleled and crossed by
several local roads, this bridge carrying one of
them under the famous line.
After a while it bagan to rain, and we retired to the van to wander south, following the railways and looking for interesting features.
Worcestershire also boasts many canals, this
rural idyl is not far south of the Reditch branch.
This is the junction just north of Droitwich Spa Station.
It's a very traditional junction layout, up at the far
end trains can go either left, to Kidderminster, or right,
to Bromsgrove, and the extra track off to the left allows
for freight trains to be "looped" off the main lines to
let faster passenger trains past. The various sets of
points also allow trains to change from one track to
another, and the whole thing is controlled by a signaller
in the signal box just visible where the two routes divide
in the distance.
An unusual disc semaphore signal
at Worcester Shrub Hill Station
A local road in a deep cutting below the
approaches to Shrub Hill Station.
A nicely restored mill building just
below
Shrub Hill Station.
The historic Worcester Bridge by night
It was full dark by the time we came to Worcester Viaduct, however a convenient fence, a steady hand, and using 30 second exposures, allowed me to capture something of the majesty of this spectacular structure.
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