The Lickey Incline, south of Birmingham, is the steepest sustained main-line railway incline in Great Britain. The climb is a gradient of 1 in 37.7 (2.65% or 26.5‰ or 1.52°) for a continuous distance of two miles (3.2 km). Constructed originally for the Birmingham and Gloucester Railway (B&GR) and opened in 1840 it is located on the Cross Country Route between and stations in Worcestershire. In earlier times many trains required the assistance of banking locomotives with associated logistical considerations to ensure that the train reached the top; now only the heaviest of freight trains require such assistance. History and geography A survey by Isambard Kingdom Brunel in 1832 for a line between Birmingham and Gloucester followed a longer route well to the east with a maximum 1 in 300 gradient avoiding population centres, the plan lapsed with the cost being deemed too high. In 1836 William Moorsom was engaged on a no success - no fee to survey a suitable route; with his choice being the shortest and least cost path by avoiding high land cost population centres of Worcester, Droitwich, and Tewksbury but with the disadvantage of needing to mount the steep Lickey Incline. As some B&GR the independent engineer Joseph Locke was requested to review Moorsom's work; Locke responding that the Lickey Inline would be no more dangerous than a turnpike road on an incline and he saw no reason for an alternative route. Brunel and George Stephenson declared it would be impractical for locomotives to work such a steep incline, however Moorsom was aware of claims of climbing prowess of American Norris engines and ordered such engines against their advice. The Lickey opened for traffic on 17 September 1840 following the arrival of the second Norris Class A engine Boston avoiding the first, Philadelphia being a single point of failure to the operation of the incline. The climb is just over , at an average gradient of 1 in 37.7 (2.65%), between Bromsgrove and Blackwell (near Barnt Green). It is on the railway line between Birmingham and Gloucester (). The Lickey Incline is the steepest sustained adhesion-worked gradient on a British standard gauge railway. It climbs into Birmingham from the south over the Bunter geological formation (one or two exposures are visible from the track-side), and passes about away from the Lickey Hills, a well-known local beauty spot. Working of the Lickey fell to successor companies