Stanier ‘Class 5’ No.44818 pounds up the Lickey incline with a northbound train, assisted by the ‘9F’ banker No.92079. The seven ex-LNER coaches and three BR Mark 1s, all in “blood and custard” livery, indicate a date of 1956 or 1957. No.44818 was from Derby shed, moving to Saltley in November 1959.

This smacks of a summer Saturday with the LNER stock, train number on the smokebox and the gentle summery weather.

Peter Kerslake adds "What a lovely shot from the Lickey , so open and clean , unlike today , unfortunately.
Once the train reaches Blackwell the banker will drop back and if there's a path for it will run back down to Bromsgrove , to go " on shed " there .
There was a rigid system in operation at Bromsgrove shed to ensure that all the footplate crews , together with their engines , did their fair number of banking duties and that the engines were all watered and coaled as required .
Equally , the signalmen up at Blackwell had to ensure that banking engines were not left in the refuge siding there for too long in case Bromsgrove ran out of bankers !"