The lickey incline offen employed helper engines or in this case bankers,So assuming this route ever gets something other then a emu/dmu will it get a banker to push trains up the incline as well.I not sure you can add a banker to whatever consist you can place with scenario planner.
Interesting you mention this. I notice in the route the passing loop at the top of the incline which presumably used to house the bankers has its rails disconnected from the main line. Does this reflect reality, and is it just the case bankers aren't needed any more with modern rolling stock?
There still one possibility for the bankers to return.Since DTG has been known to take a route and release a different era for it later,Perhaps they could release a older version of this route and use the UK steam engine on it and one of them could be the routes banker( 8F?)
In 1919, the Midland Railway built a single 0-10-0 steam locomotive, No 2290 for banking duties on the Lickey Incline It became known as "Big Bertha" The engine was withdrawn on 19 May 1956 . BR Standard Class 9F number 92079 took over, acquiring Big Bertha's electric headlight for the duty. Other banking turns on the Lickey were operated by Midland Railway 2441 Class, LMS Fowler Class 3F 0-6-0Ts, and GWR 9400 Class pannier tanks often in pairs, operation being controlled by a complicated system of whistle codes.
The bank engine is provided for set freights operated by DB. It positions from Bescot to Bromsgrove, banks the freight and returns to Bescot. Don't tend to look at the points when I travel that way but no reason why the bank engine cant drop off and stop at the first signal at the top of the bank to wait for the freight to clear.
Don’t they use some class 66’s to bank some freight trains? The route’s in the wrong time period if you’re after banking duties though, they were plentiful during the golden age of Steam. The most interesting banker for the Lickey incline was Big Bertha and sadly doesn’t exist anymore, it was criminal that she was never preserved!
