Fawley Hill Railway; Steam takes on the steepest gradient in the world! 

this place is amazing. i have had the honour to visit twice for the end of season bbq and just wow, the museum, the people, the engines! just a massive wow from me and my little children who also love steam and trains and all the good things that come from 2 rails 😄 please, if you do visit just listen to the volunteers, if they tell you to stand clear of an area, do as they say.. your safety is paramount

I bet that Sir William heard the train working hard coming up the hill

The Tanfield Branch had a section of 1 in 11-it would take two N10s to push 2 x 21T hoppers up the bank, The tool vans turned up one day with FOUR engines pushing them up the bank, it did slacken off to 1 in 21 after the 1 in 11,

I’ve been up Snowdon on a steam train. There’s a rack so the loco can be worked hard with no danger of slipping.

Fantastic footage really lovely to hear the locos working hard 👍🏻👍🏻

Love it! Fabulously eccentric set up

Magnificent catches of the trains coming y abd pass, i like it 5 stars. Thumbs up. Keep up the perfect work, my friend, just liked and subscribed, Greetings from Portugal to the UK.

Super stuff Luke mate, that is one hell of a gradient lol! Makes the Lickey look virtually flat 🤣Hope you had a good day. Regards, Dan

Marginally steeper than the Hopton Incline on the Cromford and High Peak Railway at 1 in 14,which was the steepest on the BR system. It also featured one of the tightest turns,the Gotham Curve.

And there's a happy me in the rear of the brake van on the first run in this video!

I used to ride on a loco at a brick works which in a book I have says the loco stands on the 1:9 gradient. It could be a misprint and mean 1:19 but it certainly was like seen here. Fantastic sight and sound

Pretty cool, lucky dry sunny day, might be a struggle in the wet!! Various random wild life on the tracks made me chuckle, no not some of the passengers... Hope any coupling inspection/risk assesment was signed off, would have preferred to see the diesel 'downhill' behind the guards van to be honest. 🤔👍🇬🇧

Great video...👍

Nice video, Like!

Didn't realise conventional engines could cope with a 1/13 gradient. Guess it depends on how much weight it is pulling.

1:13 might be the steepest gradient in the UK but not in the world.

Impressive, I had never heard about this place. I have to ask: is the breakvan "original" or is it a breakvan body mounted on another truck's chassis? The spacing between the wheels looks so small ! Thanks for posting

I'm used to percentages. Thats a lot of converting!

second engine is also pushing

I heard rumours that this might well be the last open day at Fawley. Hopefully not because it is always one of my favourite days - the museum alone is excellent

1:13 thats nothing for a west coast logging railroad,roaring camp has a grade of 1 in 10 and there was a line that tried 1 in 5 that used little Americans to seesaw there way out of the valley with 1 log car.

Surely the diesel could do it on its own?

Who's working?Steam or diesel ?

Why are the diesels behind them? Can they not carry the small load by themselves?

Maybe be too little too late but such a steep preserved railway could really benefit from a battery electric loco. Especially one that can regenerate energy while braking down hill. It would limit a lot of the wear and tear and consumption on any steam or diesel which is not going to get any easier when the youngest steam locos left are around 60 years old.

Not much 'steam', is there. And the diesel, what's it for?

The Kerr Stuart is from the Foxfield Railway not Tanfield

Steepest in the world? I refer you to the Rimutaka Incline NZ ) closed 1955 when the 8.5 km tunnel was finished ) which used Fell engines two or more at a time and toothed middle wheel/rail system... travelling at little more than brisk waling speed.

1:12 !!

What is the gradient?

I say old chap,isn't that cheating by having a diesel engine behind the locomotive?

Seems diesel is doing most of the work.

It would have been nice to see the ride from the perspective of an actual passenger on the train, sorry, but this was kind of disappointing

Clearly not the steepest in the world though

Lots of steper gradients elsewhere. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_steepest_gradients_on_adhesion_railways

More than saluda or some I those Chinese Indian lines?