Heavy going

Britain’s steepest cliff railway has had to be reinforced because passengers are so much bigger than when it opened in 1892. Parts stripped from a Land Rover were used to strengthen the suspension of the carriages on the Bridgnorth Funicular Railway in Shropshire after the weight of its passengers began to cause the doors to jam. Malvern Tipping, director of the railway, said ‘We are faced with people having become larger and heavier,’ and blamed increasingly sedentary lifestyles. The railway, built in 1891 to take passengers up the 200ft climb, is said to be both the shortest and the steepest in Britain.