The Victorian Railways B class was a class of passenger locomotives operated by the Victorian Railways (VR) between 1862 and 1917, built by various builders. The B class locomotives are regarded as the first mainline VR motive power, and were highly successful in passenger operations.

History

Victorian Railways initially numbered passenger and goods locomotives separately, the engines were delivered with numbers 32–51, 64–69, 82–87. This system was changed before these locos entered service to odd numbers for goods locomotives and even numbers for passenger locos with these locomotives taking the even numbers 46–96, 102–112, 186–188. This odd and even system remained in use until 1912. In 1886, they were allocated to Class B.

Production

The first order for seven locomotives was placed with R and W Hawthorn in February 1861 and in April 1861 for seven locomotives of the same design with Beyer, Peacock & Company. These were extended to, a further six from Hawthorn in October 1861 and a further six from Beyer Peacock in January 1862. The thirteen locomotives built by Beyer Peacock (builder's numbers 231–237, 261–266) arrived in Port Phillip mid 1862, while the thirteen locomotives built by Hawthorn (B/n 1138–1144, 1155–1160) arrived in Port Phillip late 1862. In June 1871, further order for six locomotives was placed with Beyer Peacock (B/n 1034–1039) which arrived May 1972. The average of the imported locos was a cost of £3688-13-9 each. A further two were locally built by the Phoenix Foundry of Ballarat in 1880 (B/n 65–66).

Design features

The B class locomotives were easily recognisable by their use of external frames and bearings, with coupling rods mounted outside the frames, earning them the nickname "overarmers". They featured an unusual design of firebox, which had two separate chambers, each with its own firedoor, divided by a water space that effectively acted as a thermic syphon, and joined at the tubeplate. The two fireboxes were designed to be worked separately, with one fire being built while the other was burning. That configuration was designed to extract the maximum heat from the wood fuels the VR used in its early years. However, the last two locomotives, built in the 1880s, had a conventional single firebox. They used a wheel arrangement, which provided greater traction on the new, more heavily graded Geelong–Ballarat railway and the Melbourne-Bendigo-Echuca railway, as opposed to the arrangement previously selected for the relatively level Geelong line

Regular service

None of the locomotives had arrived in time for the opening of the Geelong to Ballarat line in April 1862, and passenger services on the line had to be worked by suburban saddle tank locomotives (later designated as L class) until the arrival of the first of these new main line locomotives in July 1862. They were initially used on passenger trains to cope with the steeper 1 in 50 grades of the Geelong–Ballarat railway, the Melbourne-Ballarat railway and the Melbourne-Bendigo-Echuca railway. B50 was selected to haul the first Victorian Railways Royal Train in 1867, taking Prince Alfred Duke of Edinburgh to Ballarat, Bendigo and Castlemaine. The Royal Train was recorded running the 45 mi between Melbourne and Geelong in as little as 52 minutes. B88 had the honour of leading the first VR train to Albury on 14 June 1883. In 1894, they were allocated; two at Stawell; six at Melbourne; five at Bendigo; three at Geelong; six at Ballarat; four at Benalla; three at Seymour; and three stored. While the B class locomotives were highly successful on the expensively engineered 1860s mainlines for which they were designed, they were less suited for the more cheaply built extensions to the VR system. Future VR express passenger locomotives were to use a four-wheel leading bogie to steer the locomotive, and from 1884, a class of locomotives (later classed 'Old A') began to supplement, and eventually supersede the B class. Despite the delivery of the Old A, and the later and increasingly larger 'New A' and AA class 4-4-0s of 1889 and 1900 respectively, the entire B class (other than a couple of accident write-offs) lasted into the 20th century, with their roles ranging from double heading on express passenger trains to shunting duties. The last two in service (B56 & B76) spent their final days shunting carriages at Spencer Street Station and North Melbourne yards, and were withdrawn for scrapping in May and June 1917.

Design improvements

Over the years they were fitted with various alterations to the cabs. There were also various upgrades over the years; with constant improvements to safety — these including things like updates to safety valves (and domes), smokeboxs and chimneys (with spark arrestors), cowcatchers, and brakes. B 50 and B 108 were used in comparative trials of the Woods hydraulic brake and the Westinghouse air brake systems in January 1884, leading to the Westinghouse system being adopted as the standard. During the 1880s, the boiler pressure of the locomotives was increased from 130 psi to 140 psi, and their cylinder bore was increased from 16 to 17 in, with those rebuilt after 1896 being fitted with 17.5 in cylinders. These changes led to considerably increased tractive effort.

Accidents

Demise

B82 & B92 were accident write-offs in 1884. The remainder were withdrawn between 1904 and 1917. An unknown boiler from either a B or O class was used until 1941 to power refrigeration plant at Spencer Street where ice was made for T vans.

Fleet summary

Specific