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 Beyer, Peacock and Company was an English railway locomotive manufacturer with a factory in Openshaw, Manchester. Founded by Charles Beyer, Richard Peacock and Henry Robertson, it traded from 1854 until 1966. The company exported locomotives, ...

. 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 locomotive A tank locomotive or tank engine is a steam locomotive that carries its water in one or more on-board water tanks, instead of a more traditional tender. Most tank engines also have bunkers (or fuel tanks) to hold fuel; in a tender-tank loc ...

s (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 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 ; six at Melbourne; five at ; three at ; six at ; four at ; three at ; 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 A bogie ( ) (in some senses called a truck in North American English) is a chassis or framework that carries a wheelset, attached to a vehicle—a modular subassembly of wheels and axles. Bogies take various forms in various modes of transp ...

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 AA, Aa, Double A, or Double-A may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * '' America's Army'', a 2002 computer game published by the U.S. Army * ''Ancient Anguish'', a computer game in existence since 1992 * Aa!, a J-Pop musical group * Dou ...

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 Southern Cross railway station (until 2005 known as Spencer Street station) is a major railway station in Docklands, Victoria, Docklands, Melbourne. It is on Spencer Street, Melbourne, Spencer Street, between Collins Street, Melbourne, Collins ...

and 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 to , and their cylinder bore was increased from , with those rebuilt after 1896 being fitted with cylinders. These changes led to considerably increased tractive effort.

Accidents

* 1860's - B78 ran away on Warrenheip Bank and through dead end * c.November 1876 - B82 cut rail in halves without derailing * 2 April 1884 - B82 & B92 damaged beyond repair in a head-on collision on the Geelong line between and * 18 August 1884 - B72 boiler exploded at , locomotive was repaired and returned to service * 1889 - B56 broke tender axle * 1890 - B56 broke tender axle * July 1895 - B88 collided with O69 at Spencer Street * 13 April 1904 - B110 derailed when it pushed a rake of coal wagons off the end of the coal stage at and was left suspended by its tender, resting on the wreckage of the wagons below

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

References

* *

Specific

External links

VPRS 12903/P0001, 299/08A
- Drawing of B class steam locomotive
VPRS 12903/P0001, 299/08
- Drawing of B class steam locomotive
VPRS 12800/P0001, H 3745
- B class steam locomotive passenger main line 63tons and 2cwt tractive power 9633lbs 1871
VPRS 12800/P0001, H 1044
- B class steam locomotive no.72 perspective view
VPRS 12800/P0001, H 1746
- B class steam locomotive no.80 Ballarat
VPRS 12800/P0001, H 1088
- B class steam locomotive side view
VPRS 12800/P0001, H 2858
- Old steam locomotive B class no.74
VPRS 12800/P0001, H 1779
- B class steam locomotive no.110
VPRS 12800/P0001, H 2853
- Engine, Captain Norman at window B class at Ballarat
VPRS 12800/P0001, H 1049
- B class steam locomotive no.78 perspective view
VPRS 12800/P0001, H 1939
- B/class steam locomotive number 110
VPRS 12800/P0001, H 1058
- B class steam locomotive side view
VPRS 12800/P0001, H 1048
- B class steam locomotive no.50 perspective view
VPRS 12800/P0001, H 4762A&B
- B class steam locomotive no.62
VPRS 12800/P0001, H 1179
- B class steam locomotives nos. 112 and 96 at Benalla loco depot circa 1880's perspective view
VPRS 12800/P0001, H 1177
- B, O and L class locomotive at Spencer Street locomotive sheds, with B 50 decorated for hauling the Royal Train
VPRS 12800/P0001, H 1167
- B class steam locomotive no. 64 Spencer Street yard circa 1867, former loco shed in the background
VPRS 12800/P0001, H 1250
- Derailment of B class steam locomotive no.110 on Seymour coal stage 13th of April 1904 {{DEFAULTSORT:Victorian Railways B Class 1861 2-4-0 locomotives Railway locomotives introduced in 1861 Scrapped locomotives Broad gauge locomotives in Australia B class 1861 Beyer, Peacock locomotives Hawthorn locomotives Phoenix locomotives Passenger locomotives