The Queensland Railways B18¼ class locomotive was a class of

4-6-2 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents the wheel arrangement of four leading wheels on two axles, six powered and coupled driving wheels on three axles and two trailing wheels on one axle. The locomoti ...

steam locomotive A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, Fuel oil, oil or, rarely, Wood fuel, wood) to heat ...

s operated by the

Queensland Rail Queensland Rail (QR) is a railway operator in Queensland, Australia. Queensland Rail is owned by the Queensland Government, and operates both Commuter rail, suburban and Regional rail, interurban rail services in South East Queensland, as well ...

ways.

History

The first batch of 17 B18¼ class locomotive were built by the

North Ipswich Railway Workshops North Ipswich Railway Workshops is a heritage-listed current Australian railway workshop at North Street, North Ipswich, Queensland. It was built from 1878 to 1980s. It is also known as the Workshops Rail Museum. It was added to the Queenslan ...

in 1926. Per

way's

classification system Classification is the activity of assigning objects to some pre-existing classes or categories. This is distinct from the task of establishing the classes themselves (for example through cluster analysis). Examples include diagnostic tests, identif ...

they were designated the B18 class, B representing they had three driving axles, and the 18 the

cylinder A cylinder () has traditionally been a three-dimensional solid, one of the most basic of curvilinear geometric shapes. In elementary geometry, it is considered a prism with a circle as its base. A cylinder may also be defined as an infinite ...

diameter in inches. Further orders saw the class total 83 by 1947 with some built by

Walkers Limited Walkers Limited was an Australian engineering and shipbuilding company based in Maryborough, Queensland. It built large vessels and railway locomotives. The Walkers factory still produces locomotives and rolling stock as part of Downer Rail. ...

. The latter examples were fitted with modified boilers and improved cabs. The early examples were painted prussian blue with the boilers having a natural finish. The latter examples were painted black with red lining. In 1949 all were repainted green with red lining. From 1951 they began to be relegated following the delivery of the BB18¼ class. The first was withdrawn in March 1967, with the last removed from traffic in 1970.

Preservation

*771 has been preserved at the Workshops Rail Museum.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Queensland B18 class locomotive Railway locomotives introduced in 1926 B18 Walkers Limited locomotives 4-6-2 locomotives 2′C1′ locomotives 3 ft 6 in gauge locomotives of Australia