VicRail "Tea Cup" B class

The VicRail "Tea Cup"colour scheme was first introduced in September 1981 when B64 was painted orange and silver to the match the first of the newly constructed N cars. B80 was painted shortly after with both loco's hauling the shake down trials and demonstration runs.

B69 on 0755 down Albury pass at Kilmore East, 27th December 1983. 

Subsequently a further 7 B's were painted in the colour scheme. Interestingly B65 emerged painted in blue and gold in February 1983, 18 months after the orange colour scheme was introduced. Order of painting of the tea cup B's was 64, 80, 84, 74, 81, 69, 83, 82 and 68.



B83 on a Geelong pass at Manor, 18th November 1985

B80 and T379 on down Seymour pass at Kilmore East 27th December 1983.

There were some variations in the orange B's. B74 and B84 had single beam headlights, while those twin beam headlights had with either a dark or white background. B81 received an silver surround to one of its headlights during 1984. There was also variation in the placement of the radio equipped stickers below the cab window some being placed on the top silver line others on the orange section between the two silver lines.



B83 speeds through Aircraft on a up Geelong pass, March 1984. Note the location of the radio equipped stickers on the silver line and flaking paint on the lower part of side.


 

B82 and B63 on a Geelong pass at Newport, 14th August 1983.

B82 on a South Geelong pass at Spencer Street, on a cold wet winters morning in Aug 1985.

Recently I purchased a Lima B in teacup colours on Ebay. The first decision was to work out what
loco to model. I decided to go through my photo collection to choose a photo to work from. I had thought that I had taken more photo's of B83 and B69 than any other orange B but going back through my collection I found that there were more photo's of B82. As I had already modelled two orange B's with a dark background to the headlights (B69 and B81), I decided modelling one with a white background to the headlight and settled on either B83 or B68.

B83 was quite filthy late in 1983, with lots of road grime and a large oil stain down one of the side panels (obviously the result of an accident in the engine bay). As B68 was the last painted, I assumed that it would be cleaner than the B's painted earlier. It was also washed for used on promotional shuttles of the new N cars to Essendon from Spencer Street with the official launch of V/line on 21st August 1983.



B68 at Spencer Street on promotional shuttles to Essendon for launch of V/line, 21st August 1983. 

 Therefore I settled on modelling a clean B68, to contrast with the grubby blue and gold and orange B's in fleet.  The only modifications are the pilot, painting of the headlight surround, addition of air hoses, new number plates and number boards and slight weathering around the pilot, bogies and exhaust.

B68 powers the morning down Horsham pass past the Garden City Flour Mill and Geelong bound block wheat train at Ballarat North.

 

Later that afternoon B68 rolls down grade past the way and works depot on the Up Horsham pass. 



B68 and T401 rest at the Ballarat East fuel point.