B67

B67 leads the Portland tour with a consist of Goulburn-ABE-BW-ABE-C, March 1983.

During 1983 Ballarat and Horsham passenger trains were almost exclusive hauled by B class. The B's shared duties with X class hauling the Vinelander and were regularly rostered on freight trains on both the Serviceton and Mildura lines. Observations recorded in Newsrail from 27th May 1983 show typical workings of B class through Ballarat. On this day 6 B class were observed B66, B72, B65 and B83 on Ballarat pass, B61 on a Horsham pass, and B80 on the Vinelander. I never seem to have enough B's during operating sessions usually needing between 6 and 9 to run a full 24 hour timetable. Luckily I have recently been able to add a couple more Lima B class models to the roster.

B67 leads T367 on a livestock special down Warrenheip bank through Ballarat East. The B-T will hand the stock special over to Y class pilot for the run out to the Ballarat Cattleyards.

The first to enter service on the layout is B67. It is a standard Lima model, renumbered and the area around the cab side windows painted yellow. Body mounted pilots with couplers and air hoses were fitted. At the current time it is running as a dummy, having temporarily donated its motor to get teacup B68 back into service.

B67 was rather filthy during 1983-84. B67 was spared being converted to an A class when the rebuilding program was abandoned at the 11th unit (B81) in favour of extending the order for new N class locomotives by 15 units. It remained in blue and gold until its withdrawal on 18/10/1985, was subsequently stored and then scrapped in April 1988.

Some observations of B67 during 1983 and 1984 include:

B67-S315 combined down Daylight Overland and Horsham pass 18/01/1983.

B67 Up Horsham pass VBPY54-42ACN-41BRN-14BN arriving at Spencer St at 1830 on Black Thursday 31/03/1983. B67 ran around cars to form 1910 service to Geelong.

B67 Up Bendigo pass at St Albans with set N5 (15ACN-40BRN-13BN) on 31/03/1983.

X31-B67-S306-X48 Down Bendigo pass through St Albans on 11/12/1983.

B67 Up Dimboola pass on 6/2/1984

B67-B76 Horsham pass with a consist of 3BS-3BZ-224BRS-6AZ-33CE on 8/4/1984

B67 Warnambool pass with a consist of 34BE(a/c)-205BS-10BRS-15AS-33CE on 7/6/1984

I've tried to replicated the well worn appearance of B67 in my weathering of the locomotive. I have used photo's that I had taken of B67 on a tour to Portland in March 1983. I have included these in this post to show the condition of the loco, typical of B class during the period that I model.