Class
B 2-Cylinder Express Passenger Locomotive
Designed
by Giorg Maznicek
Built
in 1846 by Robert Stephenson & Co., Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England
Despite
the success of his class A, Maznicek wanted something faster for the
express
trains, whose loadings and schedules, even in the mid-1840s, were
becoming
more and more demanding. The result, fully in accordance with the
wisdom
of the day, was this slender long-boiler, of which the patent-holders
themselves
delivered thirty examples between 1846 and 1848. The inside frames
represented
a rare exception to an unspoken RSR rule of the 19th century. This was
probably due to the difficulty of supporting the firebox with the rear
driving wheels in the way, had outside frames been used. The pulling
power
of the Bs was more than enough for quite a few years but by the late
1850s
they were more or less outclassed, and so were displaced by the A1s of
1855 and finally succumbed, like so many others, to the "Allegrettos".
The last two were withdrawn from Tupfdu Rulauriku in 1867.
The
engine shown, no. 72, ran for a short time in 1854 with a six-wheeled
tender.