NZR WB class

History

In the late 1890s, New Zealand's national network was expanding at a great rate and demand for services on existing lines was rising.  However, the size of the locomotive fleet was inadequate to handle the demand - this was at least in part due to the economic difficulties created by the Long Depression.  The New Zealand Railways Department (NZR) had built the Wᴬ class in its own workshops, but desperate for more engines, went shopping overseas for more.  High prices and workers' strikes in England meant that the Baldwin Locomotive Works of Pennsylvania was contacted in 1898 to provide twelve locomotives built to similar specifications as the Wᴬ class.  Delivery was swift and the locomotives entered service between January and May 1899.  Although initially classified as Wᴬ, they were re-classified Wᴮ in 1900-01 to avoid any confusion with the earlier locomotives constructed in New Zealand.

Operation

Most were initially based at Wanganui's East Town depot, but two each went to Wellington and Westport and one to Whangarei.  By World War I, they were equally distributed between Westport and Whangarei.
In their early years, Wᴮ locomotives ran all kinds of trains from their main base in Wanganui - the prestigious New Plymouth Mail passenger express, goods trains to Napier and through the Wairarapa, and local mixed trains of passengers and freight from Wanganui to Hawera and Palmerston North.  Within a few years, more powerful locomotives displaced the Wᴮ class from many of these services and they were sent to join their classmates in Westport and Whangarei.
On the isolated Westport section, the dominant traffic was coal from the various inland mines served by rail, and the Wᴮs worked these services for a number of decades until they were displaced in the 1950s by the Wᵂ class.  During their years of operation, the Wᴮ class was seen as ideal for operations on the lines that fanned out from Westport, and four were overhauled and given new boilers in the mid-1920s to prolong their lives.

Withdrawal

The first withdrawals of Wᴮ class locomotives occurred in the late 1920s, when Whangarei-based Wᴮ 301 was retired in March 1928.  By the end of 1932, all six Wᴮs that had been based in Whangarei were withdrawn - they were 290, 293, 295, 296, 297, and 301.  In Westport, the two that did not receive new boilers were withdrawn around the same time: Wᴮ 291 ceased operations in December 1931 and was followed by Wᴮ 294 in May 1935.  Until the Westport section was linked to the national network in 1943, the remaining four had secure roles; although members of the superior Wᵂ class had been introduced to Westport in 1929-30, they did not arrive in sufficient quantities to seriously displace the Wᴮs until the opening of the Stillwater - Westport Line.  During the 1940s, the extent of the operations of the Wᴮs decreased markedly, and by 1955, they were little more than shunters in Westport's yard.  In the second half of 1955, Wᴮ 298 and Wᴮ 300 were withdrawn, and during the next year, the final two, 292 and 299, were removed from service, though they were not officially withdrawn until January 1957.  Wᴮ 300 was towed to Dunedin to be scrapped, but this was not an economical procedure and the other three were dumped in two Westland rivers to stabilise river banks and halt erosion.  Wᴮ 298 was dismantled in Westport and its boiler was dumped at the "locomotive graveyard" in Omoto, near Greymouth, while in 1958, Wᴮ 292 was taken to Seddonville and toppled into Coal Creek.  Eventually, it was joined by Wᴮ 299 on 1 January 1960.