B 4 wheel box vans

ABOVE: B 64 at Albury Oct. 1981 Photo courtesy Rob O'Regan

It was initially proposed to convert 500 I/IA wagons whose bodies were in need of repair into box vans, as detailed in the correspondence below, only 380 were ultimately converted. B 1 was the test/prototype and after evaluation, further construction commenced 9 months after B 1 was constructed. The production B's differed from B 1 in that they had pressings on the ends and a different louvre at the top of the ends, B 1 initially had a late U van type door with the louvres blanked but the whole class ended up with and solid steel door except for a couple of exceptions detailed below. The non standard doors would have been replacements for damaged doors and the workshops simply installed whatever door was in stock at the time. The class were numbered 1 - 380 and all were built at Bendigo workshops between 1958 and 1961.

ABOVE & BELOW: B 1 in as built condition, 1958. This was the only B van to have smooth ends, all the others had pressings on the end. photo courtesy PROV

ABOVE: The only major variation within the B van class was the classleader, B 1 had plain ends, the rest of the class had pressed ends,and the pressings on the side did not have the dimple at the ends. Benalla Jan 1980.

ABOVE: One of the very few variations was the fitting of U van doors to at least two B's (23 and 26). B 23 at Healsville. Dec. 20 1978. Photo courtesy Geoff Winkler