Victorian Railways initially numbered passenger and goods locomotives separately, the engines were delivered with numbers 32–51, 64–69, 82–87. This system was changed before these locos entered service to odd numbers for goods locomotives and even numbers for passenger locos with these locomotives taking the even numbers 46–96, 102–112, 186–188. They were initially used on passenger trains to cope with the steeper 1 in 50 grades of the
Geelong–Ballarat railway, the
Melbourne-Ballarat railway and the
Melbourne-Bendigo-Echuca railway. B50 was selected to haul the first
Victorian Railways Royal Train in 1867, taking
Prince Alfred Duke of Edinburgh to Ballarat, Bendigo and Castlemaine. The Royal Train was recorded running the between Melbourne and Geelong in as little as 52 minutes. B88 had the honour of leading the first VR train to Albury on 14 June 1883. Future VR express passenger locomotives were to use a four-wheel leading
bogie to steer the locomotive, and from 1884, a class of locomotives (later classed '
Old A') began to supplement, and eventually supersede the B class. Despite the delivery of the Old A, and the later and increasingly larger '
New A' and
AA class 4-4-0s of 1889 and 1900 respectively, the entire B class (other than a couple of accident write-offs) lasted into the 20th century, with their roles ranging from
double heading on express passenger trains to shunting duties. The last two in service (B56 & B76) spent their final days shunting carriages at
Spencer Street Station and yards, and were withdrawn for scrapping in May and June 1917. An unknown boiler from either a B or
O class was used until 1941 to power the refrigeration plant at Spencer Street where ice was made for T vans. ==Fleet summary==