NZR JA class

The NZR JA class was a class of fifty-one 4-8-2 steam locomotives run by the New Zealand Railways Department and built in two batches. The first batch was constructed at the Hillside Workshops in Dunedin between 1946 and 1956, and the second, sixteen locomotives numbered JA 1275 to 1290, was built by the North British Locomotive Company of Glasgow in 1951 as a repeat of the successful J class of 1939. They were ordered as coal burners and completed as oil burners, the only NZR locomotives built entirely as oil burners. The class was the last steam type produced for the railways, Hillside's JA 1274 being the last steam locomotive ever built for them and the Glasgow engines the last steam locomotives imported. The Hillside engines worked express trains in the South Island and the North British engines in the North Island. Service lives were short, between 12 and 24 years, and nine lasted until the end of steam on 26 October 1971.