{{DISPLAYTITLE:NZR JA class}} The NZR JA class were a type of 4-8-2 steam locomotive used on the New Zealand railway network. The class was built in two batches, the first batch was built at Dunedin's Hillside Workshops between 1946 and 1956 and the second batch by the North British Locomotive Works in 1951. To distinguish between the batches, locomotives are identified by their maker. The JA class was the last class of steam locomotive built both for and by New Zealand Railways (NZR). Hillside built JA 1274 was the last steam locomotive ever built by NZR, and the North British JAs were the last steam locomotives built overseas for the NZR. The class had relatively short lives of between 12 and 24 years, as they were replaced by diesel locomotives as part of NZR's dieselisation process. Nine JAs lasted until the end of steam on 26 October 1971. Hillside JA of 1946 History The class were an improved version of the J class locomotives. Unlike the J class, which were built overseas by the North British Locomotive Company in Glasgow, Scotland, the new class were instead constructed by NZR's Hillside Workshops in Dunedin. Much of the components, such as the bar frames, were still sourced from North British as Hillside lacked the means to construct such a frame. Some of the more notable improvements from the J class were the use of the Westinghouse cross-compound pump; Ashton double pressure gauge; the Sellars injector in the cab; steam for the pump was taken from a manifold in the cab and not an outlet on the steam dome; combined gauges in the cab; and roller bearings on the driving and connecting rods. However, the first two JAs produced, No.'s 1242 and 1243, did not have roller bearings on any of the rods, and on the rest of the locomotives numbered in the 124X range, roller bearings were only present at the connection between the driving and connecting rods and not on the other wheels. All roller-bearing equipped JA locomotives 1265 to 1270 were assigned by Linwood locomotive depot in Christchurch and used to haul the South Island Limited wherever possible between 1952 and 1968, the fastest being JA 1270 scrapped in mid-1969, requiring only minimal repair after running into an unaligned turntable pit. In most other respects the class was virtually identical to the earlier J class, although the JA class was