never fitted with bullet-nose streamlining. Although the first JA class member was built in 1946, the boilers for the last ten Hillside JA plus two spare boilers were not delivered from North British until 1953. For this and a number of other factors, the last member of the class was not turned out of the workshops until December 1956. That last locomotive, JA 1274, was both the last steam locomotive built for and by NZR. The class was intended for the far more extensive fast passenger trains that existed in the South Island before the introduction of 88-seater railcars in 1956, and the decline in long-distance rail passenger services. In service The class only ever worked in the South Island during their NZR career. The first members operated out of Dunedin, although they were supposed to be allocated to Christchurch. When enough of the class were in service to displace the 10 members of the J class based out of Dunedin, the J locomotives headed north to join the rest of their class in the North Island. The JAs were primarily express and express freight engines running from Invercargill to Christchurch but extended their duties during their brief prime on the South Island Main Trunk from Bluff to Parnassus in the north, and on the Midland Line as far west as Arthur's Pass. Before the full delivery of the JA class, English Electric diesel locomotives had already taken over the main freight services and summer expresses on the Dunedin-Oamaru section. The JA was too big for long branch lines like Otago Central Railway or Kingston Branch. Despite some restrictions, the class were the mainstay of the South Island network. The JAs excelled when hauling the South Island Limited passenger train between Invercargill and Christchurch, notably on the fairly flat, Invercargill-Dunedin section and particularly on the fast run across the Canterbury Plains between Christchurch and Oamaru, and the evening run back on train 144 to Christchurch was well known on occasions when the train was late and racing to get to the Lyttelton-Wellington Ferry prior to its sailing. The official passenger train speed limit in New Zealand in this era was 50 mph (80.5 km/h), but the class were known to operate at higher speeds, particularly across the Canterbury Plains, where they were officially allowed to run at 55 mph (88.5 km/h). JA 1267 pulling ten carriages weighing 300 tons covered