Withdrawal and Disposal
One member of the class, KA 949, was wrecked in the Tangiwai disaster on 24 December 1953, New Zealand's worst rail disaster. Although recovered from the Whangaehu River and taken to Hutt Workshops, it was never repaired and officially written off in 1955. Although the locomotive was subsequently scrapped, the NZR recovered quite a number of components from it and re-used these on other locomotives as the need arose.
With the commencement of main line dieselisation in 1954, the class was slowly displaced from front line service, especially as the DA class was progressively introduced to service from 1955. Withdrawals began in 1964. The last locomotive in revenue service, KA 935, ran in 1967. KA 942 was held for a time at Hutt Workshops for possible use as a stationery boiler, but this did not proceed.
Read more about this topic: NZR KA Class
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