Development of the New York Central's Hudsons culminated in the J-3a class, Nos. 5405-5444, delivered by ALCo in 1937, followed by the ten streamlined Hudsons a year later. The unstreamlined members of the class weighed in at around 360,000 pounds. They had 22½x29-inch cylinders, and carried a boiler pressure of 265 pounds. (The pressure was originally set at 275 pounds, but was reduced when it was found that the additional thrust actually caused the rods to bend.) Although the tractive effort of the J-3s without booster was somewhat lower that that of the J-1 class, with booster cut in it was slightly higher at 53,960 pounds. No. 5405, the first of the 40 nonstreamlined locomotives, represents the class in this builder's photo; she remained in service until 1956.