This Profile was kindly written and supplied by William Snook.

The JPA tanks were constructed by Feldbinder of Germany, a company that specialised in vehicles (both road and rail) for the carriage of bulk powders. Over two orders, a total of 63 tanks were built in 2007-2008. The first 48 tanks were for LaFarge and the remaining 15 for Castle Cement. The tanks were constructed to JP003A design and assigned a TOPS code JPA-A. Of note, the JP001A design code is still assigned to the long gone JPV-E coil carrying conversions.

The LaFarge tanks were delivered with a brushed aluminium finish. Interestingly the Castle tanks were delivered unpainted, as recorded by Tom Smith at Mossend in 2008, but were subsequently painted in an eggshell white. The innovative aluminium bodied design, fitted with lightweight track-friendly bogies, gave the JPA wagon a tare weight of approximately 19.5 tonnes, a saving of eight to ten tonnes over some older steel bodied bogie powder tanks, and an estimated five tonnes over a steel wagon of the same modern design, allowing the tanks to carry higher payloads as a result. The pipework on the end of the wagon is for pressurised air to be supplied to the top of the tank in order to aid the discharge of the powdered cement which has a tendency to settle in transit.

The LaFarge wagons can most commonly be found working the Inverness to Oxwellmains and Theale to Hope routes, whilst the Castle wagons can be spotted working out of Clitheroe to places such as Avonmouth and Mossend. By 2017, the LaFarge branding was replaced with Tarmac.

The wagon design was clearly a success and in 2014, a further 67 JPA bogie cement wagons were ordered. The wagons began arriving a year later, and, being built by Feldbinder in Germany, were similar in appearance to the batch from 2007. The 48 for Hope Construction Materials arrived in two batches of 24, the first in October 2015 (81.70.9316.001-024), followed by the remainder in March 2016 (81.70.9316.025-048). The wagons were coded JPA-C to design code JP005A and were finished in unpainted metal with purple logos. Hanson's 19 JPAs arrived in November 2015 as 81.70.9316.049-067 and though similar in appearance were coded JPA-D to JP006A. Meanwhile Tarmac had placed an order for a further 46 JPA wagons and the first of these also arrived in March 2016 (81.70.9316.068-070) and coded JPA-E to JP007A. The order was however cut back to just the three wagons.

A final batch was delivered in autumn 2016 and comprised 20 wagons for use by Tarmac/Blue Circle from Oxwellmains in Scotland. Unlike all previous JPAs, these wagons were owned by Colas Rail (rather than VTG), and carried that company's orange hat logo at the left-hand end of each side. The wagons were numbered 39.70.9316.001-020, which are technically illegal! The TSI (Technical Standards of Interopability) state that numbers should be unique irrespective of the exchange code carried. Hence having two wagons numbered xx.70.9316.001-x should not have happened. Although seemingly identical to earlier wagons, this batch introduced yet more new codes, JPA-F and JP008A for TOPS and design codes respectively.

Whilst the wagons have had a fairly unremarkable career so far, there were two notable developments. Firstly, VTG won the Technical Development Award at the 2009 RFG Awards for the innovative design.

The second is that of the Petterill Bridge Junction derailment on 19th October 2022. Train 6C00 Clitheroe - Carlisle NY ran into trouble at Petterill Bridge Junction which saw two tanks fall off the bridge, a third wagon being so badly damaged that the insurer decided to write it off. The rest of the consist came to rest on or around the railhead.

The cause of the accident was discovered to be false flanges. This is where a flange is created on the outside of the wheel profile due to dragging or stuck brakes creating a groove across the centre of the wheel profile. As the train crossed the major points section on Petterill Bridge, the inevitable happened. The newly created flanges struck the points, lifting the wheels up and over the railhead, resulting in the wheels being able to move freely from the confines of the railway. A tight left curve drew the wagons to the in that direction and physics did the rest.

The first seven wagons 12454, 12458, 12462, 12452, 12448, 12453 and 12456 remained on the rails, wagon number eight, 12459, was pulled sideways and came to a rest against the B&Q boundary fence and required lifting out by crane. Wagons nine and ten, 12455 and 12451 left the railway and ended up in the river and down the river bank respectively. Wagon numbers eleven and twelve, 12450 and 12449 derailed but remained upright sustaining minor damage. Wagons thirteen and fourteen, 12460 and 12461 remained on the rails and were taken back to Clitheroe by locomotive 60087. The first five wagons were taken to Carlisle Yard by the train's locomotive 66739. Wagons six and seven remained on site as they were still coupled to the wagons behind to act as anchors.

Two wagons were deemed economically repairable and were taken to the Feldbinder site in Spalding for repairs. Those wagons were 12449 and 12450. The wagons were returned to Clitheroe in January 2024.

Whilst no person or company is infallible, modern technology played an important part in exonerating the company and it's groundstaff at GBRf with the use of body cameras. With the video evidence showing that the groundstaff had correctly prepared the train for service, attention was shifted to wagon maintenance cycles where it is understood that this was a factor in the derailment.