The
Tangiwai disaster on 24 December 1953 was the worst
railRail transport is a means of conveyance of passengers and goods by way of wheeled vehicles running on rail tracks. In contrast to road transport, where vehicles merely run on a prepared surface, rail vehicles are also directionally guided by the tracks they run on...
accident in
New ZealandNew Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
history. An 11-carriage overnight express from
WellingtonWellington is the capital city and third most populous urban area of New Zealand, although it is likely to have surpassed Christchurch due to the exodus following the Canterbury Earthquake. It is at the southwestern tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Rimutaka Range...
to
AucklandThe Auckland metropolitan area , in the North Island of New Zealand, is the largest and most populous urban area in the country with residents, percent of the country's population. Auckland also has the largest Polynesian population of any city in the world...
fell into the
Whangaehu RiverThe Whangaehu River is a large river in central North Island of New Zealand. Its headwaters are the crater lake of Mount Ruapehu on the central plateau, and it flows into the Tasman Sea eight kilometres southeast of Wanganui.-Length:...
at Tangiwai, ten kilometres (six miles) west of
WaiouruWaiouru is a small town in the centre of the North Island of New Zealand. It is on the North Island Volcanic Plateau, 25 kilometres south-east of Mount Ruapehu, and in the Ruapehu District....
. The bridge carrying the
North Island Main Trunk Railway over the river had been badly damaged just minutes earlier by a
laharA lahar is a type of mudflow or debris flow composed of a slurry of pyroclastic material, rocky debris, and water. The material flows down from a volcano, typically along a river valley. The term is a shortened version of "berlahar" which originated in the Javanese language of...
from
Mount RuapehuMount Ruapehu, or just Ruapehu, is an active stratovolcano at the southern end of the Taupo Volcanic Zone in New Zealand. It is 23 kilometres northeast of Ohakune and 40 kilometres southwest of the southern shore of Lake Taupo, within Tongariro National Park...
. The
KA classThe NZR KA class of 1939 was a class of mixed traffic 4-8-4 steam locomotives that operated on New Zealand's railway network. They were built after the success of the K class to meet the increasing traffic demands of the New Zealand Railways Department...
steam locomotiveA steam locomotive is a railway locomotive that produces its power through a steam engine. These locomotives are fueled by burning some combustible material, usually coal, wood or oil, to produce steam in a boiler, which drives the steam engine...
, all five second-class carriages, and the leading first-class carriage derailed, resulting in the deaths of 151 of the 285 people aboard the train. Of the 176 second-class passengers aboard, only 28 survived.
The accident
The damage inflicted by the lahar washed away one complete span and left only the rails, supported by the remaining concrete piers. When the train ran onto the bridge the rails were incapable of supporting its weight and buckled in the middle. The engine had nearly made it to the other side when the bridge gave way. The locomotive and first carriage were launched into the air by striking a remaining concrete pier and reached the opposite bank of the river. The impact of the accident caused the locomotive's tender to flip over the locomotive and rip the cab away from the engine, thereby killing the crew. Following the first carriage, the second to fifth carriages tumbled into the river and were torn apart, with substantial loss of life. One of the carriages was carried five miles (5 miles (8 km)) downstream by the lahar. All five of these carriages were second-class carriages; the leading first-class carriage was sixth in the train and it teetered on the edge of the bridge before its
couplingA coupling is a mechanism for connecting rolling stock in a train. The design of the coupler is standard, and is almost as important as the railway gauge, since flexibility and convenience are maximised if all rolling stock can be coupled together.The equipment that connects the couplings to the...
to the rest of the train snapped and, with nothing left to restrain it, it rolled into the river. The remaining three first-class carriages, the guard's van, and a
travelling post officeA Travelling Post Office was a type of mail train in the UK where the post was sorted en-route. The last Travelling Post Office services were ended on 9 January 2004, with the carriages used now sold for scrap or to preservation societies....
van remained on the track.
Rescue efforts
Shortly after the accident, rescue teams departed from Waiouru 5 mi (8 km) east of Tangiwai. These included soldiers from
Waiouru Army CampThe Waiouru Army Camp is a base of the New Zealand Army in the central North Island near Waiouru.Waiouru is often referred to by soldiers as the home of the army as it houses the army marae and is the base where all New Zealand Army soldiers complete their initial basic training called All Arms...
, radio operators from Irirangi Naval Communications Station and MOW workmen from the Waiouru Ministry of Works camp. By midnight survivors were being admitted into the Waiouru Camp Hospital, and by 4 am on Christmas morning bodies started arriving there.
The Prime Minister,
Sidney HollandSir Sidney George Holland, GCMG, CH was the 25th Prime Minister of New Zealand from 13 December 1949 to 20 September 1957.-Early life:...
, arrived at Tangiwai early on Christmas morning after a high-speed drive down from Auckland. He coordinated the rescue work by railway, army, police, navy, MOW, local farmers and undertakers. While the army led efforts near the accident site, local farmers recovered bodies further down the Whangaehu River; at Fields Track, Mount View, Mangamahu, Kauangaroa, Whangaehu village and the river mouth. The bodies were taken by truck to Wanganui and thence by rail to Waiouru, where police and undertakers identified them. Local settlers carried out daily search-and-recovery operations for the next month as bodies rose to the surface.
Among the dead was Nerissa Love, the fiancee of cricketer
Bob BlairRobert William Blair is a former cricketer who played 19 Tests for New Zealand.In December 1953 Blair, playing for New Zealand against South Africa at Johannesburg, received news that his fiancée, Nerissa Love, had been killed in the Tangiwai railway disaster on Christmas Eve...
, who was playing in a Test Match in South Africa at the time. On going out to bat after his loss, he received a standing ovation. Another victim was Suzanne Kennedy, daughter of a local farmer. She was coming home for Christmas and her family were waiting for her at the Karioi railway station, just beyond the Tangiwai bridge.
The death toll of 151 consisted of 148 second-class passengers, one first-class passenger, the engine driver Charles Parker, and the fireman Lance Redman. Twenty of the bodies were never found and were presumed to have been carried 120 km (74.6 mi) downriver to the ocean. However, over the last fifty years, the skeletons of several victims have been found in the eroding banks of the Whangaehu River . When a farmer found the first skeletal remains from the Tangiwai 12 months after the disaster, he notified the police, and they investigated him for murder, causing great indignation in the district . As a consequence, local settlers have quietly re-interred later skeletal finds .
Individual bravery, awards, and recognition
The actions of numerous individuals saved many lives, with Cyril Ellis in particular credited as a hero. Ellis was driving north with his wife, Patricia Amelia Ellis, and mother-in-law, Gertrude Alice Nicholson, to visit his parents for Christmas when he discovered the road bridge near the railway line was flooded and impassable. He noticed the approaching light of the train, and assuming that the railway bridge would be similarly impassable, he ran to warn the train, brandishing a torch. He stated that he leapt the railway fence, climbed up the embankment, and ran down the middle of the line towards the oncoming train while waving the torch before jumping clear. A commission of inquiry after the accident determined that the locomotive crew were aware of the danger at some point before the accident, as the driver had shut off the steam regulator valve and applied the emergency brakes, and the fireman had sanded the track for 700 metres. However, this took place too close to the bridge to avoid disaster and the commission was unable to ascertain whether Ellis's actions motivated those of the crew.
After the train crashed, Ellis informed the train's guard, William Inglis, of what had happened and the two entered the sixth carriage, then still balanced precariously on the bridge's edge, in an attempt to save passengers. While they were in the carriage, it tumbled off the bridge and Ellis and Inglis, with the assistance of passenger John Holman, smashed a window and helped passengers out of the carriage. Of the carriage's 24 occupants, only one died, a girl who was trapped in her seat and drowned.
For their actions, Ellis and Holman received the
George MedalThe George Medal is the second level civil decoration of the United Kingdom and Commonwealth.The GM was instituted on 24 September 1940 by King George VI. At this time, during the height of The Blitz, there was a strong desire to reward the many acts of civilian courage...
. Inglis and a passing traveller, Arthur Dewar Bell, both received the
British Empire MedalThe Medal of the Order of the British Empire for Meritorious Service, usually known as the British Empire Medal , is a British medal awarded for meritorious civil or military service worthy of recognition by the Crown...
for actions that saved 15 lives.
Queen Elizabeth IIElizabeth II is the constitutional monarch of 16 sovereign states known as the Commonwealth realms: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize,...
and
Prince PhilipPrince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh is the husband of Elizabeth II. He is the United Kingdom's longest-serving consort and the oldest serving spouse of a reigning British monarch....
were visiting New Zealand on their first royal tour when the disaster occurred. The Queen made her Christmas broadcast from Auckland, finishing with a message of sympathy to the people of New Zealand. Prince Philip attended a state funeral for many of the victims.
Commission of Inquiry
Evidence given at the commission of inquiry into the disaster revealed that the midstream piers of the bridge had been undermined by previous sudden floods, from as early as 1925. Concrete blocks weighing several tons had been placed around the footings of these piers and the space between the blocks and the piers backfilled with gravel, but the lahar was strong enough to sweep these away.
The cause of the lahar was the collapse of a natural volcanic ash dam blocking the outlet of
Mount RuapehuMount Ruapehu, or just Ruapehu, is an active stratovolcano at the southern end of the Taupo Volcanic Zone in New Zealand. It is 23 kilometres northeast of Ohakune and 40 kilometres southwest of the southern shore of Lake Taupo, within Tongariro National Park...
’s crater lake down the Whangaehu glacier. Until this disaster, the danger posed by lahars from Mount Ruapehu was appreciated by only a few scientists.
Warning system
Following the disaster, the Railways Department installed a lahar warning system upstream in the river to alert train control to high river flows. Also, signalling of the North Island Main Trunk was modernised - the system at the time consisted of a tablet system with no track circuits. The current line uses
centralized traffic controlCentralized traffic control is a form of railway signalling that originated in North America and centralizes train routing decisions that were previously carried out by local signal operators or the train crews themselves. The system consists of a centralized train dispatcher's office that...
signalling, with track circuits to automatically set signals to danger if the line is occupied or if the tracks are broken. However, it is not always reliable, as tracks can remain intact even though they are unsupported.
The current early warning system, installed in 1999, measures the river level using radar, and sends the level to the Network Control Centre at
Wellington Railway StationWellington Railway Station is the southern terminus of New Zealand's North Island Main Trunk railway, Wairarapa Line and Johnsonville Line. In terms of number of services and in passenger numbers, it is New Zealand's busiest railway station.-Development:...
via a RF link to Waiouru and then via the signalling network to Wellington. If the river changes level, an alarm goes off alerting staff to the fact. If the level is of a significant risk, the Control Centre sets the signals either side of the Tangiwai bridge to danger and warns trains in the area to stay clear via radio. The system is virtually failsafe, as if there is a problem with the system, it automatically sends a fault signal to the Control Centre. In this instance, trains in the area are restricted to 25 km/h (16 mph) and told to take extreme care over the Tangiwai Bridge. Since 2002, it has also been backed-up by the
Eastern Ruapehu Lahar Alarm and Warning SystemERLAWS, the Eastern Ruapehu Lahar Alarm and Warning System, is a lahar warning system installed on Mount Ruapehu, New Zealand, following volcanic eruptions in 1995–1996. The system successfully detected and warned about a lahar in March 2007...
(ERLAWS).
A lahar of similar magnitude to the 1953 one occurred on 18 March 2007. The early warning systems worked as planned, stopping trains and motorists at Tangiwai before the lahar hit. The newer bridges held up to the lahar, and after inspection, trains resumed operation over the bridge. No one was injured or killed in the accident.
Dramatisation
In 2011, a television film about the disaster was made by Lippy Pictures for
Television New ZealandTelevision New Zealand, more commonly referred to, and stylized as TVNZ, is a government-owned corporation television network broadcasting in New Zealand and parts of the Pacific. It operates TV1, TV2, TVNZ7, TVNZ Heartland, TVNZ U and new media services....
. Entitled
Tangiwai: A Love Story, it follows the disaster and the love story between cricketer Bob Blair and his fiancée Nerissa Love (portrayed by Ryan O'Kane and
Rose McIverRose McIver is an actress from New Zealand. She is most famous for her role as Summer Landsdown/Ranger Operator Series Yellow in 2009's Power Rangers: RPM...
respectively), the latter of whom was killed in the disaster. It premiered on TV One on 14 August 2011.
A play written and performed by Auckland actor Jonny Brugh,
The Second Test, tells the same story from Blair's perspective, emphasizing his commitment to continue playing with the New Zealand team, then on tour in South Africa, after hearing of the tragedy.
Trivia
- The remaining three first class cars and matching van would go on to be refurbished 22 years later for the former Northerner
The Northerner was an overnight passenger train between Wellington and Auckland in New Zealand. Originally numbered 227 southbound and 626 northbound, it replaced the unnamed and less revered ordinary express trains supplementing the luxurious Silver Star , which had replaced the Night Limited in...
Express trains that preceded Trains 626 and 227.
Similar accidents
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washawayA washaway is a particular kind of landslide that can affect man-made structures such as cuttings, embankments and bridges. They are thus a hazard to railways and road traffic.- Overview :...
s include:
27 September 1923 – near
Glenrock, WyomingGlenrock is a town in Converse County, Wyoming, United States. The population was 2,231 at the 2000 census.Glenrock, known as Deer Creek Station, had its beginning as a mail and stage station along the Oregon Trail. The station served as a relay and eating place and was a vital supply point for...
- a bridge over Coal Creek was washed away and a passenger train derailed, killing 30 of the train’s 66 passengers.
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Crystal BrookCrystal Brook may refer to:*Crystal Brook *Crystal Brook, South Australia, town...
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South AustraliaSouth Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...
- train thrown into river after washaway collapses bridge.
1993 - 114 perished in a passenger train that plunged into a river after floods washed away a bridge at Ngai Ndethya,
KenyaKenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...
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29 October 2005 -
Veligonda train disasterThe Valigonda rail disaster occurred on 29 October 2005 near the town of Valigonda, south of Hyderabad in the Indian State of Andhra Pradesh. A flash flood swept away a small rail bridge, and a "Delta Express" train travelling on it derailed at the broken section of the line, killing at least 114...
in
IndiaIndia , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
- 114 killed
See also
General historical information
Reports