It is Christmas 1953 and New Zealand is mourning a tragedy.
An intercity train from Wellington, New Zealand, never arrived at its destination Auckland.
The missing train was the victim of a flood which caused a bridge collapse across the
Whangaehu River. wThunga-eyhu
151 would perish as the train was plunged into the river below the bridge.
The event would go down as one of the worst in New Zealand history and as one of the most
unfortunate turn of events as if the train was just a few minutes earlier or later then
disaster could have been averted.
Today we are looking at the Tangi-wai disaster wait to the end to see if you will agree with
North Island Main Trunk is the main railway line on new Zealand’s most populous north
island.
The line connects the country's two main cities Auckland and Wellington.
Completed in 1908 it is a marvel of Victorian and 20th century engineering,
The line spans rivers, climbs mountains and passes over vast viaducts.
One such crossing is near the small rural village of Tangiwai on the Whangaehu River.
The river flows down the mountain side from Crater Lake for approximately eight and one-half
miles in an easterly direction, then turns towards the south at the bottom of a fan,
runs more or less parallel with the Desert Road for approximately six miles, thence in
a south-westerly direction towards Tangiwai. The total distance to Tangiwai is approximately
twenty-five miles. The river flowing down from crater lake created
a risk and that was erosion of its fragile ash banks, which in turn would release large
quantities of water down the river channel. The violence of the flow would also take with
it large quantities of material, creating a lahar, a violent type of mudflow composed
of a slurry of pyroclastic material, rocky debris and water.
Needless to say this can be horrendously destructive, washing away anything in its path.
The river was spanned by bridge no 136, it was built around 1906, by the public works
department.
The bridge was built to a generic standard design used elsewhere in the country, it stood
at a length of 198 ft and made use of steel construction supported by with 8 concrete
piers.
The spans consisted of from north to south 1/22 ft. 2/44 ft and 4/22 ft. plate girder
spans.
The bridge design would be criticized later on in that the piers had insufficient foundations
and piers 5 and 7 were superfluous for structural integrity and even hinder the flow of water
along the river. But we will come back to this later on.
The bridge would suffer a number of damages throughout its working life, which required
repairs to its foundations and piers.
The first of such damage occurred in 1925 when a 9ft swell made its way along the river
causing a scour on pier 4s upstream-side above its footing, this caused the track on the
bridge to be mis aligned and resulted in a ½ inch movement of the structure.
To fix the damage rocks were placed into the scour, but this wouldn't be the last time
the bridge suffered damage.,
Just over 10 years later in march 1936 the Foreman of Works reported scour at Piers Nos.
3 and 4.
He recommended 15 wagons of stone protection. This work was completed on 18 June 1936.
Pier 3 would be damaged again in february 1944 after a flood and whirlpool scoured a
hole 10 ft. in diameter and 3 ft. deep on the upstream side of the pier
In june 1946 engineers suggested placing eight 5-ton concrete protective blocks in the vicinity
of Pier No. 4, to offer protection from floods and debris, the project was completed in july
the same year, the bridge was closely monitored for the next couple of years, but no other
issues were reported.
Which leads us on to train 626 departing Wellington enroute to Auckland at 3 p.m. on the 24th
december 1953.
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Train 626 consisted of a KA class steam locomotive hauling eleven carriages: five second class,
four first class, a guard's van and a postal van, that evening the 467.3 ton 704 ft formation
was carrying 285 passengers and crew.
Many aboard are holiday makers, and as the evening set in many had settled down for the
night, at around 1020pm the train passed through Tangi-wai at what eyewitnesses on the station
platform thought to be slower than usual at around 40mph.
For reference the line speed was 50mph, apart from being slower than usual nothing else
out of the ordinary could be seen as the locomotive and its rake passed through.
Just 1 mile down the line was bridge 136 and its span over the Whanga-ehu River.
As the train approached the Tangiwai end entrance to the bridge the engine crew saw a man alongside
the track waving a light, strange they thought but soon enough the reason became apparent.
As the headlight of the locomotive washed over the bridge ahead a section of the track
ahead was missing, but what couldn't be seen in the December darkness was that a whole
section of the bridge had completely failed sending some of the structure into the whangaehu.
Immediately the driver and fireman applied the emergency brakes, but it was too late
as the train couldn't stop in the distance of available track.
The locomotive tender and first 5 carriages went careering off the bridge plunging into
the river below.
The remaining three first-class carriages, the guard's carriage, and the postal carriage
remained precariously on the track.
Cyril Ellis, the man who was waving the light by the side of the track to warn the train
of its impending doom, approached the guard and explained what he had seen.
The two men made their way to the 6th carriage, the first first class carriage which by now
was teetering on the edge of the damaged track, and attempted to evacuate the passengers onboard.
They, with the assistance of a passenger, managed to evacuate 24 people by smashing
out the windows. One person wasn't so lucky, as the coupling of the carriage failed, resulting
in the carriage rolling into the river.
148 lives were lost to the river, including the driver and fireman; 22 of the victims'
bodies would never be recovered.
5 miles away the Wai ow ru Military Camp dispatched soldiers to assist in rescue operations, along
with rescue teams.
By midnight the first survivors were evacuated to Waiouru, a few hours later the first of
the dead were recovered and sent to a makeshift morgue.
More of the dead would be pulled from the river downstream by locals and farmers, giving
a grim awareness of the disaster.
60 of the victims bodies would be recovered in such ways, but the unrecovered victims
are thought to have been washed out to sea.
As many awake for christmas morning the news is broadcast across the country, and the public
is made aware of the full scope of the tragedy.
With so many dead, and an apparently sudden unexplained disaster on one of the country's
most important railway lines, the question of how has to be asked.
Soon after the tragedy, investigators are dispatched to the site to pick over the wreckage
and collapsed bridge.
Upon seeing the locations of the carriages and the missing span of the bridge, investigators
concluded that the failed 22ft steel girder span must have failed before the train had
begun its passage on the bridge, and thus hinting at something other than the train
to be the cause of the collapse.
The bridge had the top portion Pier No. 2 broken off, and this was lying under the bridge
between Piers 1 and 2. Pier No. 3 was smashed above the base into at least four pieces and
pier 4 was completely missing, having been broken into multiple pieces.
Piers 1, 6, 7, and 8 were not damaged. But what was the cause of the dramatic damage
to the piers.
Well, investigators looked into the bridges past and this pointed to the likely cause
to be further upstream at the crater lake.
You see the beginnings of the 1953 disaster goes all the way back to March 1945 and Mt
Ruapehu's Rua-pe-eU eruption, the debris from this formed a naturally occurring tephra dam
at the crater lake, which in turn caused it to fill with water.
Eventually this dam would be insufficient to hold back the lake, and sadly the tipping
point was the 24th december 1953. The dam failure released water from the Crater
Lake through an outlet cave beneath the Whangaehu Glacier.
The was channelled down the Whangaehu River carrying with it a high content of ash deposited
from the 1945 eruption and blocks of ice due to the collapse of large volumes of the glacier.
This torrent of effluent smashed into the previously weakened bridge causing pier 4
to fail, sending the span into the river. The investigators had to deal with questions
on the bridge's original design's suitability for the area, but an earlier fire at government
buildings before the disaster had destroyed the plans.
But what we do know is the bridge wasn't suitable or seriously weakened enough for this particular
lahar. The disaster would improve safety in the area,
as the New Zealand Railways Department would install a lahar warning system upstream to
alert train control to high river flows, needless to say this was lacking in 1953.
The Passerby who alerted the train Cyril Ellis and passenger John Holman were awarded the
George Cross for their bravery that day. And guard Inglis and a passing traveller,
Arthur Dewar Bell, both received the British Empire Medal for their actions that saved
fifteen lives. Sadly the disaster was a pure accident of
bad luck, although the bridge was likely deficient, if the train was early or really delayed the
tragic loss of such life might not have happened. The bridge would be rebuilt, reconnecting
the vital railway line. So the disaster I’m going to rate here is
7 on my disaster scale and also 7 on my legacy scale, do you agree? Let me know in the comment
below.
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https://www.environmentandsociety.org/arcadia/lahar-meets-locomotive-new-zealands-tangiwai-railway-disaster-christmas-eve-1953