The year 1953 was memorable for several reasons: it was the year when
a New Zealander, Sir Edmund Hillary, and Sherpa Tenzing became the first
me to climb Mount Everest; it was the year of Queen Elizabeth II's coronation;
but it was also the year that the tragic rail crash occurred near Tangiwai
on Christmas Eve.
Just before 10.20pm on a fine night, the north bound Wellington-to-Auckland
express approached the bridge that crossed the Whangaehu River. There had
been no rain, and there was no reason to suspect that the normally peaceful
river would be in flood.
But approximately two hours earlier, a huge section of the wall of
the crater lake on mount Ruapehu had broken away, releasing up to two million
cubic metres of water. This water formed a lahar, a silt-laden flood, which
swept down the mountain with great force, carrying uprooted trees, boulders,
and great chunks of ice along with it.
It was like a great tidal wave by the time it reached Tangiwai. The
river, now swollen by several metres, swept away the pylons of the rail
bridge. The first person to notice the flood was Cyril Ellis, a post office
worker from Taihape. As he approached the bridge in his truck, he saw that
the normally quiet stream had become a raging torrent in the darkness of
the night. Then he saw the light of the rapidly approaching Auckland express
and realised the danger. He rushed back along the track waving his torch,
hoping to stop the train before it reached the bridge. But as he jumped
aside, yelling a warning to the driver, he felt they had failed to see
him.
Cyril Ellis watched in horror as the train, which consisted of an engine,
nine carriages and two vans, raced onto the bridge at over 64 kilometres
(40 miles) per hour. The engine almost reached the opposite side before
it nose-dived into the bank with a crash which could be clearly heard above
the roaring of the flood. The following five carriages buckled into the
air before plunging into the roaring floodwaters.
The sixth carriage was left teetering on the edge of the shattered
bridge. Ellis and the train's guard, William Inglis, climbed aboard to
warn the shocked passengers. They told the passengers to escape into the
carriage behind before it toppled into the torrent below, but they were
too late! The carriage began to rock dangerously; the coupling snapped;
and the carriage plunged into the flood-swollen river.
The carriage was tossed about like a toy boat. The lights went out,
and it began to fill with water. The passengers were thrown about as the
carriage was buffeted by the racing water. When the carriage finally came
to rest on its side, the passengers found themselves up to their necks
in water thick with silt, and oil from the shattered engine.
Amazingly, Cyril Ellis found that his torch still worked. He broke
a window, and with the help of Inglis and another man, John Holeman, they
began to lift passengers up through the broken window and onto the side
of the carriage. Together they managed to rescue all of the passengers
from the sixth carriage, except for one.
Once outside, they huddled on the side of the carriage as it rocked
dangerously. The water was so thick with debris that it looked almost solid.
At this stage the water was only a foot below the side of the carriage
and the survivors were afraid they might be swept away at any moment. They
were cold and frightened and uncomfortable. Many of them had silt and oil
in their ears, eyes and noses, and even in the linings of their clothes.
Eventually the floodwaters began to recede, and the passengers from
the sixth carriage were able to reach the riverbank, battered and silt-laden
but alive.
Arthur Bell and his wife were on their way to Waiouru on the opposite
side of the stream when they discovered that the road bridge was completely
flood. They witnessed the train crashing into the river. While Mrs Bell
went to get help, Arthur stayed to help rescue survivors. He broke the
windows of one of the carriages stranded on an embankment. Inside he found
twenty passengers, some of whom were badly injured. The water in the carriage
was almost three feet deep. Somehow, Arthur Bell managed to help sixteen
of the survivors to safe ground.
The passengers from the other carriages were less fortunate. One carriage
was swept more than two kilometres downstream. Many people were thrown
or washed out of the carriages and were caught in bushes, or buried in
mud. Some drowned before they were left stranded on the banks, their clothes
torn from their bodies by the power of the flood.
The conditions throughout the rescue attempts were hazardous and at
times overwhelming. The floodwaters surged and raced with such volume and
power that a person could easily be swept off his feet and away into the
darkness. The water was also laden with debris - rocks, boulders, wood,
train and bridge wreckage including oil, as well as silt from the crater
lake. Surviving passengers were shocked, injured, battered and often so
covered with oil and silt they could hardly see or move.
Help soon arrived on the scene: soldiers from the military camp at
Waiouru arrived and worked with local volunteers and forestry workers from
Karioi, and rescue operations swung into action. But, sadly, it was largely
a case of finding and identifying the bodies of the victims. Of the 285
passengers on the train that night, 134 survived and 151 died. Of the 151
who died in the tragedy, most were drowned in the swirling floodwaters.
Most of the passengers who survived were in the last three carriages
of the train. These were the carriages which stopped before they reached
the broken bridge. It was later discovered that the brakes had been applied,
and that the warning by Cyril Ellis, and the actions of the driver and
fireman, had saved many lives.
News of the tragedy soon spread to other parts of New Zealand, and
many people mourned the loss of friends or relatives.
The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh were visiting New Zealand at the
time of the disaster. They were able to meet some of the survivors, and
the Duke of Edinburgh attended a state funeral for many of the victims
in Wellington. The Queen awarded Cyril Ellis and John Holeman the George
Medal and Arthur Bell and William Inglis the British Empire Medal.
Tangiwai means weeping waters in Maori, and every Christmas Eve, as
the train crosses the bridge at Tangiwai, it slows down and a bunch of flowers
is thrown into the water in memory of those who lost their lives in the
tragedy of 1953.
