KA949. The Tangiwai Disaster. Central Plateau. New Zealand. - Railway Disaster Sites on Waymarking.com

At 10.15pm a lahar, caused by the collapse of the walls containing the crater-lake on Mt Ruapehu, reached Tangiwai in the form of a dense wave of water, sand and boulders, and it washed away the rail-bridge over the river. Five minutes later, when the Wellington-to-Auckland Express train attempted to cross the bridge, its locomotive and six front carriages were plunged into the flooded Whangaehu River. The lives of 151 people were lost as a result.

At 10.22pm, shortly after the lahar had reached the bridge, the Wellington to Auckland express train No.626 approached the bridge site. Seconds before Arthur Cyril Ellis, a postal worker from Taihape, had waved a torch in an attempt to stop the train causing the driver, Charles Parker, to make an emergency application of the breaks. He was too late. The locomotive KA949 and the five second-class carriages of No. 626 tumbled into the swollen river. The sixth carriage was left dangling at the end of the rails at about a 45-degree angle. A witness standing on the road on the northern bank of the Whangaehu River observed the locomotive suddenly nose-dive into the river; and noted that 'the rest of the train was left stationary with the lights burning in the carriages'. The noise of the roaring river and boulders was, in his words 'terrific' and he could not hear the train crash as it plunged into the water. Ellis saw the carriages that had fallen 'floating down the river with the lights still on'. Ellis noted that 'after they had travelled about 40 yards they disappeared and I no longer saw the lights'. In an attempt to rescue the passengers in the sixth carriage, Ellis and guard William Inglis boarded the train. Shortly afterwards, the carriage plunged into the river. With the assistance of two passengers, Ellis and Inglis managed to rescue 21 of the passengers trapped on board by lifting them through the broken windows of the carriage.

The news of the disaster became known to most New Zealanders early in Christmas Day and what was then the world's eighth biggest railway disaster 'shocked celebrations to a standstill'. An information bureau was established at the Railway Social Hall in Wellington and was open 24 hours a day to answer queries about the accident. The bodies of the victims were transferred to Wellington on 28 December and, on 31 December 1953, a ceremony was held to inter the unidentified victims in the Karori Cemetery. Prince Phillip, who had arrived in Auckland with Queen Elizabeth II just 40 hours before the accident, attended the funeral. On the last day of her tour the Queen awarded the George Medal and British Empire Medal to those who had distinguished themselves during the aftermath of the disaster.

From the Website of New Zealand Historic Places Trust. A full description and further details are available here.