Tangiwai disaster
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The Tangiwai disaster was a railway accident that occurred at 10:21 p.m. on 24 December 1953, when a railway bridge over the Whangaehu River collapsed beneath an express passenger train at Tangiwai, N
The wreckage of the KA locomotive, the sixth carriage and the rail bridge, in the Whangaehu River at Tangiwai, 25 December 1953.
The destroyed bridge after the disaster
Front page of the Auckland Star newspaper of 26 December 1953
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, Karori Cemetery, 31 December 1953
Mount Ruapehu
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Mount Ruapehu is an active stratovolcano at the southern end of the Taupō Volcanic Zone and North Island volcanic plateau in New Zealand. It is 23 km northeast of Ohakune and 23 km southwest of the so
Tangiwai disaster
…the river, killing 151 people. The subsequent board of inquiry found that the accident was caused by the failure of the tephra dam holding back nearby Mount Ruapehu's Crater Lake, creating a rapid mudflow (lahar) in the Whangaehu River which destroyed one of the bridge piers at Tangiwai only minutes before the train…
Mt Ruapehu from Tongariro Northern Circuit, 2023
Mount Ruapehu from the northwest, July 2026
Crater Lake and Tahurangi, the highest peak (top right) in 2016. The 1996 tephra dam is the bluish dark area at lake edge directly below Tahurangi.
Fresh lahar channels scar Ruapehu's eastern slopes, 2007.