A little storyboard about the Tangiwai disaster.

1. A Bloody Story
By: Dipshay

2. On a peaceful Christmas Eve The Wellington to Auckland Night
express just left the station. What they didn’t know was that Mt
Ruapehu’s crater was about to collapse.

3. Minutes after the departure - of the Wellington to Auckland Night
Express – Mt Ruapehu’s Crater collapsed. This sent a silt – laden
flood down to Whangaehu River .

4. The ‘flood’ had broken one of the four piers that held up the bridge.
The bridge collapsed. The driver then put on the brakes. Too late...

5. At precisely 10:21 pm the engine, tender (place where the fuel is
kept) and the first five carriages flew off the bridge into the water.
It’s hard to think how anyone could have survived this.

6. Out of the 285 people of board, 151 died, 114 survived and 20 were
unaccounted for. It was presumed that their bodies went 120km
downriver and out to sea.

7. In 1953, the Tangiwai Memorial was unveiled to the public. On it
was the exact replica of the number plate of the locomotive. With a
151 dead this was the worst railway disaster in NZ and the 8th
largest in the world.