Train derails at Tangiwai

Waimarino Bulletin, Volume 6, Issue 258, 11 October 1988, Page 1

Train derails at Tangiwai

Railway workers have been at Tangiwai around the clock over the weekend clearing away the debris from a train that derailed at about 6.15pm last Friday night. The Main Trunk Line was due to reopen midday yesterday after the workmen finished hauling the 18 fully laden wagons off the line and repairing hundreds of metres of track. Tangiwai resident Tom Mannering, who

witnessed the accident, said it was very spectacular, with wagons thrown into the air and arcing from the overhead wires as four concrete electrification poles were smashed by derailed wagons. He said the front half of the north-bound train travelled several hundred metres before stopping after becoming separated from the affected wagons. The accident happened beside the Pinex timber mill and appeared to have started at the points for the mill siding.

Speculation about the cause of the accident put it down to brake parts of a wagon dragging across the points, causing the rear wagons to be diverted off the track on which the front half of the train was travelling. The cause of the accident will be investigated by Railways. Tangiwai was the scene of the rail disaster which claimed 151 lives on Christmas Eve, 1953 at the Tangiwai Bridge, a few hundred metres west of the weekend crash.