Notes

"The Tangiwai disaster is New Zealand's worst ever rail accident. It occurred at 10.21 pm on 24 December 1953 when Whangaehu River bridge collapsed beneath a Wellington to Auckland express passenger train at Tangiwai, in the central North island. The locomotive and first six carriages derailed into the river, killing 151 people. The subsequent Board of Inquiry found that the accident was caused by the collapse of the tephra dam holding back nearby Mount Ruapehu's crater lake creating a large lahar in the Whangaehu River, which destroyed one of the bridge piers at Tangiwai only minutes before the train reached the bridge." -- Back cover