The Ongarue railway disaster occurred on 6 July 1923 near the small settlement of

Ongarue Ongarue ( mi, Ōngarue) is a rural community in the Ruapehu District and Manawatū-Whanganui region of New Zealand's North Island. It is located south of Te Kuiti and Waimiha, and north of Taumarunui. It is in meshblock 1041902, which had a popul ...

, near

Taumarunui Taumarunui is a small town in the King Country of the central North Island of New Zealand. It is on an alluvial plain set within rugged terrain on the upper reaches of the Whanganui River, 65 km south of Te Kuiti and 55 km west of ...

North Island The North Island, also officially named Te Ika-a-Māui, is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, separated from the larger but much less populous South Island by the Cook Strait. The island's area is , making it the world's 14th-largest ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

, when an overnight express ran into a

landslip Landslides, also known as landslips, are several forms of mass wasting that may include a wide range of ground movements, such as rockfalls, deep-seated slope failures, mudflows, and debris flows. Landslides occur in a variety of environments, ...

. Of the 200 passengers on board, 17 died and 28 were injured. The disaster marked the first major loss of life in New Zealand railway history; the

Christchurch Christchurch ( ; mi, Ōtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon River / ...

Press Press may refer to: Media * Print media or news media, commonly called "the press" * Printing press, commonly called "the press" * Press (newspaper), a list of newspapers * Press TV, an Iranian television network People * Press (surname), a famil ...

'' noted that each of the previous fatal railway accidents had resulted in no greater loss of life than that resulting from an overturned motor car. The Ongarue disaster remains the third worst railway accident in New Zealand's history. Almost exactly twenty years later on 4 June 1943, its death toll was surpassed in the

Hyde railway disaster The Hyde railway disaster occurred on 4 June 1943 near the small settlement of Hyde, Otago, New Zealand, on a bend of the Otago Central Railway. At the time, it was New Zealand's worst railway accident; of the 113 passengers on board, 21 were ...

, which claimed 21 lives. Ten years after that, 151 died in the Tangiwai disaster.

Accident

On the evening of 5 July 1923, the

North Island Main Trunk Railway The North Island Main Trunk (NIMT) is the main railway line in the North Island of New Zealand, connecting the capital city Wellington with the country's largest city, Auckland. The line is long, built to the New Zealand rail gauge of and ser ...

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by me ...

express was timetabled to leave Auckland at 7.10 pm, but was held for more than four hours. One report said that authorities were forced to await news on rain-swollen areas of the Waikato through which the express would pass, and the decision to go was not made until 10 pm. It also said that the earlier northbound express on the same route had been delayed due to landslips, and cleaning of the carriages had been necessary before it could return to Wellington as the ill-fated southbound express. The express eventually left Auckland at 11.25 pm with about 200 passengers aboard. As the locomotive rounded a curve just south of

at about 5.52 am the next morning, it struck a landslip caused by heavy rain. Embedded in the landslip was a boulder of about 1.5 metres diameter. This boulder derailed the locomotive and threw it onto the bank of a cutting, causing the first and second carriages to

telescope A telescope is a device used to observe distant objects by their emission, absorption, or reflection of electromagnetic radiation. Originally meaning only an optical instrument using lenses, curved mirrors, or a combination of both to observe ...

completely. The third carriage was partly telescoped onto the second. The postal van, between the locomotive and first carriage, was almost undamaged and none of its three postal workers were injured. About four

chains A chain is a serial assembly of connected pieces, called links, typically made of metal, with an overall character similar to that of a rope in that it is flexible and curved in compression but linear, rigid, and load-bearing in tension. A c ...

(88 yards, 80 metres) of track were torn up in the accident. Mr A. Stewart, the driver, said that he had shut off steam at the top of a rise and the train was proceeding downhill under its own weight. As it rounded a sharp bend he got a glimpse of the slip and the engine ploughed through it before he could apply brakes. Stewart thought the train could have cleared the slip safely but for the "huge boulder", which was carried along for two or three chains (44–66 yards, 40–60 metres) before the engine derailed. Stewart suffered a badly scalded arm and bruises on the head and thigh. Mr Campbell, the fireman, was badly scalded and suffered cuts to his nose and an ear. The train's

guard Guard or guards may refer to: Professional occupations * Bodyguard, who protects an individual from personal assault * Crossing guard, who stops traffic so pedestrians can cross the street * Lifeguard, who rescues people from drowning * Prison ...

, H.P. Hobson, stated in an interview that the train cleared Ongarue and was then running about 25 to 30 miles per hour (42–50 km/h). About a minute and a half later, the train came to a sudden stop. Hobson sent the sleeping-car attendant back along the track to Ongarue to raise the alarm. A relief train from Taumarunui arrived within two hours after the disaster, carrying rail workers and equipment. Hobson confirmed that the presence of the boulder in the slip was primarily responsible for the telescoping of the second-class carriages, in which all the casualties occurred. He described in detail the circumstances of the wreckage and injured, and said that the first of the injured were sent to Taumarunui within two or three hours after the disaster, with the remainder arriving there shortly after noon.

Casualties

Seventeen passengers died. Eleven were killed outright, and another two died either ''en route'' to Taumarunui Hospital or shortly after arrival there. Four others subsequently died.

Inquiry and lighting upgrades

The three-man board of inquiry released its report on 30 August 1923. The inquiry heard evidence from 51 witnesses and found that there were good grounds for concluding that the slip was falling as the train approached, and that boulders obstructing the track were the cause of the disaster. No railway official was found guilty of neglect. The accident led to the upgrading of carriage and locomotive lighting with the installation of electric carriage lighting. Carriages were lit by Pintsch gas lighting; some of the gas cylinders were ruptured in the crash, and the wreckage burst into flames. Providentially, a second papa slide extinguished the fire. In 1914 the NZR General Manager E. H. Hiley had investigated the (high) cost of electric lighting and decided that gas lighting was adequate ''for comfort.'' But when the new Minister of Railways Gordon Coates heard of the crash and looked at the file, he ordered the urgent replacement of gas lighting on important passenger trains, starting with the overnight Main Trunk expresses. Stone's electric lighting equipment was ordered. In 1925 at the derailling of the Napier Express at Opapa, lighting gas was again ignited, and the commission investigated the accident wanted the upgrading ''expedited and completed as early as possible''. By the end of the 1926-27 financial year, 173 cars had been re-equipped and 160 more were programmed in the next year. Locomotive lighting was also improved; previously locos had inadequate headlights using acetylene from calcium carbide. Electric headlights and cab-lights now had lights powered by Pyle-National steam-powered turbogenerators. By the end of the 1923-24 summer, most North Island express trains were so equipped.

Memorial

A memorial to those killed in the accident was unveiled in July 2023 and a book published about the events of the crash.

References

External links