Today it is 66 years since a Christmas Eve express train left Wellington for Auckland and never made it. I wrote a little piece for the anniversary on @RWLDproject's blog. Stick with me as I've a few more photos and reflections. (Pic: @ArchivesNZ) 1/12 railwayaccidents.port.ac.uk/a-new-zealand-… 
A couple of weeks ago I visited Tangiwai at the start of a road trip around the North Island. It proved to be the first chapter of a trip full of reminders about the geological and volcanic dangers that define New Zealand. This was my third time visiting the memorial. 2/
The train reached the bridge over the Whangaehu River just after a lahar struck the bridge. This thick, sulphurous torrent of water, mud, and volcanic debris came from Mount Ruapehu, where the crater lake's tephra dam had collapsed. Pic shows the result, Ruapehu in background. 3/
Memorial has changed since my first visit in July 2010 (pictured): more explanatory panels, picnic tables, toilets, a walkway to a lookout over the railway line, the names of the 151 victims have been etched onto the original memorial, and additional memorials added. 4/
One new memorial, unveiled in May 2017, honours Charles Parker, the engine driver, and Lance Redman, the fireman. They stayed at the controls as the train plunged into the river; their frantic efforts to stop it saved the last five carriages and over a hundred lives. 5/
Another memorial honours a man who could rightly be considered the 152nd victim of Tangiwai: Chris Akapita, who died in constructing the bridge that crosses the river today. His body, like 20 of the train passengers, was never recovered. 6/
This chassis, from the third carriage, was recovered in 2014 and is the last remaining large artifact from the disaster. Only one person survived from that carriage. The bogie (wheel unit) fitted to it is contemporaneous—the original was lost in the disaster. 7/
Motorists on what is now State Highway 49 raised the alarm and rescued survivors. The old road bridge, also destroyed by the lahar, crossed the river where the memorial is now. There is no marker, but scramble along the rocks and you'll get to the western abutment. 8/
And these flower stations were erected in 2015 to honour those who survived. One, as many of you will know by now, was an 18 year old who would become my grandpa: Ted Brett. He travelled with his best friend John Cockburn and John's brother Douglas, both of whom died. 9/
Ted was one of two survivors from the second carriage (I had thought he was the only one, but 19-year-old Anne Lennox, a strong swimmer, also made it). If we revisit the photo in the first tweet, this is all that remained of the second carriage. Really. 10/
Ted was awake when the train crashed, thrown into a window, smashed through, and ended up in a calmer part of the river. He called on rock-climbing skills to escape up the riverbank. I suspect he did it around this part of the lookout walkway. 11/
When Ted returned to Masterton, he couldn't explain to the Cockburns why John and Douglas weren't with him—but he grew close to their sister Pat. This thread ends happily: Pat and Ted married in April 1955; my dad was born a year later. This photo of their honeymoon is the best.
