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1953 Tangiwai historic memorial upgrade

$1,072 of $3,900,000 goal

Given by 22 generous donors in over a year

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1953 Tangiwai memorial site upgrade

Ohakune, Manawatu-Wanganui

At 10:21pm on December 24th 1953, a lahar from Mount Ruapehu washed out the rail bridge at Tangiwai and caused the Wellington to Auckland express passenger train to crash into the Whangaehu River . Although there has been a memorial to the accident on the site for many years the victims’ names had never been recognised on the site.

Their names were added as one of the many projects that have been done on the site.

The Tangiwai Memorial Committee has been working with council, local business and iwi to upgrade the site to a national historic memorial site.

The committee has being proactive in raising funds with the NZ Government, DOC, Ngati Rangi, Kiwi rail, Main Truck rail, and Stone Creations NZ

5290 hours of work donated by Individuals

2610 hours of work donated by the Ruapehu Lions Club

Please help us make this site a national memorial site.

About us

The Ruapehu Lions Club in association with the Tangiwai Memorial Upgrade Committee has been fund raising to update the current site for more than 10 years with the help of business donations and hard manual work.

Use of funds

Site development to make the site a useful tool in learning about New Zealand's largest rail disaster, and worthy of the number of visitors it attracts annually. Any funds raised will go towards the project.