The weather on Christmas eve was fine and there had been a little rain. There was no sign that the Whangaehu River would be in flood. A goods train had crossed the bridge around 7pm and the river had appeared normal. What changed this situation was the sudden release of around 2 million cubic metres of water from the crater lake of nearby Mount Ruapehu. This lahar produced a 6 metre high wave of water,ice,mud and rocks which surged like a tsunami down the Whangaehu River. Sometime between 10:10pm and 10:15pm it struck the concrete pylons of the Tangiwai Railway Bridge.
Travelling at around 65 kilometres per hour, locomotive Ka 949 and it's train of 9 carriages and 2 vans reached the severely weakened bridge at 10:21pm. As the bridge buckled beneath it's weight, the engine plunged into the river, taking all five second class carriages with it. The force of the torrent destroyed four of these carriages with little chance of survival for those inside.
The leading first-class carriage, Car Z, teetered on the edge of the ruined bridge before it broke free from the remaining three carriages and fell into the river. It rolled downstream before coming to rest on a bank as the water level went down. Remarkably 21 of the 22 passengers in this carriage survived. Evidence suggested that the locomotive driver had applied the emergency brakes about 200 metres from the bridge, preventing the last three carriages from toppling into the river. This action saved many lives.
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