Film clip: Tangiwai film shot two days after the disaster

Amateur cameraman Mr Edwin Nitschke shot this film on an 8mm camera on Boxing Day, 1953, two days after the Tangiwai disaster. We are most grateful to Mr Nitschke's family for making this available. It has never before been publicly screened. The approximately 5 minutes of total footage clearly shows the wreckage of the train and bridge against a backdrop of the still-swollen Whangaehu River.

• Clip one: scenes of train wreckage; Prime Minister Sidney Holland and future Prime Minister Walter Nash walking around the crash scene. (Windows media, 1mb)
• Clip two: wrecked carriages by the river; remnants of bridge. (Windows media, 1.3mb)
• Clip three: Police and army at the scene; bulldozers clearing rubble. (Windows media, 1.2mb)
• Clip four: wrecked carriages by the still-swollen Whangaehu River. (Windows media, 1mb)
• Clip five: Holland and Nash viewing the river; broken bridge; general wreckage. (Windows media, 1.1mb)

Still shots from the film



Edwin Nitschke family