Memories linger for Christmas Eve Tangiwai rail disaster survivor John Mahy

John Mahy was a 15-year-old schoolboy on his way home to Ōhope Beach after a holiday in the South Island when his train - the Christmas Eve 1953 Wellington to Auckland express - arrived at a bridge seriously damaged minutes earlier by a volcanic lahar. There were 151 deaths when the weakened Whangaehu River rail bridge at Tangiwai collapsed under the weight of locomotive Ka949, plunging it and six of its nine passenger carriages into the silt and debris-choked water below. But amid the horror on a pitch black central North Island night, 134 people survived. Mahy was one of them. Cherie Howie reports.

I was awake when it happened.

But it just felt as though the train was stopping at another station. There was no crashing or banging or anything like that.

It must've been 20 minutes later when a guard came in, soaking wet, and said, 'The bridge has collapsed, and the train's gone over'.

He wanted us all out, because they were frightened of the rest of the carriages being pulled into the water.

There was no panic. It was beautiful weather and we were quite surprised at how it'd happened.

All the stars were out and shining, but it was pitch black.

John Mahy was 15 when he boarded the ill-fated Wellington to Auckland express train on Christmas Eve 1953. A last minute seat change saved his life before the tragedy at Tangiwai. Photo / Supplied

You couldn't see anything, and of course all the lights were cut off in the carriage once everything broke.

Some of the guys helped with the human chain getting people off carriages that'd gone into the water.

I wanted to help, but they said, 'No, sorry, you're too young'.

What's normally a tiny wee creek was a raging bloody torrent and there was water everywhere around us, so then they told us to get back on the carriage because they were worried about someone slipping off the tracks into the water.

It was quite smelly too, because it came direct from the crater lake so there was a sulphuric smell to it.

It wasn't till the army came along with the big floodlights that you suddenly realised how bad it was.

The Tangiwai disaster is New Zealand's worst rail tragedy, with 151 people dying when the locomotive and most carriages tumbled into the Whangaehu River on Christmas Eve 1953. Photo / Herald Archives

The devastation ... it was a mangled mess and there were people everywhere.

You just couldn't quite believe that it had happened.

Before that, we didn't know because we couldn't see. I suddenly realised, 'Oh s***, we were lucky'.

I was travelling with my sister Bev, who was 17, and we were originally sitting in one of the carriages that went over, because when we got on at Wellington they didn't have the whole train hooked up and we got on the wrong carriage.

Most of those on board were going on holiday and it was all pretty joyful and happy.

There were a couple of girls we got quite friendly with, they were sisters and unfortunately one of them died in the accident.

That carriage was completely decimated in the accident, but we weren't in it because when the conductor saw our first class tickets he wanted to know why we were in a second class carriage.

He said, 'The train's absolutely chock-a-block, but I'll see what I can do'.

At Taihape he said there were two first class seats, not together, but would we like them?

We thought we may as well finish the rest of the trip in style, so we took them.

More than 150 people died when the lahar-damaged rail bridge at Tangiwai collapsed on Xmas Eve 1953 as a passenger train crossed. Pictured is the bridge's replacement. Photo / Bevan Conley

The next thing we knew, we were at the bridge.

After the accident, there was nothing we could do but sit and wait. We were there five or six hours.

When it got lighter in the morning you could see the real devastation, and people were hugging each other.

It did cross our mind that our family might be worried.

Somebody came through and asked if anybody wanted to get in contact with family.

So mum and dad received this telegram from us and all we said on it was 'Both safe. Bev and John'.

And they wondered what the hell we were talking about. It wasn't until they turned the radio on that they heard about the train accident.

Most in the locomotive and six carriages which tumbled into the silt and debris-choked Whangaehu River at Tangiwai stood little chance of survival. Photo / NZME

Another engine eventually hauled our carriages away.

They stopped at Taihape for people to get breakfast, but we didn't have any money so we kind of kept in the shadows before an elderly couple said, 'Come on, we'll get you some breakfast'.

I can't remember how we went north, but we did cross the [Whangaehu] river twice after that, on other bridges, and I remember saying to the conductor, 'Christ, I hope this one's alright'.

We got off at Hamilton and bussed to Rotorua, but there was no service to Whakatāne and the bus company just said we'd have to get a taxi.

That's the sort of treatment you got in those days.

We were lucky because our parents had relations in Rotorua, so they took us in for Christmas night and then through to our parents the next day.

John Mahy, with his wife Jean. After surviving the Tangiwai disaster aged 15 Mahy went on to marry and have four sons. He's now a proud great-grandfather. Photo / Supplied

I didn't ride in a train again for quite a while after that. Not until I started my apprenticeship as a plumber/drainlayer and had to go to Wellington for the practical stuff.

I still had the thought, 'Oh jeez, I hope everything's going to go alright this time'.

It's certainly something you never forget. Being so close to death, and yet not.

• As told to Cherie Howie