Film clip: Tangiwai film pt5

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Tangiwai film shot two days after the disaster – clip 5

Amateur cameraman Mr Edwin Nitschke shot this film on an 8-mm 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 five minutes (approximately) of total footage clearly shows the wreckage of the train and bridge against a backdrop of the still-swollen Whangaehu River. 

Clip 5 shows the prime minister, Sidney Holland, and the future prime minister, Walter Nash, viewing the river, broken bridge and general wreckage.

Still shots from the film