A rendering of the monument to the Ongarue Railway Disaster design. Story panels will record the names of 17 victims and recollections of both passengers and rescuers.
A monument marking the centenary of New Zealand’s third worst rail disaster, which will be unveiled at a public ceremony on Saturday morning, is being assembled today near the railway bridge leading into Ongarue Village.
The monument, some of it constructed using materials donated by Taumarunui and Ongarue businesses, is to be dedicated at a ceremony at 11.30am, followed by a gathering at Ongarue School.
It will tell the stories of the victims and rescuers involved in the accident, which took place when an Auckland to Wellington overnight express ploughed into a landslip containing a three-tonne boulder near the site on July 6, 1923.
The collision telescoped front carriages of the train, forcing rescuers to hack into the wreck with axes to remove the living and the dead.
Featuring large story panels, the monument has been designed by the executive officer of the Rail Heritage Trust of New Zealand, Barry O’Donnell, who said his aim was to list the names of the victims and provide an insight into the lives of those involved, providing a space for visitors to the area to reflect on the event.
Barry said he wanted a simple design, using low-maintenance materials.
“Seeing Corten steel used successfully elsewhere, I decided to use that for the story panels.”
Corten steel, sometimes known as weathered steel, describes a group of steel alloys that are often used in outdoor construction.
“With 17 deaths and 28 people seriously injured, the accident at Ongarue was at the time the worst rail accident in New Zealand history,” Barry said.
“After the accidents at Hyde in 1943 and Tangiwai in 1953, it became the third worst.
“In 2018, the relative of a passenger who died at Ongarue contacted the Rail Heritage Trust to ask if there were any plans to commemorate its centenary in 2023.
“There weren’t, but the trust considered it a worthy project and various options were looked at regarding the site for a memorial.
“As a result of that process, the trust contacted the Ruapehu District Council, who in turn suggested we contact Weston Kirton, who was looking to commemorate the accident in some way as his grandfather was the stationmaster at Taumarunui in 1923.
“Together with Weston, who has since been elected as mayor of Ruapehu District, we established an organising committee that worked towards the unveiling of the memorial on Saturday.”
Appointed as executive officer of the Rail Heritage Trust in 2015, Barry has had a long career in advertising, screen printing, graphic design and illustration. But he has also had a lifelong interest in railways. This began early in life under the influence of his dad, who worked at the Addington Railway Workshops.
