New Zealand Railways Department
Tangiwai, North Island
On December 24, 1953, the Wellington–Auckland express plunged into the Whangaehu River after a lahar destroyed the Tangiwai bridge, resulting in 151 deaths. It is New Zealand’s deadliest railway disaster.
Great Western Railway
Shipton-on-Cherwell, Oxfordshire
On December 24, 1874, a catastrophic derailment occurred near Shipton-on-Cherwell, England, when a Great Western Railway express from Oxford to London plunged off the track, killing at least 34 people. It remains one of the deadliest accidents in early British railway history.
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