Talk:Tangiwai disaster

vandalism noted
The vandalism on the 25th originated from a Telstra Clear dialup based in Penrose, Auckland.

User talk:218.101.65.8 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search

netname: TELSTRACLEAR-NZ descr: TelstraClear NZ Ltd descr: Dial Offload ClearNet WAN Pools PENROSE descr: 24/7 TelstraClear NOC phone +64-9-912-4990 country: NZ admin-c: TAC3-AP tech-c: TTC7-AP mnt-by: MAINT-NZ-TELSTRACLEAR status: ALLOCATED NON-PORTABLE changed: apnic.changes@team.telstraclear.co.nz 20041209 source: APNIC

not nice when its from your own country, and defacing a sober article about mass death.moza 01:35, 26 April 2006 (UTC)

Improving the article
I was wondering if anyone out there would be interested in working with me to seriously enhance this article's depth and scope. I'd like to see just how far we could take this article, perhaps even to Good Article status - ideally get it so far as Featured Article status on the anniversary of the disaster one year, but that would obviously require a huge deal of work. I have often thought about significantly expanding this article as it is a topic very close to me, but found it too hard so far as I lost two relatives in the disaster and a third relative was one of the very few second class survivors (I lost another four relatives in the Hyde railway disaster, an article I'd also like to see enhanced - makes you wonder why on earth I'm a railfan!). If we were to make a serious effort to boost the quality of the article, though, that would help motivate me to add all that I can. I can provide more textual detail of the actual disaster, but we could also probably use things like photos of the accident itself, a location map, a map of where the carriages ended up, etc. So is there any interest out there? - Axver 00:45, 3 March 2007 (UTC)

Would it be possible to get a photo of the railway bridge at Tangiwai to use insted of the state highway road bridge? - Palmeriain 04:53, 15 July 2008 (UTC)

Distances from Waiouru
I noticed that in the first part of the article you say that Waiouru is 10km from Tangiwai but then in the details of the event you say the rescue workers set out from Waiouru which you then say is 5km from Tangiwai. Sorry if this is not the right way to correct something. I've not done this before. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Ezboticus (talk • contribs) 06:16, 28 February 2011 (UTC)


 * Well spotted. I'm not sure of the answer myself, but Google Maps gives 9.1 km via the State Highway from Waiouru to the river, but about 8 km for Waiouru to Tangiwai.  I think that New Zealand were still using miles in 1953, so I suspect that someone confused 5 miles with 5 kilometres, and the railway is less direct than the road (if I read the satellite image correctly). Tim PF (talk) 23:54, 28 February 2011 (UTC)

Television drama
Does anyone wish to add a section on the work of fiction shortly to appear on Television New Zealand? To judge from early reports it will be completely inaccurate, and an insulting travesty of the events. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 124.197.15.138 (talk) 03:19, 13 August 2011 (UTC)

wl vs note
Quote from latest edit summary.

(restore note; wikilinks take readers away from the article and are of no use when printed, link lahar in note; combine refs) (undo | thank)

Editor 'Edgepedia' reverted what seems to me to be a valid edit removing the definition of Lahar as a note. Lahar is included as a WL which I think covers the definition of the word. I must admit I am rather mystified by Edgepedia's reasons - surely [wiki]links are the central defining feature of Hypertext and thus the central defining feature of Wikipedia. Serindipidous discovery is what hypertext is all about - taking people away from the article (to another article or information source)is exactly what we are trying to do. We are also not producing a paper Encyclopedia - if there are problems transferring 'bits' to 'paper' then this needs another solution not the one suggested above. If we start defining everything as a note we have just lost 30 years of progress in electronic publishing.

I'm going to revert this because I think it is just plain wrong.Andrewgprout (talk) 01:14, 29 July 2013 (UTC)


 * I reverted your change under WP:Bold, Revert, Discuss. I am mystified as to why you are trying to make this article more difficult by hiding things under wikilinks. Under Print/export on the left had side there is 'Create book', 'Download a PDF' and 'Printable version' that all take the wikilinks away. I agree we need the wikilink, so someone can read more if they wish to, that's why there's now one in the note. Notes are very common on FA; agreed this article is not approaching that standard, but there's no reason to go backwards.
 * I'm also confused as to why you undid my combination of refences. Edgepedia (talk) 04:33, 29 July 2013 (UTC)
 * For an example, which uses parenthesis rather than a note, see Omayra Sánchez, a featured article. Edgepedia (talk) 04:37, 29 July 2013 (UTC)


 * Unless you want to replace every article link in the encyclopaedia with a little footnote explaining what the term means, then your stance doesn't make sense. Footnotes which take readers away from the text of the article are not very helpful and there is no support in the MOS for the use of footnotes in this way.
 * If you think that people generally won't understand what a lahar is and cannot simply click on the link to an article, then a short explanation of the geological activity that led to the disaster would be an infinitely better means of dealing with that. At the moment it's only briefly mentioned in the lead. 201.215.187.159 (talk) 06:12, 29 July 2013 (UTC)

Ellis' torch
User:Piledhigheranddeeper added an html comment to the article, following the words "Cyril Ellis, a passerby, standing by the track and waving a torch":
 * an "electric torch" or the classic piece of wood with one end ablaze?

Ellis was a Taihape postman, who stopped his car on seeing the bridge. It would almost certainly have been an "electric torch", but I can't find a source which actually says that.- gadfium 18:35, 24 December 2013 (UTC)
 * In New Zealand English, torch simply means a flashlight operated from dry cell batteries, and is almost certainly what is meant. Akld guy (talk) 08:20, 9 May 2017 (UTC)