SCOTLAND.

Southland Times, Volume I, Issue 15, 30 December 1862, Page 3

SCOTLAND.

DREADFUL RAILWAY ACCIOENT. One of the most disastrous railway accidents that have ever occured in Scotland took place on the 18th of October near Winchburgh, on the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway. The accident was caused by a collision between the passenger train leaving Edinburgh for the north at 6 o' clock in the evening and the ordinary passenger train which left Glasgow at 5 o'clock. It appears that for some time past repairs have been making on a portion of the line between Winchburgh and Linlithgow, and during the repairs the trains had been running there on a single line for a short distance. The Edinburgh train, not having stopped at Winchbnrgh, was running at a fair, but not unusual rate of speed d-ae west ; the Glasgow train, having to stop at Winchburgh, and being a Parliamentary train, was running probably al a less speed, but due east. They were on the same line of rails, and ihe shock of the collision may be conceived. The engines dashed into each olher with the force of athunderclap ; then reared on end and stood fixed, with their fbr<.'wlieels elevated, funnel to funnel. The shock a-id the stoppage drove the carriages into the air, and they bounded like Jiving things, one on ihe top of the other, till the pile, as spectators tell us, was as high as athreeslory house. All this was in the first gloom of night, and in a deep and dark cutting, with sharp rocks on each side. Presently the furnaces of the engines set fire to the carriages, and thick clouds of i smoke rolled over the mass of ruin. 'Jhe lamps had been extinguished, and, except for the flakes of flames from ihe burning heaps, noihing could bedistmctly discerned, fu the Jong history of railway accidents there is no .scene more terrible than this. Its single relieving feature is to be found in the proximity of a city from which assistance of every kind, and medical aid especially, could be quickly obtained, The telegraph brought a strong staff of surgeons to the spot, the smoking ruins were excavated for the dead and dying, and while the killed were despatched to Edinburgh, the wounded were treated on the spot, as on a battlefield. Th«i total loss cannot yet be computed, Eleven dead bodies were dug out at once, and seym have since been added to the score. As even the lighter of the Iwo trains had two thirdclass carriages full of passengers, it may be conceived how many lives were put in peril, and how feaiful was the scope for havoc. J ii all, between a hundred and a hundred aud fifty were injured. One gentleman had a compound fracture of the left leg, and a lady a compound fractuve of the right leg. A traveller from Glasgow was severely burned with his wife, aud another from Aberdee:) was so scalded that his outer skin came off from head to foot A whole crowd had injuries about the head. The excitement caused in Edinburgh and Glasgow when the news of the accident spread through the cities was very great. At Edinburgh, to which the chief portion of the dead and wounded were brought dense crowds Surrounded the station, and the scene shortly before midnight was most sti iking. As the several special trains arrived from the scene of the disaster an appalling index of its extent was given. The dead bodies were taken to the policeoflice, and the more severely injured were conveyed away through the crowd upon stretchers, Those whose bruises were less serious were eagerly surrounded and pressed with questions by many who had friends or relatives among the sufferers, and several were lo he seen limping away ? with cut faces and blood-soiled garments, each the centre of an anxious and inquisitive crowd. — Home News.