The Sun.
London, England, 1864-06-22 00:00:00

Yesterday afternoon, about half- past four o'clock,
a collision occurred at the Edinburgh terminus of
the North British Railway of a somewhat alarming
nature, though fortunately unattended by loss of
life or dangerous injuries to the passengers. The
accident occurred to the train which leaves Dunbar
at five minutes before three o'clock and is due in

Edinburgh at twenty minutes past four. It is
well known that between four and half-past four
o'clock local trains leave the Edinburgh station in
rapid succession at interva:a of about five minutes,
and a number of trains also arrive close upon each
other about that time, so that the extremely
limited accommodation at the station renders the
utmost caution necessary on the part of all the
officials in carrying out the arrangements for the
safe arrival and departure of the numerous trains.
A passenger train from Musselburgh arrives daily
at 3 63 p.m., one from Dolkeith is due at 4 11, and
a third reaches the station from Dunbar at 4 20.

In addition to these passenger trains, in order to
accommodate the trsffio from Leith to Glasgow, a
special goods train was yesterday despatched at
4 11 p.m. from Leith to Edinburgh by Portobello,
intended to arrive at Edinburgh between the passen-
ger train from Dalkeith and the one from Dunbar.
The goods train, according to the arrangement,

actually did follow the Dalkeith train from Porto-
bello to Edinburgh, reaching the station about
seven minutes before the Dunbar train was due.
Owing, however, to the numerous trains leaving
Edinburgh about that time, and the limited accom-
modation at the station, some delay occurred in
getting the goods train' taken to a siding. IV bile
the train was thus detained at the east end of the
station, nearly opposite Drybrough's brewery, the
passenger train from Dunbar entered the station
and came into collision with the goods train. For •
tunately, the speed of the train was greatly
checked ; but a considerable number of the
passengers were severely cut and bruised by
the collision. Two of tLe passengers, Mr and Mrs
Smeaton, were cut and bruised in the forehead, and
drove off in a cab ; bat, eo far as we could learn,
their injuries were not of a very serious nature.
The other passengers who were hurt, to the
number of ten or twelve, were all able to walk

from the station. One of the waggons of the goods
train was pushed off the rails by the collision, and
a number of sacks of wheat end flour with
which the waggons were loaded were thrown off,
and their contents scattered on the ground. The
waggon was soon replaced on the rails, and the
traffic) was in a very short time resumed, the damage
to the engines, carriages and trucks being compara-
tively trifling. There will, of course, be a strict in-
vestigation into the cause of the accident, with the
view of ascertaining whether blame attaches to the
pointsman or the driver of the passenger train. It
is said that the signal to stop was made in due
time; and if so, the engine-driver must either
have failed to observe it or have miscalculated the
distance. But whoever may be found blameable for
this accident, there is no doubt that it is partly
attributable to the limited station accommodation,
which interferes with the expeditious removal of
the trains ; and as the extreme danger of the pre.
sent state of matters to the public is thus made
evident, it is to be hoped that the municipal and
railway authorities may be induced to come with-
out further delay to a settlement of their differences
in order that duo provision may be made for such
station accomodation as will ensuretlw safety of the
public.—Scotsman.