[1][2][3] The accident occurred at night at the location near Winchburgh where the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway passes through a cutting on a curve.

[4] One of the passengers made their way to a local home named Craigton House and commandeered a horse and cart to drive over 4 miles (6.4 km) to Linlithgow, raise the alarm and summon doctors to the scene.

A special train arrived from Edinburgh bringing workmen who laboured all night to free the dead and injured, and then to clear the wreckage; indeed the line was back in use the following day.

It was the standard practice that to prevent such collisions, a pilot engine would work the line to escort every train along the length of single track.

Charges of culpable homicide were then brought against two officials of the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway Company but a jury found them not guilty.