What a day!
Apparently there was a derailment/fire on a freighter in Cheltenham, which caused XC to cancel 2 services downline at Birmingham as the line was blocked. This then had a knock-on effect as the Manchester Piccadilly and Newcastle services back up north during rush-hour were cancelled, and the following York service then left 55minutes late from Plymouth due to the train failing as it arrived at Plymouth and then a set swap happened, and this service was then terminated at Birmingham. The later Manchester Piccadily train was delayed 15 minutes.
Passengers for Bristol were shipped up to Taunton (never seen a HST so packed), for the extra service that FGW (not XC) put on.
A XC Voyager running empty stock was then seen going north during the evening (not sure how they managed that
)
After that, the incoming PAD train into EXD was cancelled due to the train failing, so the empty stock that normally runs from Taunton to Laira at 1930 terminated at EXD and then made the 1953 back to PAD running approximately 15 late out of EXD. The HST following the failed train had to be reversed back, diverted and ran approximately 90minutes late, with the Golden Hind & Paignton HSTs diverted and ran approximately 20-30minutes late.
South West Trains had a problem due to signalling (I think), but I am too frazzled to remember.
Just another Summer Friday.... roll on tomorrow
