smile

"A train has come to a standstill between Lichfield Trent valley and Stafford with a damaged pantograph. This means the train cannot take power from the overhead electric cables and is therefore unable to move until the pantograph has been fixed. All lines are currently blocked whilst an evacuation of the train takes place."

That was from the National Rail website earlier today. Unfortunately, Sarah, Chris and Merry were on that train. They were stuck on that stationary train for  5 hours until they were evacuated onto a new train (5 coaches instead of the original 11). First class passengers were moved first (why are there classes of train passengers anyway?) and those in wheelchairs were left until last :-(

They were due to arrive in  Dumfries just before 4pm, now it will be 10pm. I have their tea ready...**

D put the smiley face on my loaf while I was out at Aquaerobics :-)


**update. They have been stopped at Preston for 20 mins and there is no driver to take that train any further. So they will miss the connection at Carlisle. Possibility of changing to another train and arriving in Lockerbie at 10.20… watch this space.