Scotland’s weather: Country ‘cut off’ as storms wreak havoc

TORRENTIAL rain and thunderstorms wreaked havoc across Britain yesterday, with both main line rail services between England and Scotland disrupted by flooding and landslides.

A landslide caused a freight train to derail in the evening, blocking the West Highland line and leaving ScotRail’s Caledonian sleeper to London Euston stuck in Fort William overnight. Trains between Crianlarich and Mallaig were also suspended.

The 24-wagon train came off the tracks between Corrour and Tulloch just after 7pm.

A spokeswoman for the British Transport Police said the driver was badly shaken but not physically injured.

Flooding in Berwick-upon-Tweed lead to the suspension of services to Darlington and Durham.

An East Coast spokesman said the line between Edinburgh and Newcastle would remain closed tomorrow with a limited shuttle service running between the two towns and alternative transport between Berwick and Newcastle where possible. Other journeys were delayed by up to two hours due to flooding between Durham and Newcastle.

On the west coast line, flooding at Oxenholme in the Lake District meant travellers were delayed by up to an hour, with buses replacing trains between Lancaster and Carlisle.

The Met Office issued a yellow weather alert for the east of Scotland, Orkney and Shetland, warning of thundery downpours, while the Scottish Environment Protection Agency put out a flood warning for Glen Lyon in Tayside.

Meanwhile, passengers had to be evacuated from a train in Dumfries and Galloway after a fire broke out in one of the front carriages. The Birmingham to Glasgow Virgin Trains service was stopped between Lockerbie and Beattock at 10:20pm and passengers were evacuated.

A spokeswoman for Virgin Trains said staff were on hand to help the passengers get home. The cause of the fire was unclear.

Stephen Davenport, of Meteogroup, said: “There was torrential rain and flooding, frequent lightning and thunderstorms, and huge hailstones, some in excess of 7 centimetres.”

The extreme weather was blamed on a phenomenon known as a Spanish plume.

Meanwhile, a man, named locally as maths teacher Mike Ellis, died in Shropshire.

His body was found following a search after witnesses reported seeing him being overcome by water in a stream near Ludlow.

Temperatures at Wimbledon, however, soared as Scots Andy Murray powered through to the third round of the grand slam. One woman fainted on Court Two, while many other spectators suffered from sunburn.