I heard that a Penzance to Paddington train didnt arrive until around 0530 this morning and no it wasn't the sleeper
Correct, the last up HST from Penzance on Monday night, the
1739 Penzance-Paddington, arrived at Paddington at 0552, a total of 6 hours, 8 minutes late. It left 39 minutes late from Penzance due to late arrival of the inbound service from Paddington; it stood at Plymouth for over half an hour presumably awaiting train crew. Finally, it was held at Bath for over an hour due to flooding at Wootton Bassett Jn restricting traffic to only the up line between Swindon and Thingley Jn, with a 5mph emergency speed restriction through the affected area around Wootton Bassett Jn itself - it had to wait for the last down HST, the
2330 from Paddington (which terminated short at Bristol TM) to clear the up line.
Believe it or not that wasn't the last HST to arrive: the
2028 Swansea-Paddington left three hours late at 2328 and arrived in Paddington at 0724, nearly eight hours late! Upon arrival at Bristol Parkway, the train was sent down Filton Bank to avoid the flooding at Badminton, but was then held at Dr Days Jn pending events at Bath; eventually it was diverted into Bristol Temple Meads where it stood for 20 minutes, departing around 0230 once the down train had cleared Thingley Jn. Somehow it took a further three and a half hours to get to Swindon, though I'm not sure how...
The
down sleeper was first delayed because the crew work up from Exeter on the
1955 Exeter-Paddington, which arrived over two hours late. Then the flooding at Hele and Bradninch was discovered about 01:15, and the train eventually cancelled. The
up sleeper, which itself departed Penzance nearly three hours late due to the crew being delayed, terminated at Exeter and the stock went back to Penzance in the path of the down sleeper.
