By Andy Bloxham said:
Yesterday, things were running smoothly until the 15.57 departure from London ran into a cloud of dandelion seeds.The dandelion “parachutes” have come out across the country in the recent warm weather but yesterday large drifts were airborne in South Yorkshire and gusting across the main line.
Somewhere near Doncaster, the five-carriage train ploughed through the drift, sucking vast numbers of the tiny seeds into the air filters, which were soon blocked.
Four of the train’s five engines shut down as they overheated, leaving the vehicle running under a fraction of its normal power.