14 
Today’s the day when everyone and their Mums are packing. Packing and heading off for Christmas that is, but it’s not been the best of starts for the holiday exodus. Apparently, torrential rain actually managed to cause a fire at Acton, cancelling trains in their droves out of Paddington. Good old British weather.
I’m not quite sure how rain causes fire, other than electrical shorts, but apparently it did. The fire was so bad, everything consumed in the equipment room at Acton will have to be re-built from the ground up. No trains ran from Paddington to Heathrow, causing more misery than normal on the Piccadilly line as hundreds crammed onto the tube.
And there we thought it was just “unseasonal” cold weather that could nuke our trains. [Telegraph, This Is Plymouth]
Image credit: Fire from Shutterstock
Dear Walkers, Is It Raining?
An Umbrella Made of Cork to Plug Up the Rain
Why Does the Earth Have Rain Forests and Deserts?
Gives new meaning to “wrong kind of rain” on the tracks.
Snow last time, now rain. Wonder what’s next
Can’t blame it on the Mayans this time!
Reading this reminded me of Bill Bailey, Part Troll
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cv3M0dB3Dqg
If there was a way that water could cause fire causing “delays” to trains, it would be Network Fail. They’d probably got a pre-recorded message for it too:
“We are sorry, but the…13:15 First Great Western train to…Reading…is delayed due to…water spontaneously combusting on the track…we are sorry for the delay this will cause to your journey.”
Next week… freezing weather causes heat stroke epidemic.
Thank god I took a couple of extra days off and got a train back on Thursday…Had a bike + fullface helmet + a heavy suitcase. Train was on time and carriages were almost empty – happy days!
Got extended family stuck in lon now – all trains to South West have been cancelled/severely delayed due to flooding apparently, 100′s of people outside the ticket office. It’s bad enough travelling in regular friday night rush hour, must be hell right now!