Strange goings-on at Southeastern

[whole diary]

[stuving]

There has been a warning of disruption at Victoria most of today, saying:

Failure of the electricity supply at London Victoria earlier today is resulting in disruption to trains running to and from the station. A normal service is expected to resume from 20:00.

What's happened?
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The 09:42 London Victoria - Dover service broke down just outside of London Victoria this morning. The reason that the train broke down is because it became 'gapped'. This meant that the train was stuck over part of the track which does not have a power supply. The part of the train that draws power from the electric rails is over that gap. This train has now moved back into London Victoria.

However, in addition to the above incident, the 11:20 Gravesend to London Victoria also became gapped on the way in to London. This train is now also in London Victoria so all lines are open to and from the station again, but with disruption expected to continue while Southeastern work to get trains back on time.

In fact, the service hasn't been badly disrupted. But what really happened? Those two trains were both using P7, and there were trains cancelled there later on. But the cancellation (of the 09:42) was attributed to a train fault. The incoming train did arrive eventually, 178L! So was there a power failure - perhaps only a bit of third rail with a dodgy power feed, stranding trains? Or do they just have some big gaps, and now and then trains get stuck - in which case why would it be better after 20:00?

An unconnected report, in CityAM, said there was an internal investigation (and referral to the ORR^» (Office of Rail and Road, formerly Office of Rail Regulation - about))  into how an "unauthorised person" drove a train out of St Pancras. This was a Javelin, doing a special trip to Portsmouth for the Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal - not somewhere they normally go, of course. The report adds that three drivers, a driver manager and an instructor were involved, and the "unauthorised person" was a Southeastern driver. So, again, what was really going on there?