So this broken down freight train between Reading and Didcot........

[whole diary]

[Mookiemoo]

Screwing up all regions so not sure which board to start it in - across the west seemed appropriate.

And guess what - yep - I was travelling back again.......

Does anyone know what happened exactly?  All I know is reading station looked like a refugee camp - although the festival didn't help that

[brompton rail]

Broken down freight at Tilehurst - now cleared at 15.00, according to Tweet from National Rail Enquiries.

[inspector_blakey]

Reported on the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) website:

Rail services around Reading have returned to normal after thousands of festival-goers were hit by delays when a freight train broke down.

The mainline between Didcot Parkway and Reading was blocked by the train before it was cleared at about 1500 BST.

Many CrossCountry and First Great Western services were delayed, diverted or cancelled.

Trying to figure out how one failed goods train blocked the "mainline" in its entirety. Did it expire whilst it was using one of the crossovers or does a train failure blocking either the relief or main lines cause that much chaos...?!

[JayMac]

1A14 BRI^» (Bristol Temple Meads - next trains)-PAD^» (Paddington (London) - next trains) got the worst of it. 121 down on arrival at Paddington, Looks like it was stuck directly behind the failed freight if my reading of Live Departures is correct.

1A16 PNZ-PAD (via BRI) was also very late into PAD, this one though had already lost a lot of time between TAU^» (Taunton - next trains) and BRI.

[Mookiemoo]

From what I can gather - it did indeed expire as it was crossing from one side to the other - so effectively blocking all four lines

[Oxman]

It was indeed on one of the cross overs and it blocked the main lines and the down relief. Only the up relief was open. An engine off another frieght was "borrowed" to drag it clear, although this operation also blocked the up relief whilst it was in progress.

[Fish]

Indeed 1A14 was hit the worst on the UP trains as it was almost at Reading when the freight blocked the lines.  Two passenger trains were stuck throughout, others were far enough  back to be able to divert onto the Up Relief line and were hit less severely.
All down trains were unable to travel towards Didcot and so passengers for Didcot, Swindon, Bath, Chippenham and Oxford were worst hit.  Bristol and S Wales trains were sent via Berks & Hants as far as possible though inevitably some got cancelled.  Although the 1306 Penzance train was cancelled, an extra service operated at 1436 (effectively running just behind the 1406 which was held up by residual delays).  Services were close to normal by 1600, though some cancellations caused by trains being out of position.
The plan was to send a rescue loco, but I understood that the loco detailed to rescue the failure was itself stuck in the jam and that fitters had managed to get the original train underway, though I may well be mistaken by that.

[JayMac]

Thanks for that, Fish.

Confirmed my suspicion that 1A14 was 'first on the scene' as it were.

[smokey]

Don't we miss the days when Trains had Locomotives on the front and when a train broke down like this the following train came up behind and Pushed the failed train on to the first point of recovery.

I've seen a Class 45, Nine coaches, another class 45 and another Nine coaches working down the MML^» (Midland Main Line. - about), take the first train had failed and was pushed forward by the following train.

[Electric train]

Don't we miss the days when Trains had Locomotives on the front and when a train broke down like this the following train came up behind and Pushed the failed train on to the first point of recovery.

... and the days when Reading had a Station Pilot, there were loco's in the fright yard at Reading and often the Diesel Depot and at least 3 08's somewhere in the Reading area but alas no more everything now is done with lean manning and minimal equipment