BRITAIN'S newest heritage railway yesterday fell victim to flooding. Rubble and mud were swept on to tracks of the Weardale Railway, just outside Stanhope, County Durham, after drains failed to cope with torrents of rainwater.

An emergency team with a JCB spent four hours stemming the flow of water that poured on to the line at Parson Byers crossing from burst gullies in nearby fields.

The flooding led to the cancellation of one of the four trains, which normally run daily along the five-mile track from Stanhope to Wolsingham.

But last night Gerry Mudd, a director of Weardale Railways Ltd, who had been manning the office at Stanhope, said: "Services are now back to normal and the flooding in the dale has started going down.

"At no time was there any danger of us having to close the line. The flooding, which often affects rail lines all over the country, meant we had to slim down our services by cancelling one train."

One of the team of emergency workers at the site told The Northern Echo: "A farmer told us that water just burst out of the ground and started pouring rubble and mud on to the line.

"He also said some of his cattle had water up to their chests."

Weardale Railway workers have since carried out a full inspection of the line.

Mr Mudd said the problem had been identified as a 4in drain that was too small to control the volume of water pouring on to the line at Parson Byers.

"We will now have to install a 16in drain to ensure this doesn't happen again," he said.

The severe weather also affected the number if passengers using the railway yesterday. A party of 22, which had booked seats, cancelled its trip.

Otherwise, the railway has experienced large numbers of passengers since it was opened officially last month.

* Another victim of the floods was champion sweet pea grower, Frank Walton, who was featured in yesterday's Northern Echo drying the flowers with his wife's hair dryer at their home in Westgate, in Weardale.

He was due to compete at the Shrewsbury Flower Show, in Shropshire, this weekend but he has had to pull out because so many of his sweet peas have been ruined by the rain.