The BBC's Matthew Price: "An engineer had wrestled the offending bag free"

The Great North Eastern Railway service between King's Cross and Edinburgh ground to a halt for two hours outside Newcastle after the bag was spotted between overhead power cables and the locomotive.

The train, due to arrive in Newcastle at 1300 GMT, was already late and had been waiting about two miles from the city for congestion in the station to clear.

A driver leaving the station spotted the offending item and engineers were despatched to remove it. Two hours later, they succeeded and the trian continued.

Services along the route had already been disrupted by extreme weather conditions on Saturday night and delays worsened as trains entering Newcastle stacked up on the line.