The tail end of hurricane 'Gordon' struck the south west coast of the UK late in the afternoon of Thursday 21 September 2006, it was high tide at the time and the railway along the sea wall section between Dawlish Warren and Teignmouth was flooded. By 18.15 the down line was closed due to wash-outs and all services had to use the up line between Dawlish Warren and Teignmouth using the bi-directional signalled track. Many services were seriously disrupted with trains over two hours late. The following day (Friday 22 September) the down track remained closed with all trains using the up track. South West Trains services which usually use the route were terminated at Exeter.

The illustrations below were taken between 18.00 and 19.10 on the evening of 21 September 2006, using a Nikon D2X fitted with a 50 or 85mm manual f1.4 lens with the camera ISO set at 800 ot 1600.