Rail services in the South West suffered further disruption on Friday because of weather conditions along the south Devon coast.

Virgin Voyager services were suspended from 1000 BST because of high tides and winds throwing sea water on lines at Dawlish.

On Thursday, Virgin withdrew its high-tech Voyager trains between Plymouth and Exeter because waves breaking across the line caused electrical systems to short circuit.

Now Virgin is to bring back older trains on the line during high tides until the problems with the new engines are solved.

The company ran some services on Friday morning before being stymied by deteriorating weather.

Some trains ran on Friday morning

A spokesman said: "We've had to react to weather conditions. Services were running first thing this morning, but we've had to adjust them to take the weather into account."

The problem has been caused by salt and sand getting into insulation in the trains' electrics just below roof level, causing engines to shut down.

Engineers are to modify the electrical insulation during routine maintenance checks to prevent the problem occurring again.

Passengers were told to use other rail services to get to their destinations.

Hosed down

A Virgin spokesman said: "Particles of sand and salt have been clinging to the electrical systems.

"Once they were hosed down with fresh water, everything was OK."

The spokesman said that engines were checked regularly and modifications would be carried out soon.

He said: "We're talking days rather than weeks."

In the meantime, Intercity 125 high-speed trains are to be brought back into service to shuttle between Plymouth and Exeter during periods of high tide.

The 125s have been the main workhorse on cross country intercity routes for 20 years.