We discovered the problem and we stood by until the incident was over

Dumfries and Galloway Fire Brigade spokesman

After an inspection, the smoke was found to be coming from a binding brake on one of the carriages.

All of the passengers on the train were evacuated without any injuries.

An engineer released the binding brake and allowed it to cool for over an hour.

The train was then allowed to continue its journey north shortly after 2100 GMT.

A Dumfries and Galloway Fire Brigade spokesman said: "We had two units from Annan at the incident and one from Lockerbie.

Second incident

"We discovered the problem and we stood by until the incident was over."

This is the second incident to hit Virgin trains on the West Coast mainline in the last week.

On 30 December a train driver was hurt in an incident near Lockerbie.

The cab of the Virgin Express Glasgow to London train was hit by an object falling from the overhead electrification system.

The driver was showered in broken glass and taken to hospital with "serious, but not life-threatening" injuries.

None of the 200 passengers on board were hurt in the accident, which happened on a remote stretch of track four miles north of Beattock, near Lockerbie.