LASSIE

GB / US / FRA / IRE
2005
1hr 40mins
Dir: Charles Sturridge
Starring: Samantha Morton and Jonathan Mason

A poor mining family is forced to sell their pedigree Rough Collie dog to a Lord

In this update of the classic family story a handful of random shots are used to depict a train journey to Scotland. These are a distant shot of an ex-LMS Class 7P ‘Duchess’ 4-6-2 crossing a viaduct on an express, an ‘over the camera’ shot of a rebuilt Bulleid Pacific, and a ‘going away’ shot of BR Mk1 coaching stock, no locomotive visible. This is the eleventh movie about Lassie but the only one that is known to feature Britain’s railways. It is based on Eric Knight’s 1940 novel Lassie Come-Home, the name of the first movie of 1943.

Which ‘Duchess’ is this, and which viaduct??
This is a much older stock shot of an SR Bulleid pacific passing over the camera
This going away shot of maroon-liveried BR Mk.1 coaching stock ends the railway scenes in the film. It is the same location as that seen in From Russia With Love (1963) and Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors (1965) among others which shows a ‘Royal Scot’ passing in the opposite direction.