CAUGHT IN THE NET

GB
1960
1hr 04mins
Dir: John Haggerty
Starring: Jeremy Bulloch and Joanna Horlock

A boy and his pals help catch criminals who are poaching salmon from a river near a fisheries research centre

This adventure film from the Children’s Film Foundation is based on an original story called The Lazy Salmon Mystery by Sutherland Ross. It has a scene filmed outside Buckfastleigh station in the good old days before it became part of the Dart Valley Railway (and later still the South Devon Railway). A former GWR 45xx series 2-6-2T can be seen standing in the platform in the background and some wagons are also visible in the goods yard. The film was subsequently edited in 1972 into a revised version 55 minutes in length, presumably to remove damaged sections of the original production.

This is the station forecourt at Buckfastleigh, as viewed from the platform. In the right hand background is the vintage GWR camping coach which stood in the yard from 1956 until 1961.
A busy scene at Buckfastleigh with a 45xx series 2-6-2T simmering in the platform. However, not is all as it first appears to be. The station had closed to passenger traffic in 1958, two years before filming, but remained open for goods until 1962.
James Luck, Joanna Horlock and Bruce Wightman pose for the camera. The goods yard is behind them with some box vans visible in a siding on the right. In the far background is the signal box whilst just creeping into shot on the left is the camping coach seen in the earlier view.