ESCAPE FROM THE DARK

Image result for The Littlest Horse Thieves 1976

GB / US
1976
1hr 44mins
Dir: Charles Jarrott
Starring: Alastair Sim and Prunella Scales

Three children attempt to rescue pit ponies from a slaughterhouse in Yorkshire

This Walt Disney family drama features a scene where there is an attempt to load the ponies onto wagons in a railway yard, which was filmed on the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway. The scene used Oakworth station, playing the part of ‘Emsdale’, and former Manchester Ship Canal Hudswell Clarke 0-6-0T No.31 Hamburg was the locomotive on the train.

This is Oakworth station with Hamburg in the siding behind the platform
Oakworth station on the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway, familiar to all who have watched The Railway Children
In this closer shot of proceedings, Hamburg stands on the right. Note its nameplate, plus the member of the footplate crew watching on.
In this shot a little later on we can see Hamburg much more clearly. Having failed at the first attempt to load the ponies it is now the following day, hence the reason for the locomotive being on the opposite end of the train here. The film was supposedly set in 1909, and although the loco is entirely the wrong sort for the location it is actually old enough for the film for it was built in 1903.