ONE HOUR TO ZERO

GB
1976
55 mins
Dir: Jeremy Summers
Starring: Dudley Sutton and Hazel McBride

A runaway child heads back home to his Welsh village only to find that it is completely deserted

This Children’s Film Foundation drama is quite effective in parts, it scared me when I was a child. It also features something totally unique and wholly unexpected. Some scenes were filmed in Llechwedd Slate Quarry and narrow-gauge track is visible along with No.4 The Eclipse. This diminutive little loco started life as Margaret, an 0-4-0 IST (inverted saddle tank) steam locomotive built by W G Bagnall Ltd in 1895 as Works No.1445, before being rebuilt as an overhead electric loco by Greaves, the quarry owners, in 1927. The 2ft gauge loco was one of two converted but was out of use at the time of filming. Both have been preserved and now reside in the Welsh Highland Railway Museum.

Narrow-gauge track in its simplest form. This is Llechwedd Slate Qaurry
Toby Bridge climbs along an old inclined plain
No.4 The Eclipse stands out of use behind Toby Bridge. An indigenous electric locomotive that had started life as a steam locomotive! You can not get more unusual than this.