ROVER MAKES GOOD

GB
1952
16mins
Dir: John Dooley
Starring: Felicity Alway and Malcolm Doney

Two children on holiday in Cornwall are rescued by a sheepdog when they become trapped in a disused tin mine

This Children’s Film Foundation family short opens with some wonderful and really quite rare shots of Luckett station in Cornwall, with a two coach train arriving in the hands of fomer LSWR Adams O2 Class 0-4-4T No.30207. The station was on the Callington branch from Bere Alston and opened on 2nd March 1908 as Stoke Climsland, only to be renamed Luckett within 15 months. The station closed with the line west of Gunnislake on 7th November 1966. The film ends with additional shots at the station showing a departure of a branch train in the hands of a BR Ivatt Class 2MT 2-6-2T. The branch train in both scenes is formed of vintage LSWR push-pull ‘gate stock’.

This excellent overall view of Luckett station in Cornwall opens the film and shows a distant branch train approaching
A Morris Ten Series M Estate runs over the bridge from which the above shot was taken
And as the van passes the camera we get to see the station from a different angle
The train has now arrived and the peace and tranquility of this remote country station is temporarily broken. The locomotive is former LSWR Adams O2 Class 0-4-4T No.30207 with a couple of goods vans tagged on to the rear of the venerable ‘gate stock’ as a tail load. The LSWR origins of the train seem strange at first, but reminds us that parts of Devon – and Cornwall – were reached by the Southern Railway.
The station appears again at the end of the film. The branch train is in the platform as the family say their goodbyes.
This shot has been included to show just why the venerable coaches were known as ‘gate stock’
This departure scene closes the film. The loco is now a BR Ivatt Class 2MT 2-6-2T and the children lean out over the gate to wave goodbye. Note the wonky ‘CALLINGTON BRANCH’ window board.
Out of interest, here is the Callington Branch board, which has clearly seen better days!!