The Last Train to Callington
Bere Alston to Callington was one of those beautiful LSWR lines cutting through some of the most vivid terrain in Devon and Cornwall. This long awaited documentary features the journey with unique archive footage, rare photographs and modern day aerials to show the route of the trackbed. In 1966, the section from Callington to Gunnislake was cut short, and Luckett, Latchley and Chilsworthy, as stations in between, were axed as a result of cut backs. But, thanks to amateur cinematographers such as John Sandercock, we are able to reconstruct those nostalgic days of steam and early diesels to tell the story.
Description
DVD – Colour – 55 minutes
Bere Alston to Callington was one of those beautiful LSWR lines cutting through some of the most vivid terrain in Devon and Cornwall. This long awaited documentary features the journey with unique archive footage, rare photographs and modern day aerials to show the route of the trackbed. In 1966, the section from Callington to Gunnislake was cut short, and Luckett, Latchley and Chilsworthy, as stations in between, were axed as a result of cut backs. But, thanks to amateur cinematographers such as John Sandercock, we are able to reconstruct those nostalgic days of steam and early diesels to tell the story.
First, we take a brief look at the history of the East Cornwall Mineral Railway and the building of Calstock Viaduct. Then we journey from Bere Alston to Callington, linking each station from the air. Using more archive footage we undertake the return journey at ground level, calling at all stations, including those now closed. John Snell, a veteran of the line, narrates some fine experiences and also included is a montage of steam-powered units used on the line in those memorable days.
The section ‘now and then’ shows how things looked in the vintage days and how they look today. With interspersed shots of the beautiful Tamar Valley, this documentary will invoke happy memories of those great days on a unique vintage branch line.
An Aarchive Film Production
Specifications
Directed by Phil Lilley
Narrated by Roger Lilley
Consultants: John Snell and Reg Blackett
Assistant: Andrew Shipp
‘The Tamar Valley Theme’ by Ron and Wendy Griffiths
Archive Footage: John Sandercock, B & R Video Productions, Mike Parriss, D Blakely
Thanks to James Evans, Iris Snell and Anthony Kingdom
Aerials by Hovercam Ltd
All the DVDs are produced, packed and sent directly from Aarchvie Films.
The original documentaries were made on S-VHS, in a 4:3 ratio, so on a standard TV/computer screen, will show black bars on both sides.
There is some very brief areas of ‘dropout’ when they were converted from S-VHS video to digital. We have done the best we can to reduce this, but it is still there.
All of the documentaries were produced by Roger Lilley of Aarchive Films, who passed away 20 years ago. Some of the ‘modern’ footage is from between 1995 – 2000, so some of the newer footage may look different now.
