Driver stops train to rescue frightened pug

The train driver saw Poppy hiding in a hedge at the side of the railway track

A freight train driver, who rescued a lost dog he spotted near the railway line, has reunited the animal with her owners.

Poppy the pug ran away when she was frightened by a speeding car in Rutland on Tuesday night.

Owners Dawn and Ian Bain said they spent all night searching for her.

The following morning, train driver Michael Jones saw Poppy hiding in a hedge beside the track and was able to get out and collect her.

Mr Jones returned to Oakham with Poppy on his knee

Mr Jones said it was about 08:20 when he saw Poppy near the Langham Junction crossing - more than a mile from Northgate in Oakham, where she went missing.

He was slowly moving into a passing loop when a flash of red from her harness caught his eye.

"All of a sudden there was just this tiny little face just looking back at me," he said.

He said he stopped the train and "without thinking I jumped out the cab and rushed back as quick as I could to see if I could find this little dog and there she was just looking so very sad and lonely.

"She was trembling and looking down at the ground.

"I just couldn't believe my eyes."

Poppy was found near the crossing at Langham Junction

Mr Jones carried Poppy back to his train where she rode in the cab with him for about 20 minutes.

He fed her crumpets and offered her water while efforts were made to contact her owners.

At about the same time Mrs Bain, 60, went to the level crossing in Oakham to ask the person in the signal box to look out for Poppy.

She was told a dog had just been found and after making a phone call the signaller broke the good news.

'I cried - and he cried'

"He said she's on a freight train and she's on her way back into Oakham.

"My heart - it didn't know whether to sing or stop," she said.

Mrs Bain was told to make her way to Oakham station, where Mr Jones had been granted special permission to stop to return the dog to her.

She waited on the platform - still in her nightdress from the night before - when Mr Jones arrived.

"In comes this train with this beautiful man on, with Poppy sat on his knee," she said.

"I cried, massively, and he cried."

Poppy is recovering from the ordeal at home with her companion Tinker

Mrs Bain said they took Poppy straight to the vets and were told she did not have any injuries.

"She's just got a bloodshot eye but apart from that she's absolutely fine.

"She's very quiet and very subdued," she said.

Mr Jones said: "I genuinely believe if I hadn't had spotted her, she would never have been found.

"Where she was, no one is looking there for any particular reason."

Mrs Bain said she was really thankful that Mr Jones had been so observant and was kind enough to stop and rescue Poppy.