jerryr59

Correction: Several factors would have slowed the boys down while they were running through the tunnel. The boys would either be running over gravel and trying to avoid the sleepers, or stepping from sleeper to sleeper and trying to avoid the gravel. It would be dark, so the boys would slow down, looking out to avoid tripping over things. There is also the fact that the boys had already been running for some distance, and so were beginning to tire and slow down. The three 'railway children' only wanted to get across the hill, so they only had to make a quick 'sprint' in which they could use all their speed and stamina to run a short distance. They were running over open countryside, in sunlight, with full visibility. Plus they did not want to get to the end of the tunnel before the boys, they just wanted to run to a point where they would see them come out of the tunnel.

Rob Halliday

Correction: The tunnel isn't straight. Pausing the film when the camera is pointing into the tunnel shows the train lines running at a different angle to the position of the other end of the tunnel. The lines would need to curve twice, like an S shape, to align correctly.