The Railway Children (1906) is a children's novel by Edith Nesbit. When their father is taken away, three children move with their mother to a cottage near a railway line in Yorkshire, where they make friends, prevent an accident and work to clear his name.
The story
Roberta (Bobbie), Peter and Phyllis live comfortably in London until their father is taken away one evening by two strangers. Their mother takes them to live in poverty at Three Chimneys, near a railway, and writes stories to support them.
The children wave to an old gentleman on the 9.15 train, become friends with the station porter Perks, save a train from a landslide by waving red petticoats, and help a Russian exile. With the old gentleman's help, they discover the truth about their father.
Writing
The novel was first serialised in The London Magazine in 1905, then published as a book in 1906. Nesbit drew on the case of Alfred Dreyfus, the French officer wrongly convicted of treason, for the father's story.
The children's adventures were inspired by her own childhood and by the railways near her home in Kent.
Adaptations
The 1970 film, directed by Lionel Jeffries and starring Jenny Agutter as Bobbie, made the story a family classic in Britain. Much of it was filmed on the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway in Yorkshire.
The novel has also been adapted for television, radio and the stage, including a production in a disused railway station.
Anecdotes
A Dreyfus story
The father of the railway children is wrongly imprisoned for selling state secrets, an echo of the Dreyfus affair, which had deeply divided France and fascinated Britain.
Oakworth station
The station in the 1970 film is Oakworth, on the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway, a heritage line still visited by fans of the film.
Frequently asked questions
Who are the railway children?
Roberta, called Bobbie, Peter and Phyllis.
Why does the family move to the country?
Their father has been arrested and imprisoned, wrongly accused of spying, and they are left poor.
When was The Railway Children published?
As a serial in 1905 and as a book in 1906.