The Railway Children: a bedtime book about steam trains, and where to ride one

This book opens with a quiet disaster and closes on a platform full of steam. Three London children — Roberta, Peter and Phyllis — have their father taken away one evening; the family loses its money and moves from a comfortable house to a small cottage beside a railway line in the North. The railway they once thought of only as the way to Madame Tussaud's becomes their whole world: they wave to the 9.15, befriend the old porter, stop a train before a landslide, and wait — all year they wait — for a familiar figure to step down onto their platform. E. Nesbit wrote it in 1906, and it has stayed one of the kindest English children's books ever since: no villains, only decency, patience and the belief that things can be put right. A good one to open at bedtime.

The opening lines

Chapter one is called 'The beginning of things'. Here is how it starts:

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'They were not railway children to begin with. I don't suppose they had ever thought about railways except as a means of getting to Maskelyne and Cook's, the Pantomime, Zoological Gardens, and Madame Tussaud's.'

The book is in the public domain — E. Nesbit died in 1924 — so the full English text is free and legal at Project Gutenberg.

Why read it tonight

The Railway Children is not adventure for its own sake; it is about how a family holds together when ordinary life collapses. Nesbit never spells out at once what has happened to the father — she lets Roberta, the eldest, work it out and carry it in silence. It is a book about dignity in poverty, kindness to strangers, and a wait that is rewarded. Its final scene on the platform is one of the most famous in English children's writing, and we will not spoil it.

It reads aloud beautifully: the first chapter, 'The beginning of things', takes about twenty-five unhurried minutes aloud — exactly one evening. After that each chapter stands on its own: the train, the dog, the fire, the birthday.

About the author

E. Nesbit (1858–1924) was one of the inventors of the modern children's book — ordinary children, an ordinary world, and something extraordinary breaking into it. She was born on 15 August 1858 in Kennington, south London, and died on 4 May 1924 at New Romney in Kent. She published under her initial, 'E. Nesbit', so that readers would pick the books up without knowing a woman had written them. In 1884, with her husband Hubert Bland, she was a co-founder of the Fabian Society. From 1899 to 1920 she lived at Well Hall in Eltham, south-east London, and it was there that she wrote her best-known books — Five Children and It, The Story of the Amulet and The Railway Children.

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Places to visit

Well Hall Pleasaunce, Eltham, London SE9 6SZ. The garden on the site of the house where Nesbit lived for twenty years and wrote The Railway Children. It is now a free public park, open 24 hours; a 16th-century Tudor Barn survives at its north end (now a restaurant). The closest point to the book that is actually in London — and free.

National Railway Museum, Leeman Road, York YO26 4XJ. The largest collection of locomotives in the world; admission is free, open daily 10.00–17.00, last entry 16.30, closed 24–26 December (Station Hall closes early at 15.00 on 18 November and all day on 10 December). Here stand the Rocket and the Flying Scotsman — the machines the book turns on.

Keighley & Worth Valley Railway, Oakworth Station, West Yorkshire. The heritage line where the beloved 1970 film of the book was shot, with Oakworth standing in for the children's station. Steam trains run the line; an all-day Day Rover is £24 adult (£21.60 booked online three days ahead), £12 child aged 5–15 (£10.80), under-5s free, £60 for a family of two adults and three children (£54 online); wheelchair users and one companion get 50% off. The timetable is seasonal — the main booklet runs to the end of October, and in winter the Santa Specials and Mince Pie Specials run (26 December 2026 – 3 January 2027). Check the timetable at kwvr.co.uk or call 01535 645214 before you travel.

Where to get it

Free. The full English text is at Project Gutenberg (public domain). For a Russian translation, «Дети железной дороги», use the Library Hub Discover catalogue to see which UK libraries hold a copy.

To buy. For the Russian edition, ask at Britain's Russian-language bookshops — Bookashka and Notre Locus (children's sections); check stock and price on their sites. The English edition is in every bookshop, usually on the 'classics for children' shelf.