The Railway Children: A children’s book by Edith Nesbit

The story concerns a family who move from London to “The Three Chimneys”, a house near the railway in Yorkshire, after the father, who works at the Foreign Office, is imprisoned after being falsely accused of spying. The children befriend an Old Gentleman who regularly takes the 9:15 train near their home; he is eventually able to help prove their father’s innocence, and the family is reunited. The family takes care of a Russian exile, Mr Szczepansky, who came to England looking for his family (later located) and Jim, the grandson of the Old Gentleman, who suffers a broken leg in a tunnel. The theme of an innocent man being falsely imprisoned for espionage and finally vindicated might have been influenced by the Dreyfus Affair, which was a prominent worldwide news item a few years before the book was written. The Russian exile, persecuted by the Tsars for writing “a beautiful book about poor people and how to help them” and subsequently helped by the children, was most likely an amalgam of the real-life dissidents Sergius Stepniak and Peter Kropotkin who were both friends of the author. The book refers to the then current Russo-Japanese War and to attitudes taken by British people to the war. This dates the setting to the spring, summer and early autumn of 1905, and also accounts for the very hostile opinions of Tsarist Russia expressed in the book. Those opinions are now known to have been entirely justified, but when the book was published in 1906 that was controversial, the Conservatives (here represented by the Station-master) backing the authoritarian Russians, while the Liberals (represented by the Porter) back the Japanese. In 2005 the stage musical was first presented at Sevenoaks Playhouse in Kent, UK, with a cast including Are You Being Served star Nicholas Smith as the Old Gentleman, Paul Henry from Crossroads as Perks and West End star Susannah Fellows as Mother. Music is by Richard John and book and lyrics by Julian Woolford. The score was recorded by TER/JAY records and the musical is published by Samuel French Ltd. A new stage adaptation written by Mike Kenny and directed by Damian Cruden was staged in 2008 and 2009 at the National Railway Museum, York. The adaptation starred Sarah Quintrell, Colin Tarrant and Marshall Lancaster (2008 only), and featured a Stirling Single steam locomotive (GNR 4-2-2 No.1) which, while not actually in steam, entered the stage on the tracks originally leading into the York Goods Station, in which the ‘Station Hall’ section of the museum is now situated. The stage was constructed inside the large tent outside the Goods Station, which is usually reserved for some of the working locomotives of the museum. The project was set up by York Theatre Royal, and involved its younger members (Youth theatre) in the production. This adaptation then transferred for two seasons to two disused platforms at Waterloo International railway station. The amateur rights now allow local amateur companies across the UK to produce the play. A Toronto production in 2011 was staged at Roundhouse Park, home of John Street Roundhouse National Historic Site by Mirvish Productions. A temporary 1,000 seat theatre was built at the base of the CN Tower, around the railway tracks–with the audience seated on either side–and it featured a 66-ton vintage steam locomotive. From 21 June to 2 July 2017 Denmark’s oldest heritage railway Museumsbanen Maribo – Bandholm on Lolland, held a live stage performance at the railways station in Bandholm. Using the lines oldest operational steam locmotive OSJS 2 Kjoge from 1879, and a range of their coaches.