The Railway Children

Summary

The Railway Children tells how Roberta (Bobbie), Peter and Phyllis lose their comfortable London life and find friends, work and courage beside a country railway line. One evening, just after Peter's birthday, two men call, Father goes away with them, and Mother will say only that he has gone on business and that the children must not ask. Soon the family moves to a small house called Three Chimneys, near a station and a tunnel, with no servants and little money. Mother shuts herself up writing stories to sell, and the children, left to themselves, fall in love with the railway. Peter takes coal from the station yard and is caught by the Station Master, who forgives him. They wave every morning to the 9.15 and send their love to Father by it, and an old gentleman in a first-class carriage waves back. When Mother falls ill with influenza, the children send him a list of what the doctor ordered, and he sends a hamper. Bobbie climbs into an engine to ask the driver to mend Peter's broken toy engine, and the driver and fireman do it. A Russian writer, sent to Siberia for a book about the poor, turns up at the station, and the old gentleman finds his lost wife and child. After a landslide blocks the line, the girls tear their red flannel petticoats into flags and stop a train, and the railway company gives each child a gold watch. They save a bargeman's baby from a burning canal boat, organise birthday gifts from the whole village for the proud porter Perks, and help a boy in a red jersey, Jim, who has broken his leg in the tunnel during a paperchase. He turns out to be the old gentleman's grandson, and he is nursed at Three Chimneys. Meanwhile Bobbie finds an old newspaper and learns the secret: Father has been convicted of selling state secrets and sentenced to five years' penal servitude. Mother tells her he is innocent and that the two of them must be brave together. Bobbie writes to the old gentleman, who works to prove the truth. In the last chapter the passengers of the 9.15 wave newspapers at the children, the village greets Bobbie with strange kindness, and Father steps off the 11.54. The book was serialized in The London Magazine in 1905 and published in 1906 with illustrations by C. E. Brock.

Plot or Argument

• Chapters I-II: The beginning of things

  Father is taken away; the family moves to Three Chimneys; the children discover the railway, and Peter's coal-mine at the station ends when the Station Master catches him.

• Chapters III-IV: The old gentleman and the engine

  The children wave to the 9.15; Mother's influenza brings Dr Forrest and the old gentleman's hamper; Bobbie rides in an engine to have Peter's toy engine mended.

• Chapter V: Prisoners and captives

  A Russian exile arrives at the station, ill and without English; Mother takes him in, the old gentleman finds his family, and Mother asks the children to pray for all prisoners and captives.

• Chapters VI-VII: Saviours of the train

  A landslide falls across the line; the children wave red petticoat flags until the train stops, and the railway company presents them with engraved gold watches.

• Chapters VIII-IX: The fireman and Perks

  The children rescue a baby from a burning barge, then gather presents for Perks's birthday, which he first resents as charity and then accepts.

• Chapters X-XI: The terrible secret

  Bobbie reads of Father's trial and sentence in an old newspaper, shares the burden with Mother, and writes to the old gentleman for help; the paperchase leads into the tunnel.

• Chapters XII-XIII: Jim

  Bobbie stays in the dark tunnel with Jim, whose leg is broken; he is carried to Three Chimneys and nursed there, and the old gentleman comes to see his grandson.

• Chapter XIV: The End

  The passengers on the 9.15 wave their newspapers, the village wishes Bobbie joy, and Father, freed because the real traitor has been caught, steps off the 11.54.

Characters

• Roberta (Bobbie), protagonist

  The eldest child, thoughtful and tender-hearted, who learns the family's secret and works to free her father.

• Peter, brother

  The middle child, who wants to be an engineer and likes to be in charge.

• Phyllis, sister

  The youngest, who means extremely well and is always losing her bootlaces.

• Mother, parent

  A brave, merry woman who writes stories and verses to support the family while hiding her grief.

• Father, parent

  A government official wrongly imprisoned as a spy.

• The old gentleman, friend

  A wealthy, influential passenger on the 9.15 who answers the children's waves and their letters.

• Perks, porter

  The station porter, kind and proud, who teaches the children about trains.

• Dr Forrest, doctor

  The local doctor, poor himself, who treats the family and talks frankly with Peter.

• Mr. Szezcpansky, Russian exile

  A writer imprisoned in Siberia for a book about the poor, who escapes to England.

• Jim, the hound in the red jersey

  A schoolboy who breaks his leg in the tunnel; the old gentleman's grandson.

• The Station Master, railwayman

  Catches Peter taking coal and becomes a friend.

Lessons

• Bearing a burden together

  When Bobbie learns that Father is in prison, she keeps the secret from Peter and Phyllis so they need not suffer, and shares it only with Mother. Nesbit shows a child growing up by carrying sorrow quietly for the sake of others, while still finding help from a trusted friend.

  • Why does Mother keep the secret from the children at first?
  • Why doesn't Bobbie tell Peter and Phyllis?
  • What does Bobbie do to help Father?

• Courage in an emergency

  When the landslide falls, the children think quickly, tear up their red petticoats, and stand on the line waving until the train stops. Bobbie faints afterward. The book shows bravery as doing the needed thing while afraid.

  • How do the children know the train is in danger?
  • Why do they use the red petticoats?
  • What happens to Bobbie when the train stops?

• Gifts without charity's sting

  Perks is offended when the village sends him birthday presents, because he thinks he is being treated as a beggar. When Bobbie shows him the kind notes of friends who remember his past kindnesses, he is proud and happy. Nesbit shows that a gift must honour the person who receives it.

  • Why does Perks get angry about the presents?
  • What changes his mind?

• Kindness to strangers

  Mother takes in the sick Russian when no one at the station can understand him, and the children help him find his family. The prayer for prisoners and captives teaches the children that other people's sorrows are close to their own.

  • Why was the Russian sent to prison?
  • How does Mother's prayer for prisoners and captives become personal for Bobbie later?

Context

The novel is set around 1905 in Edwardian England, when railways connected the country and were still a source of wonder to children. Nesbit, a founder member of the Fabian Society, gives the book a Russian political exile and a wrongful conviction for espionage. Readers have long seen an echo of the Dreyfus affair in France, in which an army officer was falsely convicted of treason, and of Russian exiles Nesbit knew, such as Sergius Stepniak.

Composition

The story was serialized in The London Magazine from 1905 to early 1906 and published as a book in 1906 by Wells Gardner, Darton & Co., with illustrations by C. E. Brock; Macmillan published it in the United States.

Reception

The book became one of the best-loved English children's novels. Lionel Jeffries's 1970 film, with Jenny Agutter as Bobbie, made the story familiar to later generations, and it has been adapted again for television and the stage.

Comparisons

• five-children-and-it

  Nesbit's earlier book also sends a family of children into the country, but it gives them a magical wish-granting creature; here the adventures come from the railway and ordinary courage.

• little-women

  In both, a father is absent, a mother keeps the family together on little money, and the eldest girl grows up through care for others.

• the-secret-garden

  Both books move children from comfort or neglect into country life where they find friends and help heal someone else.

• hans-brinker

  Two poor families with a father lost to them, one by injury and one by false imprisonment, and children whose loyalty and work help bring him back.

• the-wind-in-the-willows

  Written in the same Edwardian years, both books love the English countryside, but Grahame's riverbank resists the modern world while Nesbit's children fall in love with the railway.

Quotes

For Students

A reading companion for classical Christian high school students. See the student guide.

Reading Guide

Watch for

• The night Father goes away in Chapter I, and what Mother does and does not say.
• The children's daily wave to the 9.15 and the old gentleman's answer.
• The landslide and the red petticoat flags in Chapter VI.
• Bobbie's discovery in the old newspaper at the end of Chapter X.
• The last chapter, when everyone in the village knows something Bobbie does not.

Key terms and names

Three Chimneys

The small white house near the railway where the family goes to live.

The 9.15

The morning train the children wave to, which carries the old gentleman.

Porter

A railway worker who carries luggage and helps at the station; Perks is the porter.

Signal

A raised or lowered arm beside the line that tells the driver whether it is safe to go on.

Penal servitude

Imprisonment with hard labour; Father is sentenced to five years of it.

Paperchase

A game in which runners called hares lay a trail of paper scraps and hounds follow; Jim is a hound.

Seminar Questions

1. Comprehension Why does the family have to move to Three Chimneys?
2. Comprehension How do the children stop the train before the landslide?
3. Comprehension What does Bobbie find out from the old newspaper?
4. Interpretation Was Peter wrong to take coal from the station? What does the Station Master think?
5. Interpretation Why is Perks hurt by the birthday presents, and why does he change his mind?
6. Interpretation Why does Mother try so hard to be cheerful, and what does it cost her?
7. Big Question What should we do when someone we love is treated unfairly and we cannot fix it ourselves?

Faith Connections

• Hebrews 13:3 (Scripture)

  Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them. Mother asks the children to pray for all prisoners and captives, and Bobbie later understands that Father is one of them.

• Galatians 6:2 (Scripture)

  Bear ye one another's burdens. Bobbie and Mother share the secret so that neither carries it alone.

• Psalm 37:5-6 (Scripture)

  The psalm promises that God will bring forth righteousness as the light; Father's innocence is finally made known to everyone.

• Book of Common Prayer, the Litany (Great Conversation)

  The Litany prays for all prisoners and captives; Mother's words to the children echo this prayer of the English church.

Logic and Rhetoric

Central argument: Hard times take away money and comfort but not love, courage or kindness. The children, by helping others, gain friends who help them in turn. Therefore a family that stays loving and brave in trouble can survive even a great injustice until the truth comes out.

Rhetorical device: direct address to the reader. The narrator often talks to the reader, as in Chapter XIV, where she says we will not open the door after Father goes into the house.

Debate: Resolved: that Mother was right to keep Father's imprisonment a secret from the children.

Memory Work

We two must help each other to be brave.

They were not railway children to begin with.

Writing Prompts

Essay: Show how Bobbie grows up during the story, using three moments: the engine, the landslide and the newspaper.

Comparison with Little Women: Compare Bobbie with Meg or Jo in Little Women. How does each eldest daughter help her mother while their father is away?

Medical Lens

Illness and injury recur in an Edwardian country setting with a single local doctor. Mother's influenza brings Dr Forrest, whose list of ordered foods and comforts the poor family cannot afford; the children's appeal to the old gentleman produces a hamper. The Russian exile arrives worn out in mind and body after Siberia. Jim's broken leg is set at Three Chimneys rather than in a hospital, with the children listening in distress to the sounds from the room above, and Mother nurses him. Bobbie's petticoat cushion and the children's game of bone-setting reflect a home-nursing world. Dr Forrest is drawn as kind, frank and not well off himself. None of this is clinical, but it is a fair picture of general practice and home care before the National Health Service.

• Chapter III, The old gentleman

  Dr Forrest diagnoses Mother's influenza and lists what she needs; the children ask the old gentleman for it.

  Fever Infection Physicians Doctors Starvation Nutrition
• Chapter V, Prisoners and captives

  The doctor sees the Russian exile and says he is worn out, mind and body.

  Physicians Doctors
• Chapters XII-XIII

  Jim, injured in the tunnel, is brought to Three Chimneys; the doctor sets the leg and Mother nurses him.

  Pain Nursing Caregiving Physicians Doctors

Creative Prompts

• Classroom

  Draw a map of the railway near Three Chimneys: the station, the tunnel, the cutting where the landslide fell, the canal and the house, and mark where each adventure happened.

• Fiction

  Write the letter the old gentleman might have written back to Bobbie after reading the newspaper she sent him.

• Essay

  Which of the three children is the bravest, and why? Use at least two adventures.

• Dialogue

  Write the conversation between Perks and his wife after the children explain the birthday presents.

Further Reading

• The Story of the Treasure Seekers, E. Nesbit

• Five Children and It, E. Nesbit

• The Phoenix and the Carpet, E. Nesbit

• A Woman of Passion: The Life of E. Nesbit, Julia Briggs