The Railway Children

“They were just ordinary suburban children, and they lived with their father and mother in an ordinary redbrick-fronted villa, with coloured glass in the front door, a tiled passage that was called a hall, a bathroom with hot and cold water, electric bells, French windows, and a good deal of white paint, and ‘every modern convenience’, as the house-agents say.”

In these lines, the reader gets a vivid picture of how privileged the children’s lives in London are. The repetition of the word “ordinary” emphasizes the fact that the children take their privileged circumstances for granted: they have never known hardship and their lives are marked by a high level of comfort and convenience by default. The description of what were still luxuries at the time of the novel’s publication—running hot and cold water, “electric bells,” the fact the house is a large “villa” instead of cramped and small, and the acknowledgement of “every modern convenience”—depicts a place that belongs to an upper-class family. Likewise, the line that the children “lived with their father and mother” stresses that this is a stable, nuclear family that embodies the ideals of respectability in both social and economic terms. This passage is especially significant considering how all of these circumstances will soon undergo a radical change.

“Among his other presents was a model of an engine more perfect than you could ever have dreamed of. The other presents were full of charm, but the engine was fuller of charm than any of the others were.”

Peter receives the gift of a model engine for his birthday, which foreshadows the actual railway that will be central to the children’s lives once they are living in the countryside. The fact that the engine is Peter’s favorite present emphasizes the intense bond he and the other children will feel toward the railway after their circumstances change. Peter receives this gift shortly before Father’s imprisonment, and the engine breaks the same day Father is arrested. The breakdown of the toy engine symbolizes the breakdown of the family unit, while also symbolizing how the family will be made whole again at the novel’s end.

“Mother tried to make the time pass by telling them a new fairy story about a princess with green eyes, but it was difficult because they could hear the voices of Father and the gentlemen in the Library, and Father’s voice sounded louder and different to the voice he usually used to people who came about testimonials and holiday funds.”

Just as Peter’s broken toy engine symbolizes the breakdown of the family unit, so too does the interruption of Mother’s storytelling by the heated conversation in Father’s Library. Up until this point in the novel, Mother’s storytelling has been an element of the children’s privileged, idealized existence—her inability to now tell a fairy story without a harsh reality intruding upon the fantasy signals to the reader that the time of privilege is now at an end. Father’s change of voice alerts us to his impending downfall, although the cause of his downfall is not revealed until later in the novel. Furthermore, the interruption of Mother’s storytelling also foreshadows the ways in which her relationship with storytelling is about to change: what was originally a leisure activity undertaken for pleasure will soon become her sole means of supporting herself and her children.

“This was the first train the children saw on that railway which was in time to become so very dear to them. They did not guess how they would grow to love the railway, and how soon it would become the centre of their life, nor what wonders and changes it would bring to them.”

Shortly after their arrival in the countryside, the children encounter the nearby railway and feel an immediate interest in it. The railway is a symbol both of the new life they will lead in the countryside, and a link to the old life in London they left behind. The railway, as something modern and industrial in nature, represents modernity and the life in London the children once had. These lines emphasize that the railway “would soon become the centre of their life,” and will bring “changes” to the children’s world, but the railway is also a means of continuity. It is the link to the wider world that will eventually reunite the family and restore their lost fortunes, which is why its first appearance holds such significance in the novel.

“The great thing is to be cheerful. Nobody can be cheerful in the dark except owls and dormice.”

Mother speaks these lines to the children during their first evening in the countryside, urging them to light candles to brighten the room. While her words have a practical function in trying to help aid them in adjusting to their new surroundings, they also have thematic significance. In telling her children that “the great thing is to be cheerful,” Mother is voicing one of the key themes of the novel—the importance of making the best of things in the face of adversity and suffering. Her determination to seem strong and capable even while under significant strains also reveals an important element of Mother’s characterization: her strength of character and her unshakeable belief in the power of maintaining hope and a positive attitude.

“They got used to being without Father, though they did not forget him; and they got used to not going to school, and to seeing very little of Mother, who was now almost all day shut up in her upstairs room writing, writing, writing.”

This passage reveals the extent of the children’s changed circumstances. They are now living in poverty and relative isolation in the countryside, and their original nuclear family unit is broken. Father is away in prison, although they do not know that yet, and Mother is no longer able to be as present in their lives are before. Mother’s abandonment of her leisurely habit of storytelling for pleasure for a frantic work schedule of “writing, writing, writing” reveals to the reader that writing is now Mother’s sole means of supporting the family unit in the absence of her husband. Mother is taking on the traditionally male role of being the family provider, and this role is a source of strain. The fact the children no longer attend school alludes to their poverty and their loss of social status. They are isolated socially as well as economically now that their father is imprisoned and they live away from the city.

“Here in the deep silence of the sleeping country the only things that went by were the trains. They seemed to be all that was left to link the children to the old life that had once been theirs.”

The children feel drawn toward the railway because it is, as this passage tells us, “all that was left to link” them to London and the comfortable, stable existence they once enjoyed together with their father. But while the trains represent the past, they also foreshadow the future. As links to the wider outside world, the trains will also bring new friendships and experiences into the children’s lives, as well as—most crucially—assistance and ultimate deliverance to the children in the form of the old gentleman.

“It was by the Green Dragon that the Old Gentleman travelled. He was a very nice-looking old gentleman, and he looked as if he were nice, too, which is not at all the same thing. He had a fresh-coloured, clean-shaven face and white hair, and he wore rather odd-shaped collars and a top-hat that wasn’t exactly the same kind as other people’s. Of course the children didn’t see all this at first. In fact the first thing they noticed about the Old Gentleman was his hand.”

The old gentleman will play a hugely significant role in the lives of the children and in the key plot points of the novel. In our first introduction to him, we notice several important clues about him. First, he is traveling in the children’s favorite train, “the Green Dragon,” foreshadowing the affection they children will soon feel toward him as well as the train. Second, the old gentleman travels first-class and is dressed as an eccentric but upper-class man, complete with a “top-hat,” that signifies his privileged social status. Finally, the old gentleman’s “hand,” which he will use to return the children’s waves, represents the bond he will establish with them and the amount of help he will give them over the course of the novel—he will indeed “give them a hand” in more ways than one, in the sense of the assistance he will offer as a rich, important man with many connections in London.

“Mother did not answer for a minute. She got up to put more water in the teapot. ‘No one,’ she said at last, ‘ever loved anyone more than my mother loved me.’”

The reader learns about Mother’s backstory and life only in vague hints scattered throughout the novel, but this passage is significant because it speaks both to Mother’s loneliness and to the idealization of motherhood that exists in the novel. In speaking of her mother in the past tense, Mother signals to the reader that her own mother is now dead and that she is isolated and lacking in family support during her husband’s imprisonment. Her claim that “no one ever loved anyone” more than her mother did her alludes to the intense devotion and unconditional love Mother experienced herself as a child, as well as the sort of intense love and support she always tries to model for her own children in turn. Throughout the novel, motherhood is upheld as the purest and most unwavering form of love.

“‘Now listen,’ said Mother, ‘it’s quite true that we’re poor, but we have enough to live on. You mustn’t go telling everyone about our affairs—it’s not right. And you must never, never, never ask strangers to give you things. Now always remember that—won’t you?’”

Mother speaks these words of warning to her children after the arrival of a hamper from the old gentleman, who has sent the children many food items and little luxuries in response to their request for help. Mother’s discomfort in the face of this generosity speaks to her enduring personal pride and sense of dignity, which makes her reluctant to accept help from others despite her impoverished circumstances. As someone used to living a privileged existence and who formerly enjoyed high social status, Mother reveals her resistance to changing her self-image. Her repetition of the word “never” three times emphasizes her distaste toward the loss of face and potential risks the children run in speaking to strangers about the family’s unfortunate circumstances. Mother is determined to maintain her independence and the etiquette of the upper classes even when she is socially and economically excluded from that world.

“But when Bobbie crept down later to bring up her presents […] Mother was not writing, but leaning her head on her arms and her arms on the table. I think it was rather good of Bobbie to slip quietly away, saying over and over, ‘She doesn’t want me to know she’s unhappy, and I won’t know; I won’t know.’ But it made a sad end to the birthday.”

On the evening of her 12th birthday, Bobbie glimpses her mother in a pose of exhaustion and sadness sitting at the table. Up until this point in the novel, both the children and the reader are unaware of exactly where Father is and why he is absent, but there are generous hints that the circumstances are not exactly what they seem. Mother’s pose in this scene suggests that there is significant strain and that Father’s absence is not about “business” or work at all, but something altogether darker. Bobbie’s reaction to seeing her mother this way reveals both her fundamental good nature—by not wanting to add to her Mother’s evident distress by appearing before her—and to the virtues of obedience Bobbie believes in. Bobbie shows deference to Mother by refusing to pry into things that Mother will not share with her, and her determination to “not know” what is wrong in spite of her own discomfort speaks to the traditional family values of deference to parents within the world of the novel.

“‘But they can’t,’ said Peter; ‘people only go to prison when they’ve done wrong.’ ‘Or when judges think they’ve done wrong,’ said Mother. ‘Yes, that’s so in England. But in Russia it was different. And he wrote a beautiful book about poor people and how to help them. I’ve read it. There’s nothing in it but goodness and kindness. And they sent him to prison for it. He was three years in a horrible dungeon, with hardly any light, and all damp and dreadful. In prison all alone for three years.’ Mother’s voice trembled a little and stopped suddenly.”

In explaining the plight of the Russian Exile to her children, Mother raises the issue of justice, and speaks vividly of the Russian Exile’s experience of imprisonment. Her remark that people can sometimes end up in prison if a judge “think[s] they’ve done wrong” alludes to the plight of her own husband, who has been falsely accused of treason even though the children are still unaware of that fact. The injustice of the Russian legal system functions as a stand-in for the injustice faced by her own husband in England and allows the Russian Exile’s suffering to mirror that of Father. Furthermore, Mother’s comments upon the “beautiful book” the Russian Exile wrote speaks to the importance of storytelling within the world of the novel, elevating the Russian Exile’s status and serving as proof of both his moral and social standing.

“‘But if the present is money, you must say, “Thank you, but we’d rather not take it,”’ said Mother.”

When the children are invited for a reception at the railway in their honor, in acknowledgement of their success in preventing a serious train accident, Mother reacts with characteristic concern about upper-class social niceties and once again reveals her deep discomfort with their changed economic circumstances. Although the family is indeed poor and in desperate need of money, Mother forbids the children from accepting any cash rewards in case any are offered to them at the reception. Her response speaks both to her deep-seated personal pride and to one of the tensions at the heart of the novel. It is demonstrated that the reluctance to accept financial help—even if earned—from others, results in a loss of social standing. Financial help and charity are depicted as deeply fraught and potentially problematic within the world of the novel.

“The old gentleman got out a gold pencil-case and a beautiful, sweet-smelling green Russian leather notebook […] The old gentleman took out a pair of gold-rimmed spectacles and fitted them on his nose.”

At the reception in their honor, the children discover that the old gentleman is the District Superintendent of the railway. The description of the old gentleman’s golden items once again emphasizes his wealth and social importance, reminding the reader that this well-connected upper-class man is a link to the privileged world the children have left behind, while also foreshadowing the fact that he will be the key to the family’s redemption and ultimate reunion with their father. His “green Russian leather notebook” alludes to a link between the old gentleman and the Russian Exile—whom the old gentleman reunites with his wife and children—while foreshadowing how the old gentleman will also solve the issue of the Russian treason charges Father was falsely convicted of.

“There was a pleasant party of barge people round the fire. You might not have thought it pleasant, but they did; for they were all friends or acquaintances, and they liked the same sort of things, and talked the same sort of talk. This is the real secret of pleasant society. The Bargee Bill, whom the children had found so disagreeable, was considered excellent company by his mates. He was telling a tale of his own wrongs—always a thrilling subject. It was his barge he was speaking about.”

Up until this point in the novel, there have been tensions between the children and the “barge people” who live along the canal. This tension is, at heart, a class divide. The barge people are lower-class, whereas the children—in spite of their changed circumstances—are clearly from an originally privileged, city background. In this passage, social hierarchies are subtly reinforced through the way in which the author emphasizes that the “real secret of pleasant society” is in being with people who are similar to oneself. Even though the friendships the children forge can and do occasionally cross class lines—such as their friendships with the railway workers—there is ultimately a limit as to how close those bonds can be. Furthermore, Bill’s subject of conversation forms a significant contrast to the reserve and stoicism exhibited by Mother, who goes to great pains to hide her sufferings from wider society and to maintain her personal dignity.

“‘So you’ve made another lot of friends,’ said Mother; ‘first the railway and then the canal.’ ‘Oh yes,’ said Bobbie; ‘I think everyone in the world is friends if you can only get them to see you don’t want to be un-friends.’”

Bobbie’s social philosophy is simple and open-hearted, speaking to her fundamentally good intentions and sensitive personality. She believes that “everyone in the world” can become a friend of hers. Her attitude contrasts with the idea exhibited earlier in the description of Bill at the pub, in which the reader is told that the real secret to genuine connection is to be with people similar to oneself, and not just everyone in general. Bobbie’s exchange with her mother furthers this tension without solving it. While Mother speaks of both the railway worker friends and Bargee Bill and his wife as a homogenous group based on where they are—“the railway and then the canal”—Bobbie speaks of people as a whole and interprets their social needs as being all the same. The novel consistently emphasizes the importance of friendship, but the instances of miscommunication and the class barriers that occasionally exist do suggest that Bobbie’s worldview is not always practical.

“So you’ve been round telling the neighbours we can’t make both ends meet? Well, now you’ve disgraced us as deep as you can in the neighbourhood, you can just take the whole bag of tricks back w’ere it come from. Very much obliged, I’m sure. I don’t doubt but what you meant it kind but I’d rather not be acquainted with you any longer if it’s all the same to you.”

These lines are uttered by Mr. Perks in response to the surprise gifts the children present him with on his birthday. While Mrs. Perks is touched by the kindness and generosity of both the children and their neighbors, Mr. Perks reacts with anger. The fact that Mr. Perks feels deeply offended and defensive in response speaks to the personal pride he feels in his poverty, and his determination to remain self-sufficient and self-respecting—a quality he shares with Mother. In accidentally offending Mr. Perks, the children have misread the situation and inadvertently caused class tension. Mr. Perks understands that he is of an originally different social standing than the children, who seem to live in ignorance of this fact. What the children see as simple kindness is interpreted by Mr. Perks as patronizing and a loss of face for him socially. While the situation is soon resolved, this miscommunication nevertheless reveals the ongoing class differences at play in the novel and reinforces the idea that an act of charity can be a risky and problematic endeavor.

“That evening in the hour before bedtime instead of reading to the children Mother told them stories of the games she and Father used to have when they were children and lived near each other in the country.”

Fearing that the children may be forgetting their father, Mother decides to give up her usual bedtime fairytales by telling them real-life stories about their father instead. In revealing more about her past with Father, Mother’s act of storytelling foreshadows the other “real” story one of the children will discover by the chapter’s end—namely, how Bobbie will discover the real story about her father’s absence. This passage is also significant because it shows a reversal in how storytelling is used within the family unit. In their former lives in London, storytelling was a form of fantasy and escapism; in their present circumstances, storytelling is now a means by which the real past is kept alive, and a means to ensure Father’s ongoing presence (albeit indirectly) in the lives of his children. The fact that Mother and Father once knew each other as children “in the country” also reveals that the countryside has been a significant place for the family even before the children were born. The countryside is where their parents first met, and it will be in the countryside, at the novel’s end, where the parents are once again reunited.

“She never remembered how she got home. But she went on tiptoe to her room and locked the door. Then she did the parcel and read that printed column again, sitting on the edge of her bed, her hands and feet icy cold and her face burning. When she had read all there was, she drew a long, uneven breath. ‘So now I know,’ she said.”

This passage occurs after Bobbie has received a parcel of illustrated newspapers from Mr. Perks, who wishes to send them to Peter, who is recovering from a foot injury. While glancing through the papers, Bobbie spots a column about her father’s trial and prison sentence—this is what she is reading about in this passage. This revelation is significant because it serves as the culmination of all the hints scattered throughout the novel up until this point. While hints of Father being perhaps a prisoner have become more blatant, this is the moment of confirmation for both Bobbie and the reader. The full extent of Father’s imprisonment, and the nature of his absence, is now entirely clear.

“‘There’s no end to this tunnel,’ said Phyllis—and indeed it did seem very, very long. ‘Stick to it,’ said Peter; ‘everything has an end, and you get to it if only keep all on.’”

This exchange between Phyllis and Peter occurs when they are seeking help for Jim, who was injured in the railway tunnel during a steeplechase event. These lines have both a literal and a figurative meaning. In a literal sense, the siblings are coping with a long walk through a tunnel that is dark and dangerous, which is why Phyllis begins to feel fatigued and is in need of her brother’s encouragement. But on a figurative level, the tunnel represents the difficult circumstances the children have been living in ever since their father’s disgrace. Peter’s reassurance that “everything has an end” so long as one keeps enduring embodies one of the novel’s key themes: the importance of maintaining hope and determination in the face of adversity.

“‘Boys and girls are only little men and women. And we are much harder and hardier than they are […] because girls are so much softer and weaker than we are; they have to be, you know,’ he added, ‘because if they weren’t, it wouldn’t be nice for the babies. And that’s why all the animals are so good to the mother animals.’”

Dr. Forrest makes these remarks about the differences between boys and girls to Peter, after Peter has angered his sisters by speaking graphically about the process of setting broken bones. Dr. Forrest offers a view on gender roles that is common of the time period, in which men are supposed to be “harder” and tougher than women, and women are supposed to be defined by a certain delicacy of feeling and innate nurturing instincts. In explaining gender roles in this way, Dr. Forrest represents the social values of Edwardian England, while also reinforcing the ideal of motherhood that the novel consistently seems to endorse.

“[I]t’s not only him being Father, but now he’s away there’s no other man in the house but me—that’s why I want Jim to stay so frightfully much. Wouldn’t you like to be writing that book with us all in it, Mother, and make Daddy come home soon?”

In these lines, Peter confesses to his mother—for the first time—that the absence of Father has had a detrimental effect on his own well-being as the only son in the family. In admitting to his sense of alienation as the only “man” in the house and his resultant desire to have Jim stay for the sake of more consistent male companionship, Peter reveals that he has struggled to cope with his father’s absence more than he let on before. Peter’s sadness and longing reinforce the idea of a gender divide (as discussed earlier by Dr. Forrest), suggesting that the differences between men and women make same-sex role models and companionship a necessity within the world of the novel. Peter’s confession also reinforces the sense that the family unit is coming under increasing strain now that Father’s absence has been so prolonged, and that the situation is becoming insupportable.

“They seemed to be hardly railway children at all in those days, and as the days went on each had an uneasy feeling about this which Phyllis expressed one day. ‘I wonder if the railway misses us,’ she said, plaintively. ‘We never go to see it now.’”

As the novel draws to a close, the children begin to distance themselves from their surroundings and feel a greater sense of detachment than before. While the railway has played a central role in their lives during their time in the countryside, they are now “hardly railway children at all,” and no longer rely upon the railway as much as before for their emotional well-being. This change of attitude in the children foreshadows the change of circumstances that will soon occur, when Father comes on the railway to be reunited with his family.