Transport of delight

Fifty years after The Railway Children film, Kate Garner makes a pilgrimage to the Yorkshire steam railway where it was made

- Kate Garner

It was the red flannel petticoat that did it! As I watched Bobbie avert imminent disaster by ripping up her petticoat, creating a makeshift flag and bringing the steam train to a halt, I was left wide-eyed and open-mouthed. What a heroine … though she then rather spoilt it by fainting on the railway.

I was totally entranced by the gloriously sunny and gentle world of The Railway Children. This classic was released 50 years ago, in December 1970 – and it remains a favourite film of my generation.

The story, based on the 1906 book by E Nesbit, tells of three children and their mother leaving their comfortable London home to live near a country railway, in mysterious circumstances.

It takes some time for the viewer to learn of their father’s wrongful imprisonment on suspicion of his being a spy, selling state secrets.

Their new home, Three Chimneys, is different from what they are used to – dirty, tumbledown and rat-infested. But the children adapt to their new impoverished life, making friends with the stationmaster Mr Perks and waving to passengers on the passing trains.

It is a gentle tale of friendship, family and love, with the children involved in escapades: rescuing a boy trapped in a tunnel; helping a lost Russian gentleman; finding ways to make ends meet when their mother falls ill; celebrating Mr Perks’s birthday; and the eventual discovery of their father’s alleged crimes.