Why a Booktrail?
1900s: Three children befriend a stranger on the train which passes their house each day..
The Railway Children
What you need to know before your trail
The story concerns a family who move to “Three Chimneys”, a house near the railway, 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 take care of a Russian exile, Mr Szczepansky, who came to England looking for his family and Jim. 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.
Travel Guide
Visit Yorkshire with The Railway Children
For fans of the story, this lovely book is easy to experience and visit in real life
It’s set in Yorkshire and despite it taking place around the time of the war, there is still many traces of the past.
Haworth
Normally associated with Jane Eyre and the Bronte Sisters, this town was also used in the filming of the story.
The Bronte Parsonage in Haworth was used as the location for Doctor Forrest’s surgery
Wycoller near Colne
The scenes of the children sitting on a bridge were filmed here
Mytholmes Tunnel near Haworth
Take a train ride here or just stand on a bridge and wave to the people on it just like in the story. This train line is the main setting for much of the story ant it’s also where the paper chase scene in the book takes place. Remember when they take off their petticoats to warn the train driver against a landslide? This was filmed around here too.The landslide sequence itself was filmed in a cutting on the Oakworth side of Mytholmes Tunnel and the fields of long grass where the children waved to the trains are situated on the Haworth side of the tunnel
Keighley and Worth Valley Railway
Do not miss this! Go to the station at Oakworth, as this was the backdrop for the film. The tunnel used in the film is a lot shorter in reality as they built an extension just for the important scenes.
Three Chimneys
The house called “Three Chimneys” is in Oxenhope, just north of the Oxenhope railway station.
BookTrail Boarding Pass: The Railway Children
Destination: Yorkshire Author/guide: Edith Nesbit Departure Time: 19o0s, 1970s
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