Railroad Children

Movie for the Evening: Feature

“Railroad Children” 1970

A compelling reason to view movies is their ability to take the viewer to another time. The pace of change is alarming, so as a means to absorb the lost details in our lives, movies can bring those details to life again; however briefly.

“Railroad Children” is a part of this process and does a good job at that. Mrs. Waterbury finds herself in a situation when her husband is arrested and jailed for espionage. Of course, these are false charges and the man is innocent, but as a device to take her three children to a small town in Yorkshire, England, and have them experience the unifying influence, and interconnectivity of the English train system it does what it was meant to do.

The children use and, in turn, are used by the train that moves along the ideal Yorkshire countryside. They avert a train disaster and are delivered from the egregious wrong done to their father au grace the train.

A mostly delightful movie about a time before the car (1905) dominated our lives, “Railroad Children” is a good film.