The Railway Children

In 1944, as another wave of bombings rocks Britain during the Second World War, three Watts siblings—Lily, Pattie, and Ted—are evacuated from Manchester to the quiet village of Oakworth in the West Riding of Yorkshire. They are not separated by officials’ orders, but with nobody else stepping forward to take all three, they end up staying together with a local family. They are welcomed into Bobbie Waterbury’s home, Jemima Rooper, alongside her schoolmistress daughter Annie and her 13-year-old son Thomas, and their Mother Jenny Agutter. The children quickly form a bond with Thomas, who shows them a hidden corner of the railway station—a makeshift hideout in an old brake van where they begin to feel a measure of safety amid the upheaval around them.

As the weeks pass, life in the village settles into a tense rhythm: the war continues to press on, the US Army maintains a visible presence nearby, and the local kids scrutinize the newcomers with mixed curiosity and suspicion. The Watts trio and their new companions explore their surroundings and the old brake van becomes a shared sanctuary where the children trade stories, plan games, and dream of a safer, simpler world far from the bombings and the constant news from the front. It’s in this atmosphere of mixed courage and vulnerability that they encounter Abe McCarthy, an African-American soldier hiding with an injured leg, who claims to be on a secret mission and must remain hidden from prying eyes. Abe’s arrival adds a dangerous edge to the children’s explorations, and his presence turns the station’s quiet rhythm into something messier and more fraught with risk.

One evening, a lone enemy aircraft bombs the town cemetery, and Lily is injured in the chaos as she brings a first-aid kit and other supplies to Abe. Abe, who rescues her, speaks of joining the Army to avenge a brother who was killed in combat, but the details of his story leave Lily wary rather than reassured. The next day, white American Military Police arrive in the village and search the school, which exposes Lily to a harsher truth: Abe is considered a deserter by the authorities. He reveals that he is the same age as Lily and that his aim is to return home, even as he witnesses how Black soldiers are treated by the MPs. The town’s residents resist a color ban in the local pub, adding a stubborn layer of moral complexity to the affair. After a careful, uneasy conversation, Lily agrees to help Abe escape.

When Lily shares the plan to keep Abe hidden at the Watts household, Thomas initially wants to tell the grown-ups, but Lily refuses to let fear dictate their actions and reminds him that their father was killed in action. Thomas finally concedes and allows Abe to stay in the large storeroom next to his bedroom, the arrangement creating a fragile balance of trust and danger within the house. The next day, Walter, the widowed husband of Bobbie’s sister Phyllis, Clare Thomas, visits the home, a reminder that the war’s reach touches many lives beyond the immediate danger of combat.

The following morning, Lily accompanies Abe to the station to catch a train to Liverpool, while Thomas stays behind to provide a distraction so they can slip away unnoticed. Their plan is thwarted when local police intervene and alert the US MPs, who halt the train further along the line. Abe and Lily are handcuffed, taken to the base, and placed aboard a US Army supply train that carries senior officers. The stark reality of what is happening to Abe weighs heavily on everyone, and the boys and girls of the village watch with a mix of fear and resolve.

Thomas, learning from his uncle Walter that his father’s fate is not yet settled, rallies Pattie, Ted, and the other evacuees to imitate a younger version of Bobbie’s earlier act:，他们 raise banners and call for the train to stop, echoing the courage that Bobbie and her siblings showed decades earlier. The plan pays off when Abe’s case is heard by a senior African-American general, who reveals that he, too, had enlisted underage and orders Abe’s release. After spending a few days with the Watts family, Abe departs for home, promising to write to Lily.

In the months that follow, the Watts children return to their mother, and the broader war finally brings a sense of closure as VE Day approaches. Thomas’s father returns home, too, marking a quiet, hard-won sense of reconciliation and resilience for a family and a village that learned—together—that bravery can take many forms, even in the shadow of war.

Last Updated: November 22, 2025 at 16:00