Revealed: the real Railway Children station
It is possible that nothing else related to railway heritage has ever reached such a wide international audience as Edith A Nesbit’s The Railway Children novel. David Staines unveils the idyllic English country settingwhere it all took place.
It is possible that nothing else related to railway heritage has ever reached suchawide international audience as EdithANesbit’s The Railway Children novel. David Staines unveils the idyllic English setting where it all took place.
dumped to provide preparatory earthworks.
When Nesbit knew it, it was surrounded by fields, the village of Chelsfield was nearly a mile away. Strawberries were its greatest export to the capital– milepost 15 ¼ from Charing Cross still sits on the Down platform.
The landslide at the conclusion of the story was caused by slippages in the deep newlyhewn chalk cuttings either side of the station. These are recorded as being of concern to the SER board at the time. Disputed claims about the safety of the cuttings saw Peter Ashcroft, the SER’s engineer, sue the Railway Times and win an apology. Unfortunately, most of the structures known to the Railway Children have not survived. The classic SER wooden signalbox burned down in 1971, while the main station building suffered significant fire damage two years later and was subsequently replaced by a brick and glass structure in 1976. Right up to the 1970s some of the station benches were SER originals, still incorporating the company’s monogram.
Inspirational structures