According to Chris…
…seeking inspiration is often the antidote to grumpiness!
Chris looks forward to the new ‘Railway Children’ film due out next year.
This column is what a newspaper would call an ‘opinion piece,’ where the writer can offer something controversial or thought-provoking. Railway modelling really isn’t a hobby that offers much that is controversial. I reached ‘grumpy old man’ stage a while ago, and I’m well aware of that. When I express my thoughts and opinions, I often wonder “should I have said that?” So, I’ve scrapped the column that I wrote for this issue, in which I pondered the current state of ready-to-run manufacturing and relations between manufacturers and retailers. Let’s not go there! Where do we go instead?
Well, as I’ve little doubt that former Model Rail
editor and Yorkshireman Ben Jones would have said, “Yorkshire would be a good start.” I’m a southerner, born and bred, and I model mostly Western and Southern Region subjects, with one notable exception. My ‘O’ gauge layout is a 16ft long interpretation of Oakworth station, as it appeared in Lionel Jeffries’ 1970 movie The Railway Children.
The story of three kids living beside a railway line always struck a chord. I was one of three, and we lived beside a railway line. As a teenager, my first girlfriend lived in Shipley. Her parents were friends of my parents and through several family visits I came to know and love the Aire valley and the area around Keighley and Ilkley Moor. That was around 1960, and well before the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway took over the Oxenhope branch line, through the village of Haworth, with its historic link to the Brontë sisters.
Long after that first relationship ended and I was married to a girl for whom reading and history were a passion, my wife and I took shelter from a classic Yorkshire thunderstorm inside the Brontë Parsonage Museum at Haworth. I recognized the building as the home of Dr Forrest in The Railway Children. I can’t now remember when I first visited the KWVR or went to Oakworth, perhaps because I’ve been so many times. There’s something very special about the view of Oakworth station across the valley from the road, and turning into the lane that leads – single file – past a derelict, dark satanic mill and round the corner past ‘Mr Perks’ cottage’ (since extended) and up to the level crossing. What’s not to love? Link that to a story that’s always upbeat and optimistic and where the worst thing that the kids do is to trespass on
I reached ‘grumpy old man’ stage a while ago, and I’m well aware of that
a railway line or steal some coal, and you have a classic story. Bring Lionel Jeffries’ movie-making style to the infant KWVR and you’ve a timeless classic. Even Jeffries’ subtle nod to his religion may almost pass unnoticed to today’s viewers. The children say their prayers. The Perks’ house has Catholic icons on the wall.
Edith Nesbit (1858-1924), author of The Railway Children, was a prolific author and a political activist. As one of the founders of the Fabian Society, a left-wing organization which became part of the
Labour Party, her theme of a ‘comfortable’ or well-off family falling on hard times was not confined to The Railway Children. The incident involving ‘the shabby Russian’ was inspired by an actual event.
I understand some exciting developments are under way at Oakworth and that film crews are once again in the Worth Valley, making a sequel to The Railway Children. Details are being kept under wraps but some members of the original cast are involved, including Jenny Agutter and a new generation of railway children. By my reckoning, Jenny – as Bobbie in 1905 – will need to be a grandmother and the date will need to be around 1970 which, oddly enough, is when the original movie was made.
Modelling Diary: Chris Leigh
I’ve recently spent far too much time re-watching both
The Railway Children and The Titfield Thunderbolt – duty calls!