Editing The Railway Children (section)

==Setting and synopsis==
{{more citations needed|section|date=February 2023}}
The ''[[Oxford Dictionary of National Biography]]'' credits [[Oswald Barron]], who had a deep affection for Nesbit, with having provided the plot.<ref>{{cite odnb |last=Campbell-Kease |first=John |date=11 June 2020 |title=Barron, (Arthur) Oswald |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/37158}}</ref> The setting is thought to be inspired by Edith's walks to Grove Park nature reserve, close to where she lived on Baring Road. Her home, Three Chimneys, was demolished and replaced by the current building Stratfield House. [[Grove Park railway station|Grove Park station]], near the reserve, now has a mural commemorating this connection. Alternatively, there is evidence that the inspiration came from [[Strines]], a village near [[Marple, Greater Manchester|Marple]] in [[Greater Manchester]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Strines is really the home of The Railway Children |work=Semcorp |date=16 January 2024 |access-date=6 March 2024 |url= http://www.semcorp.org.uk/2024/01/16/strines-is-really-the-home-of-the-railway-children/}}</ref>

The story concerns a family who move from London to ''The Three Chimneys'', a house near a railway, after the father, who works at the Foreign Office, is imprisoned after being falsely accused of spying. The children, Roberta (nicknamed "Bobbie"), Peter and Phyllis, befriend an old gentleman who regularly takes the 9:15am train near their home; he is eventually able to help prove their father's innocence and the family is reunited. Before Father is freed, the family takes care of a Russian exile, Mr. Szczepansky, who came to England looking for his family (later located) and Jim, the grandson of the Old Gentleman, who suffers a broken leg in a tunnel. 
 
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. The Russian exile, persecuted by the [[Russian Tsar|Tsar]]s for writing "a beautiful book about poor people and how to help them" and subsequently helped by the children, was most likely an amalgam of the real-life dissidents [[Sergius Stepniak]] and [[Peter Kropotkin]] who were both friends of the author.<ref name=guardian>{{cite web |url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2005/mar/26/theatre.booksforchildrenandteenagers |first=Lyn |last=Gardner |title=How did E Nesbit come to write The Railway Children? |work=The Guardian |date=26 March 2015 |access-date=18 June 2016}}</ref>

The book refers to the then current [[Russo-Japanese War]] and to attitudes taken by British people to the war.  This dates the setting to the spring, summer and early autumn of 1905.

It also contains an early description of the [[Railfan#Trainspotting|trainspotting]] hobby in ch. 3: {{"'}}Yes,' said the Porter, 'I knowed a young gent as used to take down the numbers of every single one he seed; in a green note-book with silver corners it was, owing to his father being very well-to-do in the wholesale stationery.' Peter felt that he could take down numbers, too, even if he was not the son of a wholesale stationer."