UK BLOG

The train arriving on platform two at Waterloo International Station... is the star of the latest show in town, the London premiere of The Railway Children. And not just any old train, this is a big, green, shiny locomotive, the Stirling Single Great Northern Railway G class — to give it its full title — built in 1870 and the only one of its kind to have been preserved in all its glory.

It's 40 years since the classic children's film and now the York Theatre Royal has brought its sellout show (where it performed at the Railway Museum York) to a specially constructed venue on the former Eurostar platform — the first piece of theatre set on a mainline station.

As we take our seats, the actors are already on stage and waving at us as we become the station crowd in the show. A whistle is blown and we're off. It's only two minutes in and we're already applauding the set as it flits back and forth to bring actors and props to centre stage.

Mike Kenny's adaptation of Edith Nesbit's loosely autobiographical 1906 classic becomes a memory play where the adult 'railway children' look back on their dramatic childhood.

In case you need reminding, this is the story of three plucky, privileged youngsters Roberta (Bobby), Phyllis and Peter, whose father is mysteriously taken away. When the family downsizes to rural Yorkshire, they refuse to let poverty dent their fun or their good Samaritan principles. They discover the joy of trains and the kindness of strangers.

But the story is almost incidental. We've been promised a real live steam train and have to wait sometime before it grants us an appearance. As the production builds to a crescendo of thundering music and flashing lights, the train finally pulls into view with a roaring fanfare, billowing steam and an ecstatic applause. The venue lends its own sounds with the thunder and screech of commuter trains and redundant Eurostar announcements.

And what a train it is — 66 tonnes of fully operational locomotive with 8ft driving wheels, all from the same workshop that built the Flying Scotsman. In the final scene when Bobby sees her father stepping off the train - amid clouds of steam — it's the original Old Gentleman's saloon carriage from the 1970 film.

Damian Cruden's production never loses momentum and although the cast have their work cut out competing with a magnificent steam train they're not overshadowed by it least of all Sarah Quintrell, who brilliantly portrays Bobby's common sense and 'unfeminine ambition'.

Get on board and rediscover the romance of trains, you'll have a great trip.

Runs till 4 September. Box office 0871 297 0740, railwaychildrenwaterloo.com

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