"They were not railway children to begin with. I don't suppose they had ever thought about railways except as a means of getting to Maskelyne and Cook's, the Pantomime, Zoological Gardens, and Madame Tussaud's. They were just ordinary suburban children . . ." In this, Nesbit's most well-known novel, the children -- Roberta, Peter and Phyllis do not stay suburban children for long. Instead they must move to a small country house with their mother after their father is mysteriously take away from their house. They are drawn to the one source of activity in their sleep town -- the railway station. There they have adventures, make new friends and find a way to rescue their father and their family.