As part of Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture, this evocative new production of Mike Kenny’s acclaimed stage adaptation offers something truly unique: an evocative journey through time, by steam train.

Beginning at Keighley station, audiences will board a heritage steam locomotive and travel the same five-mile route immortalised in the 1970 film version of The Railway Children.

At the line’s end in Oxenhope, the story unfolds in a purpose-built theatre set within the station’s historic Engine Shed.

With seating flanking the very tracks the train arrives on, this immersive production places steam, stagecraft and story at its heart.

Directed by Damian Cruden, who first brought the show to life at the National Railway Museum in 2008 and later at London’s Waterloo station, this revival features a real steam engine as part of the action and has been specially reimagined for its Bradford 2025 run.

The result is a rare fusion of theatrical magic and railway heritage.

Set in 1905, E. Nesbit’s The Railway Children follows Roberta, Peter and Phyllis as they adjust to life in rural Yorkshire after their father is falsely imprisoned. Their adventures by the railway become a lifeline not just for their family, but for the new community they come to love.

Running from 16 July to 7 September 2025, this is a limited season and a once-in-a-generation chance to see The Railway Children on the very tracks where fiction and film became folklore.

• Tickets are now on sale at www.bradford2025.co.uk.