How many words is The Railway Children?

58,820 words, counted from the complete public-domain text rather than estimated from a page count.

Is The Railway Children free to read?

The text is public domain in the United States, so it is free at Project Gutenberg and always will be. Reading it in Liminanotio — paced, with your own speed carried across books — is $2.99 on its own, or included with a membership. You can read a chapter of three books here first, with no account at all.

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The Railway Children

Q: How long does it take to read The Railway Children?

The Railway Children is 58,820 words, which is about 3h 55m at an average reading speed of 250 words per minute. At 400 words per minute it is about 2h 27m, and at 600 about 1h 38m.

E. Nesbit

The Railway Children is 58,820 words — about 3h 55m at 250 words per minute, across 21 chapters. Measure your own speed and read it here.

How long does it take to read The Railway Children?

3h 55m at 250 words per minute

58,820 words · 21 chapters · counted from the full text, not estimated from a page count. Measure your own speed and this becomes your number.

Public domain 21 chapters Tap-to-define

Read The Railway Children

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How it opens

I. The beginning of things. II. Peter's coal-mine. III. The old gentleman. IV. The engine-burglar. V. Prisoners and captives. VI. Saviours of the train. VII. For valour. VIII. The amateur fireman. IX. The pride of Perks. X. The terrible secret. XI. The hound in the red jersey. XII. What Bobbie brought home. XIII. The hound's grandfather. XIV. The End.…

Details

AuthorE. Nesbit
SourceProject Gutenberg #1874
Length58,820 words · 3h 55m of reading
Chapters21
DictionaryIncluded
CopyrightPublic domain in the United States
Source checked2026-08-28

Contents

21 chapters

Recovered from the original source text, so you can open the book at any of them.

01By E. Nesbit
02Chapter I. The beginning of things.
03Chapter II. Peter's coal-mine.
04Chapter III. The old gentleman.
05Chapter IV. The engine-burglar.
06SHE IS NEARLY WELL THANK YOU
07Chapter V. Prisoners and captives.
08Chapter VI. Saviours of the train.
09Chapter VII. For valour.
10The letter said:--
11Chapter VIII. The amateur firemen.
12Chapter IX. The pride of Perks.
13Chapter X. The terrible secret.
14Chapter XI. The hound in the red jersey.
15Chapter XII. What Bobbie brought home.
16Chapter XIII. The hound's grandfather.
17Chapter XIV. The End.
18PETER
19BOBBIE
20PHYLLIS
21THE NEW BOY

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The Railway Children is public domain, and free at Project Gutenberg. Liminanotio is a word-at-a-time speed reader that runs in your browser, alongside the rest of the public-domain library.

The Railway Children

How long does it take to read The Railway Children?

21 chapters

"De Bello Gallico" and Other Commentaries

A Child's Garden of Verses

A Modest Proposal: For preventing the children of poor people in Ireland, from being a burden on their parents or country, and for making them beneficial to the publick

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

A Tale of Two Cities

Aeschylus' Prometheus Bound and the Seven Against Thebes