In 1935 it was every small boy’s ambition to be an engine driver. Or was it? Tom Watkins, son of a senior and well-respected driver on the Great Western Railway, isn’t so sure, but tradition and loyalty ensure that he follows his father on to the footplate. But although Tom becomes a cleaner, the first rung on the ladder to engine driver, he does not share his father’s enthusiasm for trains, nor his feelings for the Company. He takes the job because it is expected of him and because his father’s forceful personality makes any other option unthinkable. Tom is no rebel. But loyalty is not enough, and Tom soon finds himself in conflict with both his father and his fellow workers.
Set against the richness of life in and around the Great Western engine shed at Acton Chalcote, with its complement of highly individual characters and, above all, the evocative atmosphere and special appeal of the steam engines themselves, Steam in the Family primarily revolves around a family, the Watkins.
Tom searches for his identity, a search which brings him into major conflict with his father. As he grows up, his first tentative relationships with women are challenged by the fierce loyalty and devotion of his childhood friend, Maggie.
Fred, Tom’s father, for so long a proud and confident man both at the peak of his profession and as head of his family, has to face truths about his ability to maintain these positions.
Sylvia, Tom’s sister, an usherette at the local cinema, is trying, in her own way to free herself from the constraints of a prejudiced, dictatorial, but well-meaning parent, and is fiercely determined not to marry a railwayman until, that is, she meets Dai Davies, ‘failed poet and passed fireman’.
Those who enjoy family stories in a period setting as well as those with a passion for railways will love Steam in the Family.
