Stop the Train is a children's novel by Geraldine McCaughrean

Geraldine McCaughrean

Geraldine McCaughrean is a British children's novelist.The youngest of three children, McCaughrean studied teaching but did not like it, and found her true vocation in writing. She claims that what makes her love writing is the desire to escape from an unsatisfactory world...

, published in 2001. It won the Nestlé Smarties Book Prize

Nestlé Smarties Book Prize

The Nestlé Children's Book Prize, also known as the Nestlé Smarties Book Prize, was an annual award given to children's books written in the previous year by a UK citizen or resident. The prize was administered by Booktrust, an independent charity which promotes books and reading, and sponsored by...

 Bronze Award, as well as being shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal

Carnegie Medal

The Carnegie Medal is a literary award established in 1936 in honour of Scottish philanthropist Andrew Carnegie and given annually to an outstanding book for children and young adults. It is awarded by the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals...

 and the Stockton Children's Book of the Year.

Plot

During the Oklahoma Land Run, Cissy and her parents arrive from the east to settle in Florence Town, a new settlement. Within a few days, it becomes apparent that a local railroad company wants to use the land for itself and attempts to purchase it from the people of the town. The townspeople don't want to sell their land, and after falling foul of the railroad company, the director announces that no trains will stop at the town. Suffering hardship through having no railroad connection, the townspeople decide to make efforts - both legal and illegal - to stop the train that passes through their town. The story documents the life of Cissy as she grows and people in the town struggle to make some sort of living. Rumours of a young girl's death under the wheels of a train sparked a sabotage

Sabotage

Sabotage is a deliberate action aimed at weakening another entity through subversion, obstruction, disruption, or destruction. In a workplace setting, sabotage is the conscious withdrawal of efficiency generally directed at causing some change in workplace conditions. One who engages in sabotage is...

 of the railway removing a length of rail, and blocking the road crossing. Realising what damage to human life they might cause, the townspeople manage to reconstruct the track before the train comes through, thereby averting disaster. Deciding that they should take a more peaceful approach to persuading the trains to stop, the townsfolk hold a fair to show their community off to a trainload of passengers, hijacked by a group of the town's men. Following the success of the Florence Fair, and the overwhelming response from the passengers pressuring the railroad company to stop ignoring Florence, trains begin to stop at the town after that, which allows the town to grow. To pay tribute to the town's new start, and in a gesture of reconciliation towards the railroad company, it is renamed Olive, hence the "Olive Branch Line".

The book may be partly influenced by the Enid-Pond Creek Railroad War

Enid-Pond Creek Railroad War

The Enid-Pond Creek Railroad War pitted the citizens of two United States designated county seats against the Rock Island Railroad.-Background:...

, and is dedicated to the people of Enid, "who did stop the train".