One day they park beside the ocean and cuddle in the car. He prefers to drive along the coast with her. The more serious Eric’s relationship with Patti grows, the less time he spends at the Veteran’s Club. According to Finlay, Eric knows everything about trains. He introduces her to Finlay, who is amused that they met on a train. She playfully tells him she has never kissed a man with a mustache before and she does not plan to do so again. He cooks a meal for her, and before they eat she kisses him. “It’s not entirely a surprise,” Patti tells him with a smile. They pair flirt, and Eric admits that their encounter was not entirely a coincidence. It is Wednesday, so he travels to Edinburgh and catches Patti as she climbs off of her train. Back in the present, he tells Finlay and the others that he has fallen in love with Patti. When Eric arrives at his stop, he bids her goodbye, and he watches the train pull out of the station sadly. Eric describes the different sites she will be able to see from the train, and his enthusiasm about the subject charms Patti (Nicole Kidman). She has to return to Edinburgh that Wednesday, but she wants to do some traveling first.

The woman overhears Eric talking with a conductor about the railway lines, and she tells him she has decided to explore the Highlands. One afternoon he tells Finlay and some other veterans that last week, he met a beautiful woman on the train. Both men live in the British countryside forty years later and often spend time at the local Veteran’s Club, although Eric usually sits alone.

Years later, the soldier, now grown, lays on the floor of his study and recites a poem to calm himself.įinlay (Stellan Skarsgård) and Eric served together in Thailand during World War II. A young soldier walks past a bridge, freshly returned from war.

The railway man true story