Orphan Train is an American TV movie directed by William Graham which was broadcast on CBS on December 22, 1979.
[1] It is based on the Orphan Train Movement, associated with the early days of Children's Aid and similar organizations.
Miss Simms is mortified that the city would kill someone that young and remembers her uncle's dream to take such children out west for a better life.
The children traveling include Ben and Tony, Liverpool, JP (who is in fact a girl named Josephine), Sara, Mouse, Bruce, Annie, and Dutch, a young boy who speaks no English.
As the train travels, they are delighted to see the mountains and hills, but Mr. Carlin informs them that the west will not be the fantasy life they dreamed it would be.
Mr. Carlin leaves to take a stage to St Louis, promising to write a good story with a happy ending and saying a tearful goodbye to JP.
Ahead, the tracks are severely damaged, and the conductor tells Miss Simms that a key part of the train is broken, and help may not arrive for days.