An interesting set of replies, suggestions and research. I have spoken to Roderick's grandson who was quite close to his grandfather and he has no recollection of railways ever being mentioned and seems sure he would have heard it or remembered it. I have researched this whole Hume family extensively and wrote the following as part of a wider, fuller biography:
"In the 1901 census the three Hume boys at Wem Grammar School are aged 16 years old, 15 years old and 12 years old respectively.
Family folklore says that Edward’s sons spent school holidays in school because the headmaster was a friend of Edward. The assumption was that Edward was in the army and/or a single parent (his first wife, Catherine, had died) and could not provide a home for the boys during school holidays. The fact the census return for the school showed only 14 boys present and the ‘family folklore’ suggesting the three boys were in school during holidays led me to look a little more closely at the matter. Census night for 1901 was Sunday 31st March. Good Friday was 5th April so it may be some of the boys had left for the end of term holidays and those remaining were waiting to leave/be collected or spending the holidays in school.
Having confirmed Roderick and his brothers were in school I looked at some information from the school’s archives. One particular document says the headmaster in 1901 was Joseph Ohm and it seems he was a very well-respected head. Joseph Ohm is confirmed as the head in the 1901 census. Was he a friend of Edward? As Elizabeth (Edward's second wife after the death of his first, Irish wife who was the mother of all his children) was very much a local girl from a local family in Wem it seems possible Edward and Elizabeth did know Joseph and his family but whilst all the Ohm children were born in Wem neither Joseph nor his wife were born there.
There would seem to be no particularly good reason why the boys were not at home for the holidays as Edward and Elizabeth were, in 1901, at The George Hotel in Stockport. Edward gives his occupation as 'publican' working on his own account (i.e. working for himself) and "at home" which meant he also lived on the premises. Elizabeth Hume is also at the hotel along with Edward's two daughters: Eugenie aged 21 years old and a saleswoman and Alice at 18 years old with no occupation given. The rest of the household are staff occupied with the running of the hotel and all seem to be locals or from Elizabeth's home in and around Wem in Shropshire. Roderick’s older brother, Edward (known in the family as Ned) was in the army in 1901. Apart from the four family members at the hotel there are seven servants living and working in the hotel and no guests which might suggest it was closed until the Easter weekend.
Wem Grammar School is now The Thomas Adams School incorporating Adams College 6th Form Centre.
Roderick’s military service record tells us that just a year after the 1901 census, on 24th March 1902 he joined the 1st West Yorkshire Royal Engineers (Volunteers) as a Sapper. He would have been aged 18 years old but he was following a well-worn path given that his grandfathers, father and older brother were all military men. At the same time as being a volunteer Roderick was, I believe, working in a bank. The records show that on 12th November 1904 he left as a Corporal in the 3rd City Battalion of the King’s Liverpool Regiment and the reason given was “leaving City of Sheffield for promotion in the bank”.
I have Roderick in the 1911 census but not found him in 1921. As no other birth records show an R. S. Hume born in 1884 or appearing in census returns it seems certain the railway record is right but remains 'odd'. Is it possible he dipped out of school for a few months to try his hand at manual work with an apprenticeship and then went back to school? Would his father (an ambitious, pretentious man from my research) have allowed this and would the school have supported it although if Ohm was a friend of Roderick's father he might have been persuaded to go along with the idea. I'm thinking out loud on this .........
