Tom Roberts, Waiting for the Train depicts a quiet winter moment at a small rural railway station, where daily life pauses in anticipation. The red-brick station building, capped with a steep, snow-laden roof, anchors the composition to the left, its warm tones gently contrasting with the surrounding whites and cool greys of the landscape.

Three figures stand beneath the platform overhang, bundled against the cold, their touches of colour—blue, red, and green—providing subtle human warmth within the otherwise restrained palette. Snow blankets the ground and piles along the platform edge, while the railway tracks emerge and curve through the foreground, guiding the eye toward the misty distance and suggesting the unseen approach of the train.

Roberts employs loose, confident watercolour washes, allowing forms to dissolve softly into atmosphere, particularly in the bare trees and winter sky beyond the station. The scene is hushed and contemplative, capturing not an event but the quiet expectancy of waiting, where time slows amid the stillness of a Canadian winter setting.