Hogwarts Express

The Hogwarts Express, as seen in the film adaptation of the first book.

Template:Hogwarts Express Article The Hogwarts Express is a fictional magical train in the Harry Potter series, which carries students between London and Hogwarts. The train starts from King's Cross railway station platform 9¾, which is invisible to Muggle eyes and is reached by walking through the barrier between platforms 9 and 10. Prefects of the school ride in a separate carriage near the front of the train. The compartments on the train appear to be lettered; in book 6, for example, the Slug Club meet in compartment C, which is probably near the back of the train. Upon disembarking the train at Hogsmeade Station, first years undergo the traditional boat-journey across the lake with the Keeper of Keys and Grounds to Hogwarts; all other students are carried to the main entrance of the castle in coaches drawn by magical creatures called thestrals (which most students cannot see as thestrals can only be seen by those who have witnessed death).

In Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, Harry meets his two best friends, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, on his first ride on the Hogwarts Express. In the books, he has been on the train ten times: twice each in the first, third, fourth, and fifth books, and once each in the second (in which he and Ron arrive instead in a flying car) and the sixth (which ends before Harry leaves Hogwarts). After each of his first six school years, Harry is met by his uncle and aunt after getting off the train; even though they dislike him, they have never failed to pick him up.

Until the 1950s, some British boarding schools hired special trains to transport pupils to and from the school at the beginning and end of each term. This may be the inspiration for the Hogwarts Express.

Platform Nine and Three Quarters

Platform 9¾ at King's Cross Station

J.K. Rowling discovered after the books were published that she had confused the layout of King's Cross with that of Euston station, and that platforms 9 and 10 at King's Cross were not the ones she had meant for her magical platform to be placed between. There is no platform between tracks 9 and 10 at King's Cross. To solve this, the film makers re-numbered platforms 4 and 5 for the duration of filming. In reality, at both King's Cross as well as Euston, tracks 9 and 10 are separated by train tracks.

Whether or not Rowling intended for Platform 9¾ to authentically replicate the layout of King's Cross station, or that of the Euston railway station, the number may in fact have symbolic purpose to the Harry Potter storyline. Nine and three-quarters is the number of years that Harry lived with his aunt and uncle prior to leaving for Hogwarts, the number of years since his parents' death at the hands of Voldemort. As Platform 9¾ serves as the transition between Harry's muggle life and his destiny as a wizard, Rowling may in fact have chosen this number for it's symbolic purposes.

Perhaps coincidentally, a local legend claims that Queen Boudica fought her last battle near the site of King's Cross Station, and her body is said to be buried somewhere between platforms nine and ten.[1]

Today, King's Cross Station still has no Platform 9¾, but it does have a ‘Platform 9a’ and a ‘Platform 9b’. The secondary building containing platforms 9 and 10 has been decorated with a ‘Platform 9¾’ sign, complete with a luggage trolley ‘stuck’ halfway through the wall.

Portrayal in film adaptations

Great Western Railway Hall Class locomotive, no. 5972 Olton Hall.

The steam engine used in the film adaptations is Great Western Railway Hall Class locomotive 5972 Olton Hall, and is depicted pulling a train of four carriages. Scenes have been filmed in King's Cross railway station, over the Glenfinnan Viaduct, at the North Yorkshire Moors Railway, and on board the train.

When used for filming Olton Hall also carries a 'Hogwarts Express' headboard on the smoke box featuring the Hogwarts School crest - the same emblem is painted on the 'Hogwarts Railways' sigil on the tender and carriages. For filming she retains her GWR number of 5972 but alternate nameplates are fitted, renaming the engine 'Hogwarts Castle', leading to jokes in the railway preservation community about 'the Hall that thinks it's a Castle'. This is particularly ironic since the Castle Class was a larger type of Great Western locomotives, most of which were named after Castles. Some train enthusiasts claim the maroon colour has 'defiled' the engine.

Olton Hall is not the first real locomotive to be disguised as the Hogwarts Express. To promote the books, the Southern Railway locomotive Taw Valley was repainted and renamed on a temporary basis. This was rejected by Chris Columbus as looking ‘too modern’ for the film.

The grand neo-gothic edifice seen in the Chamber of Secrets film is not King's Cross, but the much more elaborate St Pancras station, which is located adjacent to King's Cross.

A ‘Harry Potter Train’ (though not 5972) can be ridden between Pickering and Grosmont, as well as between Fort William and Mallaig (see Jacobite Steam Train).

Vandalism

On 11 March 2007, vandals caused £75,000 worth of damage to the Hogwarts Express at the West Coast Railway Company depot in Carnforth. Ten youths, aged between 10 and 14 years old, were arrested in connection with the incident in which 337 windows on the train were smashed. In September 2003 vandals covered two carriages with graffiti which was removed at a cost of £3,000.

Models

Several model trains have been made of the Hogwarts Express. An 00 gauge is produced by Hornby, though this is of a Castle Class locomotive rather than the Hall Class used in the films. A three-rail HO gauge model is produced by Märklin, and a two-rail H0/00 was produced in the early 2000s by Bachmann. Several now-discontinued L gauge models have been produced by LEGO (set reference). Lionel has announced an 0 gauge set to be out by Christmas 2007.

External links

• wikicities:c:concord:Platform Nine And Three Quarters

• Hogwarts Express on Harry Potter Wiki, an external wiki