Hogwarts Express.

The Hogwarts Express leaves from a hidden platform at King's Cross, carrying a generation of filmgoers north to a school that only exists on screen. On film it is GWR 4900 Class No. 5972 Olton Hall, a 1937 Great Western Railway 4-6-0 dressed in crimson and gold; the Glenfinnan Viaduct approach on the West Highland Line became the image most people hold of a steam train in the landscape.

The real thing

Class	GWR 4900 Class (4-6-0) · No. 5972 Olton Hall
Operator	West Coast Railways / Warner Bros. Studio Tour
Stock record	Awaiting a canonical vehicle record
Screen duty	Hogwarts Express

Where to meet it

The Signal panel resolves the real stock into the live network, the heritage register and the model bench. Rows only appear where a real target exists.

Next on the same line

Three more screen trains.

All entries

Reel 02 2004 · U · 1h 40 The Polar Express Screen trainThe Polar Express Real stockPere Marquette 1225 (2-8-4 Berkshire) · 1225 Steam View entry

Reel 03 1974 · 12A · 1h 54 Murder on the Orient Express Screen trainThe Orient Express Real stockCIWL LX Type carriages / French Est 241 Steam View entry

Reel 07 1984 · U · 11m Thomas & Friends Screen trainThomas the Tank Engine Real stockLB&SCR E2 Class (0-6-0T) Steam View entry

Seen this engine?

Log the sighting and it joins the catalogue — the screen train, the real stock and where you saw it.

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Locomotive photography credits

File:5972 "Olton Hall" (3739156535).jpg — Phil Sangwell from United Kingdom, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
File:Steam Railroading Institute Pere Marquette 1225 (10).jpg — Oaktree b, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
File:Series-N700S-J2.jpg — MaedaAkihiko, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
File:KTX-I in Busan Station (15618537248).jpg — Doug Letterman from Oakland, CA, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
File:Fourgon 1270 « Orient Express » CIWL - Longueville.jpg — Projet 154, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
File:LB&SCR E2 class No. 109 later 2109.jpg — , Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
File:Sierra No. 3 in roundhouse.jpg — Cullen328, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
File:BNSF 1863 (SD40-2) (38481781700).jpg — Tyler Silvest, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

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