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 5972 Olton Hall at Doncaster Works in July 2003 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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5972 Olton Hall is a preserved Great Western Railway Hall class locomotive made famous for its role hauling the Hogwarts Express in the Harry Potter film series.
| GWR 4900 Class 5972 Olton Hall | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 5972 Olton Hall at Doncaster Works in July 2003 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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5972 Olton Hall is a preserved Great Western Railway Hall class locomotive made famous for its role hauling the Hogwarts Express in the Harry Potter film series.
Built in April 1937 at Swindon Works for the Great Western Railway (GWR), No. 5972 was first allocated to Carmarthen, South Wales where it remained until 1951. After being fitted with a three row superheater at Swindon Works, it was allocated to Plymouth Laira. Its last shed allocation was to Cardiff East Dock, before it was withdrawn in December 1963, and sold to Woodham Brothers, Barry for scrap in May 1964. [1] [2]
Woodham Brothers sold the locomotive to David Smith and it moved to Horbury railway works in Wakefield in May 1981. [1] [3] [4] In 1994, it moved to Carnforth MPD for restoration, being steamed for the first time in 1998. [5]
In the Harry Potter films, the locomotive is depicted pulling the Hogwarts Express , a fictional train, made up of four (later five) British Rail Mark 1 carriages. Scenes were filmed at King's Cross railway station, the Glenfinnan Viaduct and the North Yorkshire Moors Railway — along with internal scenes on board the train.
When filmed, Olton Hall carried a "Hogwarts Express" headboard on the smokebox, featuring the Hogwarts school crest. The same emblem is featured as part of the "Hogwarts Railways" sigil on the tender and carriages. It retained its GWR number of 5972, but with alternative nameplates fitted, naming the engine Hogwarts Castle. It is painted in a crimson livery — a non-standard colour, as GWR locomotives traditionally used green. [6]
Olton Hall was not the first locomotive to be re-liveried to appear hauling the Hogwarts Express. To promote the fourth Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire , Southern Railway West Country Class locomotive 34027 Taw Valley was temporarily repainted and renamed. However, it was rejected by film director Chris Columbus as looking "too modern" for the film, but it carried the name and colour for some months afterwards. [7]
The renaming as "...Castle" has become a railway preservation joke: "...the Hall that thinks it's a Castle." The Great Western Railway Castle Class engines were larger, faster locomotives designed for prestigious express passenger duties; whereas the Halls were a mixed-traffic design.
Three full-size replicas of the locomotive as No. 5972 Hogwarts Castle are at The Wizarding World of Harry Potter (Universal Orlando Resort). Two are used as part of the Hogwarts Express train ride [8] and the other is a static exhibit in the Hogsmeade area. [9] There are also static models at the other Wizarding World of Harry Potter locations in Hollywood [10] and Japan. [11]
In 2015, the locomotive was put on static display at Warner Bros. Studio Tour London - The Making of Harry Potter, near Watford, [12] [13] and will be displayed there until Warner Bros' lease on the locomotive from West Coast Railways expires.
No. 5972 is sometimes used for work other than its "Hogwarts" duties. In May 2009, it was moved temporarily to the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway, and in July 2009, it was based at Tyseley Locomotive Works for use on some of the regular Shakespeare Express trains run by Vintage Trains during the summer. It returned to the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway during their annual Wizard's Weekend event in 2010. In late 2011 the locomotive was on static display in Hyde Park, London. Just before its boiler and mainline certificate's expired, on 7 June & 12 July 2014, it worked two final Wizards Express rail tours from Manchester to York with 5972 working the trains between Carnforth and York in both directions (as far as Hellifield on the return leg of June's trip). [14] [15]
Hornby Railways produces a model of Olton Hall in OO gauge. The model is also available decorated as Hogwarts Castle, as part of their Harry Potter film tie-in range. The Harry Potter version has an LED headlight, which the other versions do not.
A previous Hornby model of the locomotive was actually a model of a Castle class locomotive, not a Hall. Tri-ang Hornby had released a model of the Hall class in 1966; however, this model was last offered in 1983 as 4930 Hagley Hall, a preserved locomotive on the Severn Valley Railway. While Hornby (the successor to Tri-ang Hornby) may still have the moulds, they were modified some years ago to produce a Saint class replica. New tooling for a Hall has since been introduced and is available in the current Hornby range (see below).
Other manufacturers have perpetuated this error, with Märklin using a Castle in its Hogwarts Express set. While Bachmann Branchline did produce models of the 'Hall' and 'Modified Hall' class locomotives, they have not offered one as 5972 "Hogwarts Castle (Olton Hall)", though Bachmann USA released one in their range.
In 2015 Hornby introduced an all-new model of Olton Hall as part of their "Railroad" range, originally announced in 2012. [16]
In 2019, Hornby announced a new Harry Potter range, comprising a range of Hogsmeade buildings based on the Goathland range from several years ago, and the Hogwarts Express train set. Also available are two separate Hogwarts Castle locomotives with headlight, one being TTS Sound fitted. This is the first Hogwarts Castle model they have released being correctly of a Hall class. It is based on the same tooling as the 2015 Olton Hall model.
In 2022, Lego announced a detailed brick-built model of the train as it appears in the Harry Potter films. [17]
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry is a fictional boarding school of magic for students aged eleven to eighteen, and is the primary setting for the first six books in J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series and serves as a major setting in the Wizarding World universe.
J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter universe contains numerous settings for the events in her fantasy novels. These locations are categorised as a dwelling, school, shopping district, or government-affiliated locale.
West Coast Railways (WCR) is a railway spot-hire company and charter train operator based at Carnforth MPD in Lancashire. Using buildings and other facilities previously owned by the Steamtown Carnforth visitor attraction, in June 1998 the company became the first privately owned company to be given a licence as a train operating company.
Woodham Brothers Ltd is a trading business, based mainly around activities and premises located within Barry Docks, in Barry, South Wales. It is noted globally for its 1960s activity as a scrapyard, where 297 withdrawn British Railways steam locomotives were sent, from which 213 were rescued for the developing railway preservation movement.
The Great Western Railway 4900 Class or Hall Class is a class of 4-6-0 mixed-traffic steam locomotives designed by Charles Collett for the Great Western Railway. A total of 259 were built at Swindon Works, numbered 4900–4999, 5900–5999 and 6900–6958. The LMS Stanier Class 5 4-6-0 and LNER Thompson Class B1 both drew heavily on design features of the Hall Class. After nationalisation in 1948, British Railways gave them the power classification 5MT.
The London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) Royal Scot Class is a class of 4-6-0 express passenger locomotive introduced in 1927. Originally having parallel boilers, all members were later rebuilt with tapered type 2A boilers, and were in effect two classes.
The Great Western Railway 1000 Class or County Class was a class of 4-6-0 steam locomotive. Thirty examples were built between 1945 and 1947, but all were withdrawn and scrapped in the early 1960s. A replica locomotive is under construction.
The Harry Potter Automatic News Aggregator, or HPANA, as it is better known, is a Harry Potter fansite created in 2002 to monitor news on the Internet about J. K. Rowling's series of novels about the eponymous wizard.
4920 Dumbleton Hall is a GWR 4900 Class 4-6-0 steam locomotive, built by the Great Western Railway's Swindon Works in March 1929. Named after Dumbleton Hall, its first shed allocation was at Old Oak Common. In August 1950, the next shed allocation was Reading, and in March 1959 it was allocated to Newton Abbot. The locomotive's last shed allocation was Bristol Barrow Road. It was withdrawn from British Railways service in December 1965 and sold to Woodham Brothers scrapyard in Barry, Wales.
Goathland railway station is a station on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway and serves the village of Goathland in the North York Moors National Park, North Yorkshire, England. It has also been used in numerous television and film productions. Holiday accommodation is available in the form of a camping coach.
Lego Harry Potter is a Lego theme based on the film series of the same name and the eponymous novels by British author J. K. Rowling. It is licensed from Warner Bros. Lego models of important scenes, vehicles and characters were made for the first six films and all of the published books. The first sets appeared in 2001, to coincide with the release of the first film, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Subsequent sets were released alongside the new films, until Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. The line then went dormant for three years, with sets being released in 2010 and 2011. In 2018, it was announced that more sets based on the Harry Potter franchise would be released, including new sets based on Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and its sequel, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald.
The Wizarding World of Harry Potter is a themed area spanning three theme parks—Islands of Adventure, Universal Studios Florida and the upcoming Universal Epic Universe—at the Universal Orlando Resort in Orlando, Florida. The area is themed to the Harry Potter media franchise, adapting elements from the film series and novels by J. K. Rowling. The Wizarding World of Harry Potter was designed by Universal Creative from an exclusive license with Warner Bros. Entertainment.
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Carnforth MPD (Motive Power Depot) is a former London Midland and Scottish Railway railway depot located in the town of Carnforth, Lancashire, England.
The Wizarding World of Harry Potter is a themed area based on the Harry Potter series built at Universal Parks & Resorts' Universal Studios Japan theme park in Osaka, Japan. Not to be confused with Warner Bros. Studio Tour London - The Making of Harry Potter at Leavesden Studios, it is a collaboration of Universal Parks & Resorts and Warner Bros. Entertainment. It opened to the public on July 15, 2014.
The Hogwarts Express is an 1,800 mm broad gauge cable railway, people mover, and attraction within the Universal Orlando Resort in Orlando, Florida, United States. The route runs 676 meters (2,218 ft) between Hogsmeade station in the Islands of Adventure theme park and King's Cross station in the London area of the Universal Studios Florida theme park. It provides a connection between the Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade areas which, together, form The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, based on the Harry Potter film series.
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on-board the two Hogwarts Express trains.
Of course, we [already] had a parked Hogwarts Express,
As in the first Hogsmeade, a railroad station serving the Hogwarts Express greets visitors at the land's entrance. But the train in California doesn't move.
