Engine of the Hogwarts Express
The Hogwarts Express is the name of the train that makes a run between London, King's Cross Station Platform 9¾ and Hogsmeade Station. It makes this run at least four times a year, and probably more often than that, as needed. It carries students to Hogwarts Castle at the start and end of every term. The train leaves Platform 9¾ without fail on September 1 at 11 o'clock in the morning, arriving at Hogsmeade Station in the early evening. Most students take the train back to King's Cross Station to go home for the Christmas and Easter holidays. It also makes the run back again to London at the end of term in June.
In striking contrast to the rest of the British Rail system, the Hogwarts Express takes the form of a large red steam engine. It is a magical device, like the Ministry cars, the Knight Bus, and Wizarding Wireless Network. It borrows its form and its intended function from real steam trains, but not the technology.
The passenger carriages contain compartments set off a corridor, allowing each compartment to function as a self-contained stage within the larger train. During the long journey to Hogwarts, students may enjoy treats from a trolley, such as Pumpkin Pasties and Chocolate Frogs. There are usually no adults aboard the Hogwarts Express except the witch with the tea trolley and the driver.
The Hogwarts Express, heading for Hogwarts Castle.
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 Half-Blood Prince, the "Slug Club" meet in compartment C.
It was on the Hogwarts Express that Harry first got to know Ron Weasley in 1991 and first met many of the other people who played significant roles in his life, including Hermione Granger, Neville Longbottom, Fred and George Weasley and, in later years, Remus Lupin and Luna Lovegood. The first confrontation between Harry and Draco Malfoy occured on the train on the way to Hogwarts when Draco sneered at Ron and offered Harry friendship. Harry turned down Draco's offer abruptly, marking the beginning of a long-standing enmity.
It was on the Hogwarts Express that Harry had his first encounter with a Dementor in 1993. In 1996 Harry and others were invited to a compartment occupied by Professor Horace Slughorn.
Behind the scenes
- As J.K. Rowling has indicated that the idea of Harry Potter came to her on a train journey, it is fitting that the Hogwarts Express remains a central feature of the stories.
- The locomotive used for the filming of the movies was a Great Western Railway Hall-Class locomotive, number 5792 'Olton Hall'. Many railway enthusiasts jokingly dubbed the engine 'the Hall that thinks its a Castle', as for filming it is renamed "Hogwarts Castle", a title usually reserved for the Castle-Class of locomotive, a larger type of machine also built by the Great Western Railway.
- During principal photography of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, filming was shut down for several days after the train used as the Hogwarts Express was vandalized.