[HPforGrownups] Hogwarts Express and the Magic Compartment

[Chip Olson]

No: HPFGUIDX 31520

Quoth Whirdy at aol.com:
> IIRC train terminals in the UK are terminals; trains cannot continue beyond 
> them (as happens in some American terminal to a train yard) so the engine is 
> in the front.  In PoA, Mr. Weasley and Harry looked up to see the Hogwarts 
> Express (the engine) after falling through the barrier.

> How and when did Lupin get into the compartment?  Did he apparate or was he 
> under an invisibility cloak that he removed before falling asleep or did they 
> just fail to notice him sitting in the corner when they were storing their 
> trunks?

It sounds to me, on looking over that passage, like they went looking
for an empty compartment and the only one they found was the one
they'd previously stashed their luggage in, except that Lupin had come
in and dozed off while they were out on the platform saying goodbye to
Mr. and Mrs. Weasley.

What I want to know is why Lupin's briefcase has "Professor
R.J. Lupin" stenciled on it in peeling gold letters, when he
(presumably) wasn't a professor until he got the Hogwarts gig
(remember he'd been unabe to find paid work before then).

> Finally, how did the scarlet engine get to the other end of the train to pull 
> it out of the station?

Terminal stations generally have wye tracks outside them for turning
trains around. It either was turned beforehand and backed in, or it
backed out and was then turned before setting off for Hogsmeade.

I saw some stills from the filming of, er, some random movie or other
that showed the locomotive facing towards the coaches instead of away
from them. (And I noticed that you never saw the loco in the Hogsmeade
departure scene.)  I believe this was because they didn't have a
turning wye on that railway, so they had to run the loco around the
train and have it face the wrong way for the return trip. Locomotives,
whether steam, electric or diesel, inherently run just the same in
either direction.

-- 
-Chip Olson. | ceo at shore dot net
"Here comes the sun, doo-doo-doo-doo,
Here comes the sun, I say, It's all right..."
                                              -George Harrison 1943-2001.

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