Knowing Kneasy

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 91572

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "arrowsmithbt" 
<arrowsmithbt at b...> wrote:
 
Phil: 
> > If book Six is to have a 'cliff hanger' ending, the obvious 
danger is 
> > the train journey home. The train seems to have only 1 adult, the 
> > refreshment seller, except when Lupin was aboard. On Lupin's trip 
the 
> > train stopped for the Dementors to search the carriages for 
Black. 
> > Are there any spells protecting the train ? Ambushing trains has 
been 
> > practiced by all baddies since railways were invented, and JKR 
has a 
> > special spot for trains.
> 
> Kneasy:
> That's an interesting idea. Mayhem on the Hogwarts Express.
> The ideal location would be in a tunnel somewhere. Must check the
> maps and see if there are any suitable ones between Kings Cross and
> Scotland. 

Geoff:
There are only a few and mainly fairly short, so you'd have to be a 
quick worker to defenestrate the odd Hogwarts pupil or two, if that's 
what you had in mind.... 

Heading north from Kings Cross, there is Gasworks Tunnel which starts 
virtually off the platform end and then very shortly Belle Isle 
tunnel (BTW/OT these tunnels featured in the well-known film "The 
Ladykillers"), two tunnels at Hadley Wood, one at Potters Bar and two 
at Welwyn - these bring you to about 20 miles north of Kings Cross. 
Stoke Tunnel, just south of Grantham about 100 miles north of Kings 
Cross, is the summit of the line in England and a slightly longer 
one. There used to be one at Penmanshiel, just over the Scottish 
border north of Berwick but that sadly collapsed in the 1980s killing 
some workmen and a new bypass line was built and then there is a 
tunnel on the approach to Edinburgh Waverley. I think that's the lot 
as far as Edinburgh.

Kneasy:
Mind you, it may be film contamination (spit) but there was
> a sequence in the CoS  film  on a dodgy-looking viaduct. Hmm.

Geoff: 
You just watch what you're saying about that dodgy viaduct. :-)

It is a worthy edifice to carry the Hogwarts Express and all the 
great and good(?) who travel on it. It is Glenfinnan Viaduct on the 
Fort William-Mallaig line. This was the first major railway structure 
built in reinforced concrete and was built by "Concrete Bob", the 
nickname of Sir Robert McAlpine who founded the famous UK building 
firm.