The Hogwarts Express (was Re: refreshment witch)

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 105117

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Phil Boswell" <phil_hp7 at y...> 
wrote:

Phil:
> Not as strange as the idea that you could simply have a word with 
the
> driver of a *steam* *locomotive*! I've tried to look on the Web but
> haven't managed to find any good-enough pictures of the Hogwarts
> Express, but I'm certain I recall there being a tender. (That's the
> "coal bunker" pulled behind the locomotive in case the word is
> different outside the UK.)
> 
> This would in a normal train make it totally impossible for anyone 
on
> the train to visit the driver (stupid Bond-esque stunts aside :-).
> 
> But Lupin does, and so IIRC does Hermione.

Geoff:
I wonder whether JKR has been influenced by one particular piece of 
UK railway technology. The old London & North Eastern Railway (LNER) 
which became British Railways Eastern Region in 1948 had a couple of 
classes of Pacific locomotive, some of which were fitted with 
corridor tenders. These had an offset passage through from the rear 
to the footplate. Now the interesting part is that the LNER used them 
on the non-stop "Flying Scotsman" and "Elizabethan" expresses from - 
wait for it - Kings Cross to Edinburgh Waverley so that the driver 
and fireman could change over with a relief crew, the service (393 
miles) taking about 8 hours or so.