Great train gaffe?

[carolynwhite2]

Dear All, long time no post, but I read this entertaining discussion 
on a non-HP message board recently. I think its an error that has not 
been picked up before. Loved the anecdote about the little boy!

Carolyn

<a train spotter comments:>
>From the classic gaff in the Kenneth More version of the 39 steps to 
Harry Potter, with a zillion gaffs in between, none of them can get 
the trains right 

<an HP reader responds:>
You mean the Hogwarts Express DOESN'T go from Platform 9 and three 
quarters!!!!!!!!!!!!

<a train spotter:>
Yes of course it does - that's literary licence. The existance of 
platform 9 3/4 is part of the wizarding world in the book.

But it won't go anywhere if the engine is facing the buffer stops; it 
has to be at the other end........

<HP reader:>
Um.......but isn't the Hogwarts Express magic? 

<a train spotter:>
The Hogwarts express is pointing the wrong way........and it doesn't 
magically disappear through the buffer stops, because people (and 
large black dogs) run to the end of the platform waving people off 
(OK the black dog probably doesn't wave).

<someone else helpfully contributes this graphic link!>
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Train_wreck_at_Montparnasse_1895.jp
g

<a train spotter continues:>
the Hogwarts Express should really go from somewhere between 
platforms 1-8 (I think) as I'm fairly sure that going from Platform 9 
3/4 it would end up in the East of England - somewhere between 
Cambridge & N Lincolnshire.

<a worried HP reader adds:>
theres a plaque on nearby wall now thats says 'platform 3/4' with a 
luggage trolley seemingly disappearing into the wall below it

I once watched a small boy, red cap and blazer, hurling himself at 
this wall, in an attempt to do likewise. (Couldn't intervene or 
encourage, as I was already on my train.)