GWR 4900 Class 5972 Olton Hall

GWR 4900 Class 5972 Olton Hall

300px GWR Hall Class no. 5972 Olton Hall on display at Doncaster Works open day on 27 July 2003

Type and origin Power type Steam Designer Charles Collett Builder GWR Swindon Works Build date April 1937

Specifications Configuration 4-6-0 Loco weight 75 tons (68 t)

Career Operators Great Western Railway, British Railways Class GWR 4900 (Hall) Numbers 5972 Official name Olton Hall First run 1937 Last run June 2014 Withdrawn December 1963 Current owner West Coast Railway Company Disposition Static display at The Harry Potter Museum

No. 5972 at the National Railway Museum, York

File:NRM Locomotion MMB 13 5972.jpg

No. 5972 in the National Railway Museum with Hogwarts Castle name plates

The steam locomotive no. 5972 Olton Hall is a 4-6-0 Hall class locomotive.

In the 2000s the locomotive achieved fame after it was used to haul the "Hogwarts Express" in the Harry Potter films.

Service

Built in April 1937 at Swindon railway works for the Great Western Railway, it was first allocated to Carmarthen, South Wales where it remained until 1951. After being fitted with a three row superheater at Swindon, it was allocated to Plymouth Laira TMD. Its last shed allocation was to Cardiff East Dock, before it was withdrawn in December 1963, and acquired by Woodham Brothers, Barry, Vale of Glamorgan for scrap in May 1964.

Preservation

Woodham Brothers sold the locomotive to Procor (UK) Ltd in Wakefield, and it left as the 125th departure from Barry in May 1981. It was based at National Railway Museum Shildon.

Since 2004 private tour operator Beyond Boundaries Travel has commissioned the train each summer for use on its Harry Potter Fan Trips tours of the United Kingdom. On 11 March 2007 vandals again targeted the coaches, causing £75,000 worth of damage at West Coast Railway Company's depot in Carnforth. Ten youths, aged between twelve and fourteen years, were arrested in connection with the incident — in which 337 windows on several coaches were smashed.

Hogwarts Express

In the films the locomotive is depicted pulling a train of four British Rail Mark 1 carriages. Scenes were filmed inside King's Cross railway station, crossing over the Glenfinnan Viaduct in Scotland and at the North Yorkshire Moors Railway — along with internal scenes on board the train.

When filming, Olton Hall carries a "Hogwarts Express" headboard on the smokebox, featuring the Hogwarts School crest. The same emblem is featured as part of the Hogwarts Railways' sigil on the tender and carriages. It retains its GWR number of 5972, but with alternative nameplates fitted, naming the engine Hogwarts Castle. It is painted in a crimson livery — a non-standard colour, as Great Western Railway locomotives traditionally used Brunswick Green.

Olton Hall is not the first real locomotive to be disguised for hauling the Hogwarts Express. To promote the fourth Harry Potter book Harry Potter and the Goblet Of Fire, Southern Railway West Country Class locomotive 34027 "Taw Valley" was temporarily repainted and renamed. It was rejected by film director Chris Columbus as looking "too modern" for the film but carried the name and colour for some months later.

The renaming as "...Castle" has become a railway preservation joke: "...the Hall that thinks it's a Castle". The Great Western Railway Castle Class engines were a larger type of locomotive.

Three full-size replicas of the locomotive as 5972 Hogwarts Castle are at The Wizarding World of Harry Potter (Universal Orlando Resort). Two as part of the Hogwarts Express train ride and the other is a static exhibit in the Hogsmeade area.

Models of "5972 Olton Hall"

Somewhat ironically, the Hornby Railways model of the locomotive is actually a model of a Castle class locomotive not a Hall. Tri-ang Hornby did release a model of the Hall class in 1966; however, this model was last offered in 1983 as 4930 "Hagley Hall", a preserved locomotive on the Severn Valley Railway. While Hornby (the successor to Tri-ang Hornby) may still have the moulds, they were modified some years ago to produce a Saint class replica. New tooling for a Hall has since been introduced and is available in the current Hornby range (see below).

Other manufacturers have perpetuated this error with Marklin using a Castle in their Hogwarts Express set. While Bachmann Branchlines does produce models of the 'Hall' and 'Modified Hall' class locomotives, they have not offered one as 5972 "Hogwarts Castle (Olton Hall)" although they could well take this approach, though Bachmann USA released one in their range.

In 2012 Hornby said that in 2013 they planned to bring out a true model of 5972 Olton Hall in their locomotive line in the crimson livery. In mid-2013 the model listing was changed to "due 2014". In 2015, Hornby presented their model "RailRoad GWR 4-6-0 'Olton Hall' 4900 Hall Class - R3169" for sale.

Other work

5972 is sometimes used for work other than its "Hogwarts" duties. In May 2009 it was moved temporarily to the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway, and in July 2009 it was based at Tyseley Locomotive Works for use on some of the regular "Shakespeare Express" trains run by Vintage Trains during the Summer. Locomotive 5972 returned to the G&WR during their annual Wizard's Weekend event in 2010. Late 2011 saw the locomotive on static display in Hyde Park, London still in its "Hogwarts" red livery and in June–July 2014 locomotive 5972 worked two final Wizards Express railtours from Manchester to York before expiry of its mainline certificate.

As of 2015 the locomotive remains on static display at The Harry Potter Museum within the Warner Bros. Studios, Leavesden, near Watford and will remain there in the museum for two years.

External links

• Vintage Trains official site
• Shakespeare Express official site
• Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway official site
• Woodham Brothers Limited