GWR 4900 Class 5972 ''Olton Hall''

GWR 4900 Class 5972 Olton Hall
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 30 April 1937
Specifications
Configuration:
 ​
 • Whyte 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 July 2014
Withdrawn 31 December 1963
Current owner West Coast Railway Company
Disposition Static display at Warner Bros. Studio Tour London - The Making of Harry Potter
No. 5972 at the National Railway Museum, York
No. 5972 in the National Railway Museum with Hogwarts Castle name plates
5972 taking on water in Hellifield with The Wizards Express
5972 standing at York after arriving with the Wizards Express from Manchester on Sat 7th June 2014.
5972 after detaching from "The Wizards Express" at Hellifield.

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

In the early 2000s, the locomotive came to prominence when it was used in the Harry Potter films to pull the Hogwarts Express.

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 Its last shed allocation was to Cardiff East Dock, before it was withdrawn in December 1963, and acquired by Woodham Brothers, Barry, Vale of Glamorgan for scrap in May 1964.[1][2]

Allocations and history

The locations of 5972 on particular dates.

30 April 1937 (First Shed) Carmarthen, CARM then 87G
31 March 1951 Plymouth Laira, 83D
October 1951 Tyseley, 84E
1 November 1952 Oxley, 84B
17 July 1954 Truro, 83F
September 1955 Penzance, 83G
29 November 1958 Plymouth Laira, 83D
8 August 1959 Severn Tunnel Junction, 86E
18 June 1960 Neath, 87A
15 November 1962 Fishguard Goodwick, 87J
29 June 1963 (Final Shed) Cardiff East Dock, 88L
31 December 1963 Withdrawn
31 December 1963-April 1964 Stored, Cardiff East Dock
May 1964 Purchased by Barry Scrapyard.
May 1981 Purchased for Preservation.
20 May 1998 Returned to Steam

Preservation

Woodham Brothers sold the locomotive to a private buyer and was stored at Procor (UK) Ltd in Wakefield, and it left as the 125th departure from Barry in May 1981.[1] It was based at National Railway Museum Shildon in County Durham.

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 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.[3]

Harry Potter film series

In the films, the locomotive is depicted pulling the "Hogwarts Express", a fictional train, made up of four (later five) British Rail Mark 1 carriages. Scenes were filmed at King's Cross railway station, the Glenfinnan Viaduct in Scotland and the North Yorkshire Moors Railway — along with internal scenes on board the train.

When filmed, Olton Hall carried 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 green.

Olton Hall was not the first locomotive to be re-liveried to appear 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. However, it was rejected by film director Chris Columbus as looking "too modern" for the film, but it carried the name and colour for some months afterwards.

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 different and larger.

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[4] and the other is a static exhibit in the Hogsmeade area.[5] There are also static models at the other Wizarding World of Harry Potter locations in Hollywood[6] and Japan.[7]

In 2015 the locomotive was put on permanent static display at Warner Bros. Studio Tour London - The Making of Harry Potter, near Watford.[8][9]

Non-Hogwarts 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. In late 2011 the locomotive was on static display in Hyde Park, London in its "Hogwarts" red livery, and in June–July 2014 it worked two final Wizards Express rail tours from Manchester to York before its mainline certificate expired.

Models of "5972 Olton Hall"

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 Märklin 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)", though Bachmann USA released one in their range.

In 2015 Hornby introduced their model "RailRoad GWR 4-6-0 'Olton Hall' 4900 Hall Class - R3169", originally announced in 2012.[10]

References

  1. 1 2 "Olton Hall". Great Western Society. Retrieved 2008-10-26.
  2. ↑ "Our link with Harry Potter". Woodham Brothers. Retrieved 2008-10-19.
  3. ↑ "Ten held over Potter train damage". BBC News. 2007-04-05.
  4. ↑ Sim, Nick (12 October 2014). "The 5 Strangest Secrets of Universal's Hogwarts Express". Retrieved 30 June 2015. on-board the two Hogwarts Express trains.
  5. ↑ Bevil, Dewayne (2 July 2014). "How Universal came up with Hogwarts Express and said goodbye to Jaws". Orlando Sentinel. Retrieved 30 June 2015. Of course, we [already] had a parked Hogwarts Express,
  6. ↑ Levine, Arthur (April 14, 2016). "Wizarding World of Harry Potter: What's different in Hollywood?". USA TODAY. As in the first Hogsmeade, a railroad station serving the Hogwarts Express greets visitors at the land's entrance. But the train in California doesn't move.
  7. ↑ "Hogwarts™ Express Photo | Attractions｜Universal Studios Japan™". Universal Studios Japan.
  8. ↑ Warner Bros. Studio Tour London - Hogwarts Express Archived 27 January 2015 at the Wayback Machine.
  9. ↑ Surviving Steam Locomotive Search
  10. ↑ "RailRoad GWR 4-6-0 'Olton Hall' 4900 Hall Class - R3169". Archived from the original on 4 February 2015.
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