Hogwarts Express and 4-6-0 steam loco Hogwarts Castle (5972)

[Murdoch17]

(Note to mods: please leave this in the train tech forum, as it is be Harry Potter related, but it is more of a train build than anything else. Thanks in advance!)

Since the rumor is that Harry Potter is coming back this summer, but without the Hogwarts Express. I thus made my own, but we will see if it gets built in real bricks by summer.....

HP universe / Film History:

Leaving from Kings Cross' Platform 9 & 3/4 to Hogsmeade Station at exactly 9 AM, the Hogwarts Express carries students (and sometimes faculty) to and from Hogwarts' School of Witchcraft & Wizardry in the Harry Potter series of books and movies. It has been seen in every Harry Potter film, from it's first appearance in the beginning of Philosophers Stone to it's last at the end of Deathly Hallows. (part two)

The Hogwarts Express is usually only in the film for a short while, and it is generally a pleasant journey from Kings Cross to Hogsmeade, although Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and a certain Flying Ford Anglia might beg to differ!

The Hogwarts Express is usually made up of four corridor passenger coaches, although sometimes a special fifth coach is attached with an open floor plan. The train is supplied with all kinds of goodies and sweets, from Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans to Chocolate Frogs.

The locomotive is a heavily modified version of LDDModelmaker's Black 5 model with some parts from set 79111, Constitution Train Chase.

The tender features a three wheeled bogie design modified from the one in Anthony Sava's ALCO MRS-1. The middle axle moves side to side, as to allow going through switches and curves without issue.

The numbers 5 9 7 2 go on the sides of the tender... it's not prototypical, I know, but it works well enough. Also, The boiler is a modified version of set 79111's Constitution steam engine.

In this false-color image, the red parts slide, the blue ones stay put to allow for the loco to go around curves and switches. (BTW: There are parts underneath that keep the sliding bogie from falling out.)

The train is currently made up of five cars that are slightly different than the actual British Railway MK I coaches used in the films. The Hogwarts Express is usually made up of four corridor passenger coaches, although sometimes a special fifth coach is attached with an open floor plan. Also, the end car is not accurate to the films, but is what I prefer to the alternative: a gangway leading nowhere with no red light on the end.

the baggage / coach car (known as a combine)

three regular coaches

guard coach

This was made by me in Microsoft Paint sometime in 2014, and was based off a image from a Google search of the Hogwarts Railways logo.

EDITED 7/4/2017 to bring up to date with new pictures and ldd file. Model to be built in real life sometime around Christmas 2017.

EDITED 1/19/18: Since the rumor is that Harry Potter is coming back this summer, but without the Hogwarts Express. I thus made my own, but we will see if it gets built in real bricks by summer.....

 

Any questions, thoughts, or complaints are welcome!

Edited January 19, 2018 by Murdoch17

[THERIZE]

Cool! Can you show me how you did the sliding bogie i the tender?

[Murdoch17]

Cool! Can you show me how you did the sliding bogie i the tender?

sorry for the late reply: here is my best attempt at a picture of this technique;

The red parts slide, the blue stay put. (BTW: There are parts underneath that keep the sliding bogie from falling out.)

[Murdoch17]

BUMP:

Main post EDITED 7/4/2017 to bring up to date with new pictures and ldd file. Model to be built in real life sometime around Christmas 2017, but I thought I'd give you guys a sneak peek at my updates so far! 

[Murdoch17]

Since the rumor is that Harry Potter is coming back this summer, but without the Hogwarts Express. I thus made my own, but we will see if it gets built in real bricks by summer.....

What do you think? I remade the tender size to be more in line with the real deal, and revised the pistons assembly.

[ColletArrow]

Neat! As a representation of the GWR Hall class, it's pretty good! I like the yellow stripes on the cab and tender. I think it could be improved by trying to get a little more shaping into the taller tender, perhaps by simply moving the rear slopes 1 stud towards the cab and adding some SNOT-ed plates to the cab end (google images link). The piston sliders look a little long too, but that's pretty hard to rectify. Maybe using a 7m thin liftarm rather than a 5m would help? Overall though, pretty good!

[Murdoch17]

1 hour ago, ColletArrow said:

Neat! As a representation of the GWR Hall class, it's pretty good! I like the yellow stripes on the cab and tender. I think it could be improved by trying to get a little more shaping into the taller tender, perhaps by simply moving the rear slopes 1 stud towards the cab and adding some SNOT-ed plates to the cab end (google images link). The piston sliders look a little long too, but that's pretty hard to rectify. Maybe using a 7m thin liftarm rather than a 5m would help? Overall though, pretty good!

Like this @ColletArrow? 

This is a modified Hogwarts Express tender, which has been extended one stud in length, and now features side ladders to access the steam engine's cab. I also made the top railing of the tender more accurate to the real locomotive's 4,000 gallon GWR Collett tender.

[ColletArrow]

Yep, perfect! (now you've worked out where half of my name came from, haven't you? )